PARK RIDGE—It’s a sweet book of personal transformation and triumph, and West Ridge Elementary School has never looked grander.
Park Ridge native Erika Wells, graduate of Park Ridge High School Class of 1999, spent the 16 years pre-covid living in New York and working as a celebrity hairstylist for such shows as “Billions,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
When the pandemic struck and the entertainment industry shut down, she found herself in what she calls “a real pickle.”
“I’m a single mom of two boys and being out of work was extremely difficult. I was living on Long Island, and I put my mortgage on forbearance for a year and I was like, I have a choice: I can keep doing this or make a decision to follow something else and see where it leads. So I sold my house, returned to Park Ridge, and worked to rebuild.”
Wells used several months in 2020 for “a lot of soul searching” — asking herself at one point, “If I’m not this career, what am I?” — and noticed that a lot of what she was telling herself came from “a lot of fear-based conditioning,” the sorts of messages she’d absorbed as a polite, people-pleasing girl.
But then, another idea: “If I don’t sit in this box, what does that mean for me? What do I wish I had learned? I wish I had learned to be a little bit mouthier. I wish I had learned to not be afraid to take on a problem and solve it myself. And all of it started coming out. I still have value even if I’m not doing someone’s hair.”
Wells figured out she was free to chart her own course, and knew she had to write this story for herself and others.
“It’s about a little girl learning to believe in herself. Before she leaves for school her mother reminds her of the rules that all ladies should follow. Instead of being the rules that my generation was taught” — Wells is an Eighties kid — “these rules are all about owning your power, using your voice, and being brave.”
On her way to school, Scarlett hits a few snags — naturally — and instead of giving up remembers her mother’s words. These she puts into life-changing action.
The art is earthy and winning, and very much celebrates the natural world at hand that kids are more prone to notice than adults are.
“I had a lot of reservations about undertaking the illustrations myself, even though I’m an artist, and I was like, No you can do this too. And I really had a lot of fun with it,” Wells told Pascack Press on Feb. 2.
She said, “I really wish I’d heard this message when I was little. And I felt like a lot of little girls could relate to that. I think it’s a great message for the girls in our community.”
The book came out Oct. 16, 2021, at $22 on the Lulu platform, hardcover.
Wells said she wanted her main character “to be African American and have natural hair because I read a lot of books to my kids, and I don’t see lots of different ethnicities, lots of different types in books. And I think it’s starting to shift. But it was important to have a little girl be able to see herself in the book in a way that maybe isn’t as readily available.”
Wells, who also runs a reiki practice, The Blissful Owl, in Piermont, N.Y., said the reaction from readers has been wonderful.
“My friend from high school who still lives in Park Ridge used the book for her daughter’s second grade book club and it got rave reviews. The girls also made affirmations to take home and it made me so happy to see this message of empowerment being enjoyed by these little ladies,” she said.
Locals will recognize Park Ridge High School as the school Scarlett attends. “There’s also a house on Third Street that makes an appearance as the farmhouse she passes on the way to school. I loved putting in these little touches as my hometown continues to inspire me every day.”
Wells, who also works in the arts media of resin, pyrography, and watercolor, said her dream is to present at schools. “I want every girl out there to know how strong and capable she is. If I can inspire the next generation in any small way I would be the happiest lady in the world.”
She has two more self-published children’s books in the works: one on grief and one on “all the different kinds of moms out there. And there are so many.”
She says the books’ universal themes are for boys and girls. “I plan on writing one specifically for boys as I have the unique perspective of raising two of them,” she said.
“‘Scarlett’ felt like a natural first step to healing my own inner little girl so I guess that’s why that one came first. I really like writing to kids in a way that appeals to them as tiny humans.”
Wells dedicates “Scarlett Slays the Day” “to all the moms out there who needed to hear how brave and powerful they were when they were little.”
She acknowledges her sons, Colton and Wesley, “the best editors in the business.” And she thanks her life coach, Areta.
She’s promoted “Scarlett” at fairs and looks forward to appearances at independent bookstores.
Asked what she’d gained from, perhaps, mentoring her younger self the way Scarlett’s mom counseled her, Wells said “It’s like the creative juices started to flow.”
On grief and other powerful life work, she said, “Just opening up that really hard conversation — I think that’s what my books are going toward: What kind of hard conversations do we need to have with our children? Because it’s not like these things don’t happen to them. But are we talking about it?”
For more information: theblissfulowl.com and Erika Wells on Lulu.com.