We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Afra Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Afra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

My most heartwarming customer success story involves my former preschool student and her mother. This mother bought her daughter my first published book, The New Kid in Mounds. This book is about many important issues, but the main takeaways are nonconformity, anti-racism, making friends, and accepting differences. In this book, a little white goat with straight hair moves to a town where there are only curly-headed black sheep. They immediately begin to compare themselves to each other. My former student’s mother told me that she had been struggling at her new school to fit in. She was the only little girl in her class with short, curly blonde hair. Although there were other blondes in her class, none of them had curls like her. Everyone else had straight hair. Her mother reached out to me one day and told me that after reading The New Kid in Mounds to her daughter, her daughter began to feel more confident in herself. She was able to be more open and express herself at school and has been making friends ever since. Even though my former student is fair complexion with short, blonde curls, she was able to identify with the black sheep in this book. This absolutely made my day and it’s a story that I will never forget. Stories like this are the reason I write these books. I’m so happy that all children seem to be able to identify with the characters in my books, no matter their race or background.

Afra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in a small town in South Georgia. Most times, I felt like I did not fit in with anyone. Although I had friends, I always found it a little hard to make them, due to feeling like I was a little different. Racism was a big problem in my small town, so this played a huge factor in my day-to-day life going to school. This was a big struggle for me, so I wanted to write books for children who may be going through the same things.

My children’s book series, Adventures with Kelly and Layla mentions so many of these situations. The stories are based on the things I dealt with growing up, as well as even bigger societal issues.
My standalone children’s book, Fujo the Bonobo is about facing the daily dangers of the world, but still living a happy, successful life in the process. These are all lessons I had to learn, and I felt called to teach children these same lessons and how to cope with them so that they don’t feel alone in the world.

I think what sets me apart from some other authors is that I’m not afraid to put the truth into my books. I put a lot of thought, time, and energy into making sure these stories were bold and truthful, but also appropriate, heart-warming, joyful, and fun. Most of all, they teach good, important lessons.

I believe that children are the ones who will one day change the world. If my books can be a small part of helping them do so, then I am happy.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a children’s book author for me is when I actually change a child’s life. I believe that when you read a book, your life and mindset is forever changed for the better. Being a teacher, I have been fortunate enough to be able to see the different emotions come across a child’s face when reading my books. I can almost see their little gears turning as the story progresses. This is such an honor for me and makes me feel like writing these books is necessary. I hope that they take the lessons that my stories teach with them as they grow through life. Children truly inspire me and encourage me to become a better writer, teacher, and person in general.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I had no idea how I would fund my very first book, The New Kid in Mounds. I tried fundraising, but that ultimately did not work. I had a few wonderful supporters who I’m grateful for, but not enough to self-publish a book. Everything costs- the editing, illustrations, and physically putting the book together and distributing, At the time, I did not have the resources to do it alone. In the end, I had family help me fund the first book. Things got better once I sold some books and figured some things out. Since then, I was able to fund the next three books myself. I thought that these books were too important to not be published, and since I did not go the traditional publishing route, I had to do whatever it took financially to get the books out there. I do not regret a thing!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kellyandlaylaseries.com, www.afrabrown.com
• Instagram: @kellyandlaylaseries, @fujothebonobo, @newkidinmounds
• Facebook: Kelly and Layla Series, Fujo the Bonobo