I am a non-traditional student, and am 37 years old. I have two children in middle-school, and they are who I began to write stories for. The book that has made the biggest impact on them and our community has to be one called, "No Brave Faces, Only Brave Hearts." I self-published it, on Amazon. I used my pen name, Ashley O'Boyce, which is my great-grandmother's maiden name. The families who have purchased it have only had great things to say about it, which is so encouraging, because the story concept is extremely important to our family. And the fact that it resonates with others is always a good feeling. The book is a love letter almost, to children, asking them to not just put up a brave face and go up against hard things in life alone. But to rather, have a brave heart, but to share their hearts and fears and not internalize the stress in life in order to try and keep "grown ups happy" around them. We are breaking generational curses, especially regarding people-pleasing. The challenges I have faced are mostly rooted in balancing it all, writing and parenting and life and university. But biblio-therapy is part of my future career as a trauma therapist, and I will continue to pursue it at all costs. I am still writing and am working on stories that help heal children who have gone through trauma, whether it was chronic and interpersonal or a one-off traumatic event. My goal is to power through the hard stuff because children need stories and stories told in safe places heal hearts and generations. Another challenge I have faced in writing is that, I am super dyslexic and have a difficult time typing sometimes, as my fingers are arthritic. So, powering through while finding balance is the only way I can keep going. This scholarship would help support my work because it would allow me to purchase some of my books to give to my children's school and the local hospital. It would allow me to focus on writing and not have to worry about making a card payment for a month or two, and know that I could spend the time putting pen to paper and looking towards the future. It would also allow me to attend the trauma conference in Boston this year, or next year, depending on the dates. This would give me the opportunity to attend storytelling and trauma processing classes that would help further my ability to help children.