As a Chinese girl growing up in the United States in the 1970s, the children’s books that author Brenda Do read featured white kids, and even at that age, it impressed upon her that she didn’t look like any of the characters. With this in mind as an adult, it was her aim to create a children’s book that fostered self-love and self-empowerment, one that every child could relate to and see themselves in the story. Her poignant illustrated story, It’s Okay Not to Know, is the result of that goal and encourages children to treat themselves and others with greater compassion. Brenda was further inspired to pen her book after witnessing how her niece and nephew were so hard on themselves when they made a mistake or didn’t know an answer. Understanding that this habit often grows to affect personal and work relationships as an adult led her to want to teach children to be kinder to themselves and remind them that they don’t have to be perfect or correct to be lovable. After years in corporate sales, Brenda is a copywriter by trade, often distilling complex messages into more digestible content, not unlike the social emotional learning lesson she conveys in her book. Hailing from the Seattle, Washington, area, when she isn’t writing powerful children’s stories, she enjoys traveling, playing tennis, hiking, and all things food-related—reading, cooking, and of course, eating.