The Zoomers to Boomers Business Show

Breaking New Ground in Children's Literature with Sharon Leya

• Hank Eder / Sharon Leya

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What happens when a voiceover artist for beloved children's shows like Barbie, Paw Patrol, and Dora the Explorer channels her creativity into writing? Meet Sharon Leya, our inspiring guest on the Zoomers to Boomers Business Show, who transitioned from lending her voice to iconic characters to authoring a groundbreaking 30-book series, "My Donor Story." Sharon shares her incredible journey of becoming a single mother through donor conception during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this unique experience ignited her passion for creating educational and humorous content for children. With her candid and authentic writing style, Sharon is committed to making complex topics accessible and engaging for young minds.

Join us as we unpack the evolving landscape of self-publishing, especially for niche topics and children's literature. Sharon provides invaluable insights into the importance of maintaining professional quality in self-published works to build a credible brand identity. We also discuss her other creative projects, such as "It's Not EWWWWW, It's YOU" and "Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale," the latter celebrating neurodiversity by featuring a child with autism. Whether you're an aspiring author or a parent eager to find innovative ways to educate your children, this episode offers a treasure trove of perspectives on creativity, publishing, and breaking stereotypes.

https://www.instagram.com/sharonleyabooks/
https://www.instagram.com/mydonorstory/ 

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Hank:

This is the Zoomers to Boomers Business Show and you're listening to bizradious all entrepreneurs all the time. Welcome everyone. I'm Hank Eder, also known as Hank the PR Guy, host of the Zoomers to Boomers Business Show, the show formerly known as the Home Business Success Show. You're listening to bizradious all entrepreneurs all the time. Last week I spoke a little bit more about rebranding of our show. I mentioned broadening our scope to speak to entrepreneurs from across all facets of the generational spectrum. We'll be breaking stereotypes, encouraging genuine dialogue and breaking through barriers to real communication. We'll discourage the practice of pointing fingers of blame across generations. That's so yesterday and will continue to tread on roads less traveled for most business shows. Today's show might be one of those roads a little bit less traveled.

Hank:

Our guest today, sharon Lea, is a creative tinkerer and entertainment industry professional with a special focus on children's content. For over two decades, she's lent her voice to promotions for beloved children's shows like Barbie, paw Patrol, Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer. She's trained in comedic improv and the creator of two award-winning comedy short films. Sharon's passion for creative writing has taken center stage since becoming a new mom. Notably, she's authored the groundbreaking 30-book series my Donor Story, designed to educate donor-conceived children about genetics, conception and family. Sharon's candid writing style effectively engages young minds on complex and sometimes awkward topics, earning her admiration for educating while blending humor and authenticity. Welcome to the show, sharon.

Sharon :

Thank you, it's so nice to be here.

Hank:

Oh, you're welcome. It's a pleasure to have you here. I'm really excited about the topic of donor-conceived children, so you know, I'm sure we're going to be speaking a little bit more about that, but if you would tell our listeners what you do.

Sharon :

Well, I do a combination of different things. If you can tell from my bio of different things. If you can tell from my bio, I've had a career in voiceover. I have an MBA, but I'm really I am a creative tinkerer. I, instead of using my money to go out and party, I've always used it to further creative projects that I'm interested in, even if I don't know if they're going anywhere. It's a compulsion and an addiction to for me to write, to design ideas, to create projects, to take roles that spice up life in a just a more out of the box kind of way. So, oh, I had thought that I got all of that. I thought I got all the dings off my computer. Sorry about that.

Hank:

I didn't hear that, so it's all right.

Sharon :

Okay, good, good, good, um so, um, yeah, so that is uh, I kind of depending on the hour, I'm either working on voiceovers or working on my books, or working on other things like short films and things like that. Things like short films and things like that.

Hank:

That's very cool. I did a short film with all volunteers about 12 years ago for the Asheville what is that called the Fringe Fest? The Fringe Fest, but they had a family category and we did this little short film. I came in at third place Nice. But it was definitely a labor of love and it was definitely a labor of all amateur people on the production. But man did, we have a good time. It was the smallest sleuth.

Sharon :

Yes, okay, I did the 48-hour film festival when I was living in Asheville for a couple years and, yeah, you learn a lot about how patient you have to be in an often time crunched environment.

