It’s often a question about writing, but my answer to it isn’t.

Because I’ve written books for adults, teens, and now children, I get asked all the time, What’s it like writing for different age groups?

Lately, what I find more interesting is the question that isn’t asked: why. Why write for people of different ages?

A big part of it is that I think being a young person is hard in ways that can be easy to forget when we’re older, and I want children and teens to feel seen in this, all the while admitting as an adult that there’s still so much I don’t know.

The other part of it is something more existential that I think applies not just to writers, but all of us.

We’re always trying to bend time. We want to stop it. We want to speed it up. We want to go back in it. We want to replay it.

When we’re younger, we wish we were older. When we’re older, we wish we were younger.

It’s an oversimplified way of saying we’re rarely at peace with where we are now. Lately, because I turn 40 this year, I’ve been surprised by the complicated and somewhat cliche feelings that’ve come with it. But what I’m increasingly aware of (and hoping to avoid) is that one day, a future version of me might think, she was so lucky then, and she didn’t even know it.

I want to know it. I should know it, because I have all these past, younger versions of me that tell me constantly, look how beautiful this particular time was, even when it was hard.

Writing for different ages helps me tell my younger self, I get it now. I get to keep learning from her, I get to figure out what I wish I could say to her, and I get to listen to what she’s still trying to say.

I talk to all these different ages of me, and she helps me be more at peace with the past, stay more in the present, and feel a little less anxious about the future.

Warmest wishes,

Natalia

news & events!

A Maleta Full of Treasures, my debut picture book illustrated by Juana Medina, will be out April 16th in both English and Spanish! If you’d like signed, personalized copies, order from my local indie by April 19 and leave your personalization request in the comments at checkout!

Florida friends, if you’re in Miami or Tampa, bring the kiddos and join me for a story time at Books & Books in Coral Gables (4/20) and Tombolo Books (4/27)!

Join me virtually 4/30 for a picture book fiesta hosted by Penguin School & Library and the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival. RSVP free here.

books I’ve written