Meet Sally J. Pla

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sally J. Pla. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sally below.

Sally, 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.

My mission is to populate children’s literature with relatable, wonderful characters who just happen, naturally, to be dealing with neurodiversity and/or mental-health challenges.

I’d always been a freelance business writer. But one day I was volunteering in my kids’ school library, and realized there were virtually no books that reflected the lives of disabled or neurodivergent kids like my own. There were a few books along the lines of “My Brother Johnny Has Problems, But We Love Him Anyway.” But nothing that showed a natural, modern, nuanced kid who just happened to have a disability, going through adventures in a story.

So I decided to write those kinds of books.

Then, in the process of writing my first children’s novel, THE SOMEDAY BIRDS, I ended up feeling strangely triggered by my own 12-year-old fictional character. And I ended up getting an autism diagnosis myself. It changed everything for the better, for me. My own difficult childhood and struggles in school suddenly made more sense—things went clicking into place.

And then my advocacy and speaking life started. Because neurodivergent adults need to stand up as examples, to show kids (and their worried parents!) that happiness and productivity in your adult life is possible. Growth is possible. Inevitable, actually.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’ve lived for long stints in the northeast, upper midwest, and southwest, and have lived abroad. I love learning languages. I find people endlessly fascinating. I love people. I play piano. I love dogs. I’m a brand new grandma!

I write books for young people, but I think the secret to their success is that I actually write them for everyone. My novels are intergenerational, filled with characters of all ages grappling with issues of contemporary life. There is humor and sadness, laughter and tears.

My most recent novel, The Fire, The Water, and Maudie McGinn, just won the American Library Association’s highest award for a work representing disability: The Schneider Family Book Award. My first novel, The Someday Birds, won the Dolly Gray Award for its representation of developmental disability in a work of fiction, back in 2018. I am so proud of these honors.

In keeping with my mission of connecting the right child with the right book, I run a web resource called A NOVEL MIND (anovelmind.com), about neurodiversity and mental health representation in children’s books. It’s got a searchable database, family-and-teacher resource pages, and a weekly blog written by some of today’s foremost children’s authors. A Novel Mind has been called “a gold mine” of information by librarians. It’s a volunteer labor of love.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

  1. Staying open/flexible to change. The journey is cumulative. Don’t be afraid of choosing a wrong thing/project/position; there really is no “wrong” — you are just adding new layers of wisdom, skill, and experience. Keep recalibrating. Your life may contain many paths, and they will all add up to unique knowledge and skills–and if you are open and flexible, may lead you to unique and wonderful places.
  2. Don’t let fear of failure hold you back. Failure is a good healthy part of the life-process. I wish I could go back and say “yes” to so many different opportunities that I was afraid I was unworthy of, or incapable of. Sometimes you just have to get over yourself and go for it, haha.
  3. Recognizing what you do well, what gives you joy. It’s probably one and the same. In all of your work/life experience, where have you found the joy, what element has attracted you most? For me, it’s all grounded in the written word, in communicating, in storytelling. Crafting stories to connect on a meaningful level with other wonderful humans is my joy and purpose. Whatever gives you the most joy: walk in that direction if you can.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I think I have two answers for this.

  1. When it comes to a career: Lean into your strengths. Choose what you’re already great at, what you love, and are talented at — and try to get even better. Try for the best you can be at what you care about the most.  I have many autism-related weaknesses and challenges. There’s no way I could have made it as a club DJ (sensory overload!) or an EMT (just going to the grocery-store is high-stakes stressful enough for me!) But I’m a good public speaker and a very, very good writer.
  2. When it comes to your personal life, well-rounded is a wonderful goal. A liberal-arts education is an amazing personal opportunity but a practical impossibility for most of us these days – but that’s not to say that personal enrichment and well-roundedness does’t matter. The life of the mind matters. Openness matters. Keeping on with reading and learning and trying new things, staying culturally literate and discerning.

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