Hank:

You do, you do. Now see, you have the creativity addiction, which is so much better than other types of addictions that you could have.

Sharon :

So, yeah, Well, I mean, depending on your account, you know.

Hank:

Yeah, what you're accomplishing with it. I mean, that's, that's the amazing part, anyway. What inspired you to write children's books about donor conception?

Sharon :

What inspired me is my path that I took in life. I. So I've always been some, like I said, a creative tinker. I've always been somebody who's written things, whether it was like the musical in high school or short stories, and I remember when I was in like fifth grade, I had written some poetry for a local newspaper. Like you know, just, I've always been sort of a writer and I hadn't done much with that other than writing some short films. I was mostly focused on voiceover.

Sharon :

And then I hit a dead end with my age and dating and where that intersection comes together when you're looking to start a family. And I decided to use donor conception to start my own family and had a little girl in 2020 during COVID on my own, during COVID on my own, and suddenly started thinking about how I was going to explain her life and help her build her identity around the idea that she did not know her genetics fully. So there wasn't really a lot out there. As far as donor conception books for kids, there are some beautiful books. They were a little more flowery and I don't mean that in a negative way, I just mean that in a stylistic way. Very beautiful stories. Some of them were anthropomorphic, you know some of them are, you know, like an animal needs an egg or a sperm or you know things like that. But there wasn't really like the book that my mom read to me when I was little, about just the birds and the bees, like how are babies made? You know, like, give it to me straight in an embarrassing way, let's knock it out, get it over with. And I really wanted her to understand, like, how babies get made and what genetics really are. So trying to whittle all that down into a story took a lot of focused energy, a lot of support from friends and family who were my feedback, as well as people across the spectrum of family types. So I consulted with two mom families using a sperm donor. I consulted with two dad families using an egg donor and a surrogate, consulted with two dad families using an egg donor and a surrogate. You know I it was a process obviously like I started with just my daughter, you know, single, we call ourselves single moms by choice. So I started with just the single moms by choice, getting their feedback and then, you know, spread to all these different families and eventually it really evolved into a story that I thought was, you know, a bite-sized lesson for bite-sized kids in understanding what conception is all about.

Sharon :

The good news with conception for donor-conceived kids is we never have to talk about what happens between a man and a woman, because everything pretty much happens in a doctor's office or a lab. So it wasn't obviously the graphic books from my youth, so I it wasn't obviously the graphic books from my youth, but it is. You know, it is an egg and a sperm that come together, whether that happens in a lab or whether that happens through, you know, an IUI. It is life. Is the conception happening the same way in a different place? Or I would say in a different way in the same place, kind of depending on how you look at it? So yeah, once we whittled it down, it grew and now there are like close to 30 different books for all those permutations of family.

Hank:

That's pretty amazing 30 children's books on donor conception for the kids. Which would bring me back to my next question, which is who is your primary audience for these books?

Sharon :

It's really five family types, and the way that you decide which book is yours is you pick your family type first. So family types would be single moms by choice, single dads by choice, which is a new trend too. There are plenty of men who are saying you know, I haven't found the right woman. I want to have a child, and so they embark on the same journey. There's mom and dad families who use an egg donor or a sperm donor or an embryo donor, and let's see what else do? We have Two moms, two dads, so I think I got them all.

Sharon :

So you start with the family type and then we whittled it down to boy and girl character so it can be closer to the child you're reading it to, and then you pick the conception type.

Sharon :

So some people use only an egg donor, some people use only a sperm donor and some use both, and some use embryos that are left over from other people's IVF journeys. So, that being said, I think it's a read-together kind of thing. I think the target audience is the parents, but also the kids. It's meant to be read together kind of thing. I think the target audience is the parents, but also the kids. It's meant to be read together and to open up a discussion that is generally and possibly seen as uncomfortable, but giving a child what they need to form their identity around donor conception, which historically has been very covered up, very ignored and very denied. Covered up, very ignored and very denied. So, story-wise it's for young kids it's, you know, I mean, once you're past, probably, first grade, it's not quite your audience, but you know it's for young preschoolers, I would say, and their parents.

Hank:

That's interesting at that age, because I see the concepts must be a little bit out there for them.

Sharon :

They are.

Hank:

They are.

