Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Salazar.
Hi Alicia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story begins when I was 10 years old. It was back then when I decided I wanted to be a writer and a marine biologist. In college, I studied marine biology and excelled in writing. Towards the end of my college career, I decided I wanted to go to medical school. I got into UT Health Science Center Houston, but in my first year, developed a (back then) unspecified mental illness that forced me to drop out. Many years and many diagnoses later, my doctors would settle on a diagnosis of bipolar I. In the meantime, every day was a struggle for stability and a normal life. I became an elementary school teacher and it was at this time that I decided to combine two passions and write for children. In 2013, I joined SCBWI and began taking craft classes and workshops focused on writing picture books and chapter books. Around 2020, Capstone put out a call on Twitter (now X) looking for a writer for an early chapter book series (now the Camila the Star series). I submitted a story and they hired me. I published my first book in 2021. I have now written about 30 books in that series. I have also published Trolls, Loch Ness Monster, Día de Los Muertos (all for Capstone), and Cascarones: An Easter Surprise (Piñata Books). I have also reached a point in my life where I have achieved balance and wellbeing with regards to my mental illness with a combination of medication and the ketogenic diet.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The major struggle was my mental illness and maybe some of the perceptions of my motivations and or attitudes during the last 28 years that I have struggled with mental illness. I haven’t necessarily talked about the details of my every day struggle with everyone and I feel like some people have filled in the blanks with their own fears in some cases. I have dealt with bullying was work. For instance, I would eat lunch in the teacher’s lounge and whenever I spoke, the conversation would stop. When I stopped speaking, the conversation would continue as if I never spoke. My grade level team would gather to take pictures of the team and not invite me, then post the pictures to social media and comment how much they love their team. They would invite me to group chats and ignore everything I said. I could go on. I think it stemmed from the fact that I was different in the sense that I was quiet, introspective, and dealing with something heavy that they couldn’t explain through their own normal experiences. Mental illness, even though I was was stable and high-functioning, marked me a different for them. I eventually had to quit teaching to get away from them and work for the family business, which is what I do now along with writing and author visits.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a children’s book author. I am most well known for my early chapter book series, Camila the Star. I have also recently published a picture book called Cascarones: An Easter Surprise. My other books include Trolls, Loch Ness Monster, and Día de los Muertos. What I am most proud of and what I think sets me apart from others is that I try to write books that authentically portray children having grit, perseverance, courage, and determination. It is important to me to write books that demonstrate core values, but especially those core values because they are what have gotten me through the toughest times in my life.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love visiting the art museums and theaters. I hate the traffic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Alicia-salazar.com
- Instagram: @albricias123
- Facebook: AliciaSalazarAuthor
- Youtube: @BilingualBookBuddies
Image Credits
My sister took all of the pictures.
The photographer who took the personal photo said she didn’t want a credit.
