The author Julie L Gibson-Vasquez is a passionate gifted advocate, a mother of one gifted teen daughter, the Founder and Organizer of R C Gifted Children Meetups & Parent Support, and The Proactive Parenting Coach in support of the social and emotional needs of gifted children. Her teen daughter Abbey Vasquez is the collaborative illustrator of the book. Together, they wanted to write a book that depicted Abbey's, and other gifted children's, true experience growing up as a gifted child. Julie is a firm believer that gifted kids - are special needs kids - although they in no way have a disorder or a disability, they definitely have special or "unique-needs." Without proper understanding of those needs back when Abbey was in school, Julie said she was left feeling confused and ill equipped to raise her highly sensitive daughter. As a result, at age 9 - half way through 4th grade, Abbey was forced to leave public school due to severe emotional bullying and a subsequent emotional breakdown. Then at home with her daughter, Julie immediately started looking for something to help her recover. She spent many sleepless nights up on the internet all night, looking for something, anything, to help. She started finding articles about gifted children and their special makeup and social and emotional needs, she started to see Abbey in the words she was reading and was relieved she was finally finding answers. But at that same time, she also started to feel angry. She couldn't help but wonder, "If I had only known..." She wondered why they hadn't told her about the social/emotional side of gifted children when Abbey was put into the GATE program back in school, she says, "I could have really used that information at that time." While Julie continued to study about the social/emotional side of gifted children, Abbey was being homeschooled, but due to the effects of the severe emotional bullying she had experienced, she couldn't tolerate any structured school work at that time. But, what she could do - was draw. And that's what she did, day and night, she drew without letup. By using her newfound love of drawing and character design to express her feelings, along with learning together with her parents about her own sensitivities, uniquely gifted makeup and needs, Abbey was able to work through much of the pain left over from her bullying experience. Six years later, she is now a teen, and a passionate character artist and animator happily pursuing her dream of working in the animation industry. Through her characters, stories, and animations she hopes to help other unique kids like herself to know, "Don't believe what the bullies say, just go out and be who you are and do what is interesting and important to you, because you are awesome just the way you are!" You can read more about Abbey, her experiences, her art, and future plans at Cartoon Dreamer.
