Meet Stephanie Yates | Author and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Yates and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
I founded my publishing company, Family First Press, to produce books that empower families to create a space where meaningful conversations around hard topics can be had. Young readers will learn to thrive as they see themselves reflected in the diverse pages, with kids going through big things, just like them.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Writing has always been therapeutic for me. I have lots of journals and notebooks of notes, ideas that I thought about writing about but for whatever reason did not. Being an educator of 19 years and currently serving in the role of middle school principal I’ve seen a lot when it comes to family dynamics, this gave me direction with what I wanted to write about but my sister death gave me purpose.

My son was getting ready to be four at the time of my sister passing. She died of Cancer and to him it was suddenly. I regretted not being able to prepare him for what was to potentially come because she did not have conversation with her children about her diagnosis. He would say things like my TT as he affectionately called her and I use to do this or TT bought me that and I realized he was trying to make sense of it all and process through his feelings of this person who he loved who was no longer alive. I began looking for books to read to him and did not find any that did not have animals as the main character or diverse children. I put ink to paper and “Good Grief” was born(purpose)! I then decided to self publish.

Writing was natural and easy for me. It was the self publishing process that posed challenges. When you self publish you are the marketing team, social media manager, public relations etc., when you are working a 9-5 and have mom obligations it is finding the time to do all those things. Let’s just say I have new talents that I didn’t know existed before going through this process and managing my time was key.

I am evidence of you can do anything you put your mind to.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Mary Mac’s Tea Room, Georgia Aquarium

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my wombmate Tiffany who passed away from Cancer in June 2021. I’ve been an avid writer since childhood but she gave my writing purpose when she died.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyfirstpress/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familyfirstpress

Other: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/good-grief/good-grief?ref=6hleu3

Image Credits
Susan Miller Photography