How did your collaboration with illustrator Shamar Knight-Justice work? What kind of input did you provide? He likes to say, “It’s easy being a children’s book author when you’re married to Jazmyn Simon.” He did triple-check for punctuation and gave great suggestions on rhyming words. And honestly, Dulé let me take the creative wheel when it came to writing this book. I think from a very dark period came something I hoped would shed some light. Most Perfect You was the second but was published first. To be honest, Repeat After Me was the first book I wrote. How was the writing experience-including working with a co-author-different for you this time around? Jazmyn, this is your second picture book. We would type out a list of affirmations and send them to any of our friends who asked. Simon: Yes! People would hear us reciting them and ask about what we were doing, so we would share. Was your affirmation routine something that you shared with friends and fellow parents before it became a book idea? It warms my heart so much to see my wonderful husband instilling these important truths in our son. Now, both Dulé and I do affirmations with Levi each day. It became a part of our daily routine and one of the best moments of each day for me as a parent. I would say them, and she would repeat them back to me, out loud and in the first person. And for 12 years, every day, we did affirmations together. So, I decided to start saying affirmations with Kennedy from that point. ![]() Simon: When my daughter Kennedy was four years old-she’s now 18-I had read that reciting affirmations in the first person can rewire your brain to believe what it is you’re saying. How did using affirmations become a practice in your own family? How have your children responded to this routine in their lives? They are not the worst version that is being shown-they are the best.” Then I walked to our junk drawer-come on, we all have one-and pulled out a pen and paper and started writing. That’s when I turned to Dulé and said, “We have to write a book! We have to let children know that they are not what they see on TV. To see a man get killed in this way, a man with the same skin tone as theirs, broke my heart. ![]() I looked at my children, 15 and one at the time, then looked at my husband, and wondered what they were thinking. Only to then have to see, on repeat, George Floyd getting murdered, over and over. It was June 2020, and like so many people, we were locked in our house, watching news reports of people dying by the thousands each day due to a new virus. Jazmyn Simon: Like many things in life, our children were our main inspiration for writing this book. Why did you want to write this book? What inspired you?
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