We recently connected with Alejandra Andrade and have shared our conversation below.
Alejandra, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I’ve always known I love writing, but I forgot. Since I was a little girl, I remember enjoying anything related to storytelling. Books, writing, scripts, essays, etc. But somehow, life happened and I forgot about his passion I’d always felt inside me. Instead, I pursued a career in interior design, and funny enough, what I enjoyed the most about it was telling a story through design. So, one way or the other, I’ve always loved to tell stories. But deep down, even if I enjoyed design, and I still do, I knew the activity per se wasn’t my passion. I tried many things. Explored many activities, embarked on various projects and learned new skills, but nothing kept my attention for long enough before I started to get bored. One of this projects was a cruise ship agency, which I still own, and I started it in 2019. I was going to open my travel agency in March 2020 *insert suspense sound effect* so that obviously had to be paused due to COVID. I had all this free time on my hands so I started reading again, not that I ever stopped, but I started reading A LOT. And that re-kindled that special feeling inside me. Seeking a thrill of emotion is what mostly draws me to both reading and storytelling in general, so as I was reading so much those first couple of months of lockdown, it finally hit me that I wanted to be the one generating these emotions in readers, so that’s how I decided to start writing. I had no idea how to even start, or if I was going to even finish the book, but I did. And one book became three and three became five. Currently I’m writing the fifth and last book in the Moonstruck Series, which is a coming-of-age young adult/new adult contemporary romance. Once I started writing, all these feelings came back to me, even memories of me as a child enjoying writing scripts at school for certain classes, writing poems, songs, essays, short stories. It all came back to me and now I cannot see myself ever stopping.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the author of the Moonstruck Series, a 5-book contemporary romance series in the young adult/new adult genres. The first four books have been published in english, and I am currently writing the 5th and last book. The series was picked up by a major publisher in Mexico, Grupo Planeta, and they have been publishing the books in Spanish. The first two were published this year, as well as the first one in Spain. Once I’m done with the Moonstruck Series, I will finish writing a young adult sports romance spin-off with a Mexican-American female protagonist who plays professional tennis. If you want to know more about me and my work you can visit my website: alejandra-andrade.com or follow me on instagram: @alejandra__author
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I believe my stubbornness, resilience, and curiosity were key for me. Every time I tried something new, or embarked on a new project and ended up changing my mind, getting bored, failing at it, I felt so much shame, but I never let it stop me. I just kept going. I knew I had to find that “thing” that would resonate with me, until I ultimately found myself creating stories through writing. My advice would be to never stop looking for what moves you, your passion. I strongly believe we all have something we absolutely love to do and once we discover it we will do anything in our power to be able to do that forever. All the things I did before helped me, everything adds up and ends up serving you in the long run.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
They never stopped supporting me and believing in me. I initially had enrolled for architecture in a university, a few weeks before starting I switched to industrial design in another university and 1 month in, I dropped out because I quickly realized it was not for me. I studied Italian that semester and then I enrolled in Interior Design in a third university where I studied for a year and a half. Then I went to New York for an entire summer for an internship and when I came back I dropped out and lost that semester again. Then I switched to Marketing in that same university I was studying interior design. I did that for a year and a half and again … I dropped out because I knew it wasn’t my passion. I learned a lot and I am still using all those skills to promote my books, it has saved me thousands of dollars on graphic and web designers, etc. So it was worth every penny! After I dropped out I was feeling ashamed of myself for feeling that way, for not being able to finish something I started, so at some point I gave up and didn’t want to graduate at all. But I knew I wanted to graduate from something, mostly to prove to myself that I could finish something that I proposed myself to do. So I went to a fourth university and told them hey, I’ve studied all of this, can you accept it? And they did so I enrolled in interior design again and went straight to 7th semester, and I graduated with honors 🙂 All this to say, my parents never made me feel bad for changing my mind, exploring my options, and they supported me along the way. It’s like they believed more in me than I did in myself at some point. They were already proud of me of the person I was to them so they didn’t need me following a specific path to prove that I was “worthy.” They just allowed me to experiment and finally it was all worth it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alejandra-andrade.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alejandra__author/
- Facebook: alejandra__author
- Linkedin: https://mx.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-andrade-0b5a10187