Sharon :

I would agree with that. But I think what we've learned from speaking to donor conceived adults because we now have this first generation of donor conceived adults is that you never want there to be a time when a child had to learn that they were donor conceived. So there's a phrase used often which is you know early and often talk about it early and talk about it often being read to at three than when they're being read to at five. But it's planting the seed of them never having to find out and always understanding that their genetics may not be fully from one or both their parents.

Hank:

I see, well, you know, it kind of reminds me of how I might have taken something like that way back in the day. I mean, I think I got all the way to fifth grade before I actually came to the realization that storks don't really have anything to do with babies. Those times, I think, were a little bit more carefully guarded and they were probably in some areas a little more innocent and in some areas a little more repressed. I would absolutely agree.

Sharon :

And look, there are still people who don't believe that, they don't want to tell their kids that their donor conceived and I don't make judgments on that because everybody has their path. But the evidence that seems to be coming out from the few studies we have and from certainly from like what's the word?

Sharon :

Not observational data but anecdotal- but anecdotal anecdotal yeah, from anecdotal data from people who are donor conceived, I felt that it was probably best to follow that lead. For now. It seems to be that this is what's best for donor conceived kids. Secrecy is different than privacy. It's still okay to keep matters in a family private, but keeping secrets implies shame, and shame is never good for a child or for a family.

Hank:

You got that right. For sure, for sure. Why did you choose to self-publish these books?

Sharon :

So publishing has taken a really interesting turn in recent years. Self-publishing used to kind of like, have a sort of connotation of like, oh, oh, you have to self-publish, oh, nobody's interested in your works, or whatever. It's really really changed. As you know, the economy is so internet-based now. There's so many entry points, there's so many freelancers out there that you, if you have a business sense about you, you can hire the same freelancers and use the same systems that publishers are using.

Sharon :

And I felt like, well, with this particular book because I have gone on to write more mainstream books but starting with this, it made no sense for me to search for a publisher or an agent because it's so niche, they know they're not going to be looking. Generally speaking, I mean, I'm sure there are some niche publishers but they're not looking. I mean, money is the bottom line for any kind of business to thrive. So I thought you know why? Why, if I can do it myself, would I spend time trying to get somebody interested in something that's so niche and is only for a very specific audience? And with Amazon, amazon has a service called Kindle Direct Publishing that allows you to upload your book and they will print it for you on demand.

Sharon :

So that was my first entry point and then, when it came to my more mainstream titles, I just kind of felt like, well, I know how to do this, I know how to print books in China. I have a distributor who can get them out to bookstores and get them in the catalogs for bookstores to order them. So I guess because, maybe because I have an MBA and maybe because I want to have more control this is the route that for now made the most sense to me. But I do have a very firm almost irritating to my freelancers goal of not looking what you would consider self-published. I want to look as good and as professional as any other book on the shelf in Barnes Noble. So that's my goal.

Hank:

I would think that's very important. I don't know what your freelancer says, but I would find that very, very, very important, because the quality that is portrayed even by something as obvious as the front cover, or even the whole cover, the back cover, the spine when you've got something that looks sharp and professional, people are going to take it a lot more seriously than if it looks like something that was slapped together. So that, to me, would be strange advice. If somebody is telling you that you don't need to be as professional as you're, as you're wanting to be, I think we all need to be more professional, even than we ourselves believe that we should be.

Sharon :

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm sure that there are things that I could learn, you know, things that I might need to tweak, or I might one day look back, like right now I'm redoing my donor story covers because they just weren't quite professional enough. Looking for me, you know. So, you know, and it's an investment, it's a decision Will the book sell without, you know, a fancier cover? Maybe, but do I feel good about it? No, not if I'm really establishing myself as a publishing company, even if I'm only publishing right now my own books. So, you know, it's an aesthetic decision and a business decision. I'm sure there are some books that are shoddily done that just sell really well, because there's always that. There's always sort of, you know, those statistical anomalies where the messaging is good and maybe it's not done so well, but it's just very popular. But that's not a brand that I want to. You know, that's not my brand identity, I guess.

Hank:

You must be faithful to yourself and to your brand identity. Now, if you would tell us a little about your mainstream children books, one, I think, has a pretty funny title it's not EW, it's EW. Yeah, you did a great job, thank you.

Sharon :

Maybe you should read the audio book for me.

Hank:

There you go and Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale.

