Why Each Word Matters More When Writing For a Child

In moments of grief, confusion, and isolation, we search for meaning. We subconsciously search for hope.

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📝 Finding Meaning Through Words

Everyone finds their meaning in different places, but for me, I have often found it in words. At times, that was all I had to hang onto.

As early as I can remember, words have given meaning, perspective, and peace to some of life’s hardest circumstances.

Those words could have been as few as a sentence or a poem, or as many as a book, to change the entire landscape of my perspective. And in those moments, that was everything.

✍️ When Writing Becomes a Way to Survive

As I grew older, I used my own words to make sense of my experiences. First, just for me, eventually in some social updates.

There comes a time, though, when every author believes that their words matter more than their scribbled notes. They need to live somewhere where someone else can see them.

For someone else to resonate through a character, a plot, a poem, or a book — in the same way those words once resonated for them. This is when the author is born. This is when the author is born.

🧠 Writing for Children Carries a Different Weight

I knew when my son was diagnosed with an ultra-rare disorder, that I needed my words to carry enough weight not only for me, but my son, his community, and those that didn’t even know they needed them yet. I knew they needed to be strong this time. Strong enough to carry the weight of it all.

When you are writing for a child, the weight of your words is heavier.

The shorter the story, the more profound each word is in carrying the lesson and meaning with clear intention.

Words for young children matter because it is within those few words that a child reframes their identity and sense of belonging, and, like me, begin making sense of their own internal struggles about the world they are learning to navigate.

When that is the case, we need to make them count.