I’ve always loved reading and writing.

Books were the one thing my mom would let me splurge on as a kid. The only condition is that they had to be big enough books that I couldn’t finish them in the car on the way home. I remember when I was ten, I wrote a bunch of short stories, threw them into a ring binder, and handed it to my dad.

“See?” I told him, “Writing is easy.”

Time passed and somewhere between studying and working, the fun of reading and writing faded away.

When I was 25, I found myself teaching English tuition to children. And suddenly, it was my job to connect with stories. I needed to analyse different kinds of writings, like opinion pieces and novel excerpts and then give feedback on student essays. Diving between layers of tone, grammar, structure and even vocabulary choices, I started writing again. It was just sample essays at first, because I realised most of my students wouldn’t read anything else.

Then one night, something shifted. Or perhaps… something shifted back into place.

Sick of writing under instruction, I wrote from the heart. I wrote about a brave monkey named Momo.

That night I completed my first draft and I found myself in tears. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I had to do something with it.

It took me a year to mention it to someone and after a few weeks, I found an illustrator. I reached out to Nelson and my heart leapt when he told me he was keen to take on the project.

A few months later, the artwork was finished from cover to cover. In two weeks, the first batch of books were printed. Then I was running around like some mad woman, telling everyone I could that I had my very own book. A real book! A story that was in my brain was now in my hands!

Within 30 days, my 100 softcover copies sold out.

Soon, I had 1,000 hardcover copies delivered to my home.

Exactly a year since I contacted Nelson, my first book is now in the National Library of Malaysia and it can even be purchased across 6 indie bookstores in Malaysia. Some copies are already on their way to Singapore.

We are currently working on the 2nd Little Momo book, “Little Momo, The Unstoppable” with hopes of publishing by July 2026.

The journey so far has taught me that while it’s easy to forget who we are, it’s just as easy to find ourselves again. There are whole industries of people working and waiting for you to show up as yourself. You just need to give yourself the chance to start something and to finish it.

Few things in this world can beat the satisfaction of creating something meaningful.

So start now and be brave!