Sharon :

Yeah, so Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale. I started working on that like 20 years ago when I was stuck explaining to my little nephews what the tooth fairy does with all the teeth, and at the time there weren't really a lot of books about it. Now there's like a zillion, but I just never got anywhere with it. And, as you know, I used to live in Asheville and I got to know, I got to serve as a co-content creator on the TEDx Asheville conference with a woman named Jennifer Saylor and Jennifer, and I found the speakers and helped, you know, create the TED conference. And one day I said to her can you help me finish this Tooth Fairy book? And that was in 2011.

Sharon :

And it sat and it stagnated for a while. We put it on YouTube. I made like a sort of like a video, you know version of it where you just, you know, panning through the Ken Burns effect through the pages, but I never really felt like it was complete. So we actually, once I learned how to do all this, then I understood that we could finish it. So we actually just finished Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale years later and we made some very specific changes to it.

Sharon :

We Gabriel is the first that we know of child with autism to grace a Tooth Fairy book and he uses his very unique focus and mind to help the Tooth Fairy and we have really emphasized the gift of the NeuroSpicy mind and spectrum that you know, that it can be a key to exploring the universe in different ways and we've tied that into the. You know the concept of growing up and what it means to lose a tooth. So Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale is on Amazon and soon to be. I will soon be publishing it, or printing it, rather, through my Chinese printers and sending it to my distributor and starting to make contact with bookstores. And yeah, so that's Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale. We're really proud of it.

Hank:

Very, very cool. And the other one it's Not you, it's you. Is that right? What is that about?

Sharon :

So it's Not you, it's you is a hopefully hilarious to my readers, hopefully hilarious book told by a professor, a female sheep professor, who somewhat resembles Einstein, who loves Einstein. She is a you, and people commonly mispronounce her name as you, people commonly mispronounce her name as ooh, and she has a lesson to tell, which is it's not ooh, it's you, which is a very nice coincidental double entendre, because the book is about all the gross things that your body spews and drips Cool, very cool.

Sharon :

And the phrase comes from my dad's experience as a science teacher to young children. He was a doctor for 30 years and then got into teaching with my nephews when he was younger. He used to volunteer and then he you know his little science classes turned into like a full curriculum, and when the kids were grossed out by something in the body, he would say it's not you, it's just who you are, it's you. So I've sort of adapted my dad's classroom catchphrase to this character Professor you, who just geeks out on all the things related to the body. And so this book is about everything from mucus to earwax to blood, to poop and pee and all the stuff kids love.

Hank:

Very, very cool. Yeah, kids would really get into that. You know it's amazing. Time has been flying by and we're almost out of time. If you could give one bit of advice to somebody who wanted to be a children's book author, what would you tell them?

Sharon :

Oh gosh, let me see. Well, it's easier than ever, but try to learn as much as you can about doing it in a way that gives dignity to the tradition of high quality children's book publishing. And really, you know, learn as much as you can about the business. Learn as much as you can and I say this as someone who's continuing to learn and does not have all the information or the knowledge and won't for many years learn and does not have all the information or the knowledge and won't for many years, and you know, really dig into the process. Join organizations that help further professional development writing skills, understanding how to work with your freelancers and, you know, make it a professional endeavor.

Hank:

Very, very cool If you would please tell our listeners the best way to get in touch with you and if they'd like to buy your books. Where do they go? How do they find them?

Sharon :

Right now all the books are on Amazon. Soon to be in bookstores, hopefully by the fall. You know it's pretty easy to find. You know the books for Donor Conception are under my Donor Story. If you search you'll see that series and Gabriel's Tooth Fairy Tale, and it's Not you which has four W's. They're all up there. If anyone has any questions, they can email me. Is there a place for you to put that on your page or do I need to speak it out loud?

Hank:

We'll speak it and we're going to put it in the show notes anyway.

Sharon :

Okay, Right now mail at SharonLeacom will work M-A-I-L at SharonLea, L-E-Y-Acom.

Hank:

All right, well, thank you so much for being here with us today. I wish we had more. Yeah, I wish we had more time, because this subject to me is very, very fascinating. And to our listeners, join us next Wednesday on the Zoomers to Boomers Business Show right here on bizradious. As you go about your day, I want to remind you practice kindness, it's the greatest uniter this world has ever known. I'll see you again next week. This is Hank Eder, wishing all of you a fabulous and productive day.