Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Taunya Said. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

TAUNYA, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

The Legacy I am hoping to build is through my Children’s Chapter Series, Smart Alec Alex!
I created Smart Alec Alex, The Series to give children a sense of belonging through a fun and easy read that relates to the antics in their normal lives. The series focuses on life lessons that help in various areas of a child’s coming of age and assist them in their decision-making and problem-solving. As our children are developing, Smart Alec Alex, The Series will teach them how to navigate through various situations without escalating to the unknown. At some point in our lives, we all have faced peer pressure of being something or someone other than our true selves. Smart Alec Alex, The Series is geared to keep our youth grounded and help them become aware of how great of an influence they can be for their peers.

When I have moved on from this earth, I hope people will say, I love and care for our younger generations. She sought to help in every way possible to prepare our children for the world. She related to them in a way they could understand. Her compelling stories took them to places that were relatable in the understanding of their sense of belonging. She teaches them to navigate various situations without escalating to the unknown. She was valued in the book world because she targeted a difficult age range, often referred to as “the forgotten tweens”. She called them her Tween angels, looking past the bad, and pointing out the good. They need guidance that parents don’t always give.

Taunya seeks and volunteers in many programs that help tweens and their parents with resources to make a better life and shed light on any situation, simply because she cares.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a child, I was not an avid reader. I have always been a creative individual looking to share my many talents. I often felt like I was different from others. My attention span was very short, you could only capture my mind when it involved creativity. As an only child, I imagined a world of my own. My parents worked to provide the best life they could for me, but still, I felt I lacked something. I watched people around me, and I learned from them at an early age what I wanted and did not want out of life, so I promised myself that I was going to do things differently if I had a child of my own.

Fast forward to my now 28-year-old daughter as a child, she was searching for a sense of belonging as children of all ethnicities want to see themselves represented. My daughter loved to read when she was a child. I would take her to a bookstore, but she could not find many chapter books that represented her as an African American. When my daughter entered the 5th grade, things changed as she started to rotate from class to class in preparation for Middle School. It would appear at that time, she was not enthusiastic about the changes, and this is when Smart Alec Alex, The Series was born!

It all started on a slow night at my part-time job as a telemarketer. As a creator by nature, I was bored to pieces, finding it hard to sit still, trying to convince patrons to take a survey that not even I would be interested in taking. In between calls, I started thinking about things I did as a child and compared them with the things my daughter is now experiencing, and I started to write. My daughter and I are known to be smart alecks. Within two weeks, I had completed my first book, “Smart Alec Alex, The 5th Grade Schedule Change. “

I sought out many literary agents as well as traditional publishing companies only to be turned down with either “no or this is not what we are looking for.” I then published with a vanity company that did not have my best interest only money hungry, so I walked away from it. After 8 years my very best friend suggested I should go back to writing the Smart Alec Alex Series, it was her encouragement that led me to believe I had something special. I thought now that my daughter was in college, I had all the time in the world to revisit my efforts to bring Alex back to life. Through Facebook, I joined several working groups for writers and illustrators to gain all the knowledge I needed to become a self-published Author. After I found the perfect illustrator to enhance Alex (I illustrated the first book) and her four best friends and a book formatter, I sought out the most important contributor, an editor. Once I found the right editor, I submitted my previous book, and boy was it a mess. I received my transcript back filled with red markings for correction and suggestions that my book felt more like a book for middle schoolers and not young elementary children. At first, I felt discouraged, but I was quickly reminded this was a stepping stone to make me a better writer. It was suggested that I change the title and target age range.

Smart Alec Alex, The Fifth Grade Schedule Change is now called “Changing Schools and Classroom Rules, which I self-published in 2019. Since then, I published three other titles:

Braces and Glasses, Imagine That!, The Vacation From, Hello-Operator, Help!, and Cheerleading Into Some Mess! And I also published a Journal for my tweens, called “It’s My Own Journal and I’ll Write If I Want to…”

The Smart Alec Alex, The Series targeted age range is 8-12

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to focus on the Tweens and reading. When it comes to other Authors I had the pleasure of meeting, many focus on the toddlers. Although we need books for younger children, we need books for all ages. I tend to gravitate towards a challenge. The tweens are a challenge. Tweens focus more on social media or playing video games. I would like to show them there is more to life than social media and video games. In my opinion, they both are not so great for the young mind. While I am for having fun, I am the biggest kid there is, they need to learn how to read and be able to comprehend what they read. I was not a big reader myself and there were some regrets, but I took a negative and turned it into a positive. In the world we live in today, we all need to be prepared, children included.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I do many children’s book events. Many are often on the weekends in elementary schools. Even though the event coordinator does promotions, I will take the initiative to do additional promotions. I will seek out surrounding schools and supply them with flyers to alert the kids and parents and send out invites through the school administrator. Why I do this is to keep people aware. It’s disappointing when the authors work so hard to supply or children with many books and stories and the parents do not bring the kids. It puts local authors at a disadvantage because we don’t have the same access as other book companies that have standing access throughout the school year. Somehow, I would like to lead the efforts of local authors to have this access as well, during school hours.

There is a ray of material for all kids and all ages for all ethnicities. Children deserve to experience material that relates to the child individually, hince each child is searching for a sense of belonging.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smartalecalex.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t.d.saidbooks
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/tdsaid1 or www.facebook.com/SmartAlecAlex
• Twitter: https://www.x.com/TaunyaSaid
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/taunya_t.d._said

Image Credits

Photos by Chip DiZard (Individual photos of me)