A few posts ago I mentioned: Body Image.

I was talking about a potential second book to Just Call Me Is. It would focus specifically on body image from a mindfulness standpoint, for tweens.

Well that was about a month or more ago, and now, that book is finished.

At this point I am 90 percent sure I will be doing another Kickstarter for this sequel book, as I did for the first. The only hesitation is that a Kickstarter is a huge undertaking. And I feel like I’ve only just finished asking my friends, peers, and family members to support me.

It’s a vulnerable thing, reaching out like this – especially with material that is so vulnerable and important to me – and especially two times in a row.

It brings up all sorts of insecurities and self-doubts. Will this one be supported in the same way as the last? Will people be so tired of me asking for things that they’ll put up a wall? Should I just – stop?

But then I remember what I’ve learned over the years, not just about the power of vulnerability(thanks Brene Brown), but the art of asking. (Apparently, I watch a lot of Ted Talks.) If the asking comes from a place of honesty, of integrity, and yes, of vulnerability – not of manipulation or selfless inconsideration – you’re at least being as real as you can be.

And in the case of many a Kickstarter, you’re not asking for yourself; you’re asking for your project. Your art. Your expression. You’re asking for help to help the world.

Rather, I am.

Come February, I hope you’ll forgive me when, once again, I make an ask of you. Not for me, but to support a project that I think could really help tweens and teens and one day adults – so that they don’t have to grow up so haunted by body image as you and I did.

I’ll keep you all posted as this (potential/likely/but absolutely terrifying) Kickstater gets further underway.

Love,

Natalie