Hello! So happy you’re here! Today’s blog explores why we exist and gives you a bit more information about why our mission is so important to us! We hope you will leave a comment answering the question at the end to help us to get to know you better, as you get to know us better.
When we did our first workshop with Alex, Lily, and Seth from the Spectrum Heroes first book of the series, we had no idea that we were beginning to graze a bigger purpose. Jessica wrote her first book when she was in third grade. So many people are so surprised by this fact, but if you looked at children who love to write, and share stories, this exact amazing thing happens so much more than we realize. Children are learning as they create. They are writing stories and books, but they never realize they can actually become an author at ANY age.
Becoming a published author was not on Jessica’s mind at nine. It wasn’t on her mind until she battled her first time with depression, and she wrote herself out of it and wanted to publish this book. Jessica did research about publishing and sent her book to publishers, but like many aspiring authors, she never heard back. At sixteen now, you can imagine the feeling of being ignored, or maybe not being good enough.
Almost twenty years went by, and Jessica thought about her story from third grade, often. It was called Skipping Stones, and it was the first story she wrote that she truly loved. When the company first began it was an independent study at Buffalo State College. She brainstormed story concepts, and wouldn’t you know that Skipping Stones came to the forefront of her thoughts first and foremost. She knew this book would be her company’s first book. After asking her tattooist about illustrations, he was eager to help her bring her story to life.
What if the publishing industry wasn’t so hard to understand? What if a publisher truly cared, and wanted to work hard to know as much as they could about it, and work even harder to improve upon what they learned to be the best version of a company a person could imagine. Imagine WE became a place where parents, teachers, and grandparents could help a talented writer become something truly remarkable, like a published author, at as young of an age as the child wants to write their book. ImagineWe became exactly what our CEO wished existed when she was nine years old.
Our first ever true mission book, understood as this because it was the book that created this type of book, was Elise Keeps Smiling. A story about a young girl who passed away from Melanoma way before she was ready to stop spreading awareness about her cancer. Elise was a beautiful, hilarious, and loved young lady, who is missed every day by hundreds of people. You can learn more about her in a blog scheduled for next month!
From there we have published books about Cerebral Palsy, Deaf awareness, Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. We even have many causes from before we officially adopted the term Mission Book like a little boy getting a heart transplant, Autism Awareness, Domestic Violence, and losing a grandparent.
Our mission books are the very heart, soul, and core of this company. A Mission Book is a book written in support of a cause, mission, charity organization, foundation, or person in need of awareness or financial assistance to help them with their mission. We publish Mission Books because like Mahatma Gandhi suggested, we want to be the change we wish to see in this world.
Even for our Mission Books, we have a mission! It is to create a beautiful, cause-driven, and amazing piece of literature to shed light on the many different issues, and problems that our children all over the world face through each and every individual cause that the books are spreading awareness about. When a Mission Book is created it gives each individual reading them belief and HOPE.
We soon adopted our tagline “Mission-Motivated and Cause-Driven.”
We have shared so many amazing stories, and moments with our authors, readers, and fans. Our hearts are full and warm with the love we have to share and spread across the world.
Imagine a world where children could pursue exactly what they say they want to before they are all grown up learning about life, love, struggle, and reality. Imagine if before we see their creativity trained out of them by school systems replacing it with standardized tests, we nourish their creativity, and show them how to be who they are, when they become it. Imagine if a 9-year-old became a published author for their birthday. How much more could a child accomplish if we showed them the way instead of teaching them to say “when I grow up, I’m going to…” What could they imagine for themselves, and their life now that that limitation is deconstructed, and replaced with ambition, and permission to chase their dreams, goals, and ideas.
We are ImagineWe Publishers, and we are devoted to educating students, children, and adults to initiate creativity and inspire an inclusive and diverse classroom and the world for all. We want to inspire anyone and everyone we can to wish, dream, plan, and do.
Check out our next blog when we tell you more about how long from idea to existence it took to create this company. We are so happy to have you here with us!
