When I was young, I loved to read and write and draw and dance more than anything.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s work, in particular, played a huge role in my creative passions: in the way I perceived beauty and the world.

From a very young age, I knew I wanted to do something creative for the rest of my life, but I didn’t know what that was, exactly.

I thought an artist was someone who was “really, really good at painting or drawing”.

That certainly wasn’t me.

I didn’t know that not knowing, and wondering, and asking bigger-than-life questions … was exactly what it meant to be an artist.

And so my career as a writer/artist has been a wandering path full of mystery, and lots of wondering if I was headed in the right direction.

After earning a B.A. in history at Oklahoma State University, I moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in politics, working in the Senate.

That was not a creative job at all, but I was drawn to the energetic city far from home, which I had visited many times in college, and felt like it was where I was meant to be.

After five years I returned to my home state of Oklahoma, confident that neither Capitol Hill nor the corporate world were my life’s calling, but at a total loss as to what to do next.

I met my husband in D.C., and shortly before we moved, we found out we were expecting a little girl. I couldn’t wait to meet her, and one day, introduce her to all the literary heroines that shaped my childhood and helped formed my understanding of the world.

I decided that her nursery should have portraits of literary heroines on the wall, so she could become familiar with the faces of all her future friends. But after searching online, I couldn’t find what I was looking for anywhere.

On a whim, I decided to draw my own on paper I tore out from a notebook.

Little did I know this was a new beginning …

A few months later, in November of 2015, I opened Carrot Top Paper Shop on Etsy, where I sold my Literary Heroine Banners to other moms looking to inspire their daughters with the same classic role models.

The banners were well-received, and because it was the most fun job I had ever had, I decided to pursuit my journey as an artist more seriously and began drawing and painting in earnest.

My line of products quickly expanded to include coffee mugs, tote bags, postcards, stickers, playful snail mail options, and more: all inspired by a love of reading the heroine classics, and in celebration of creativity and friendship.

Since it was founded, Carrot Top Paper Shop has become a favorite of book club members, book bloggers, and book subscription boxes, and has loyal customers all over the world.

I recently co-authored my first book, Eat Like a Heroine (releasing August 6, 2024, with End Game Press) with my friend Lorilee Craker, with whom I co-host Eat Like a Heroine, the podcast. I’m also a contributing illustrator to Wildflowers Magazine, a creative print magazine for girls.

I’m passionate about nurturing creativity, reading (and dancing) as a family, and approaching every aspect of life with a heroine mindset. I also enjoy making up songs on the piano and shopping primarily secondhand. My husband and I both work from our home in the country with our three children, where the creative life is celebrated daily with gusto and the house is never perfectly clean.

If you’d like to hear more of my story, you can find me on these podcasts:

Intermittent Fasting Stories with Gin Stephens (episode #228 — where Gin and I gush over their favorite children’s literature in addition to IF)

This is Not a Back Up Plan with Matilyn Mortensen (where we talk about eating like the Little Women!)

What Should I Read Next podcast with Anne Bogel (episode #53)

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