The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Empathy in Action: Brooke Aukerman on Using Literature to Combat Bullying
What happens when a young author uses her personal struggles to inspire a movement of kindness? This week on the Kindness Matters Podcast, we welcome Brooke Aukerman, a remarkable 20-year-old literary critic, promoter, and author from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Brooke shares the poignant story behind her book, "Be Kind Loretta Owl," an anti-bullying narrative told from the perspective of a bully. Drawing from her own experiences with bullying due to her biracial background and learning disability, Brooke sheds light on the harsh realities many face, especially in the age of social media. She emphasizes the vital role of educators in nurturing inclusivity and understanding, recounting the profound impact of a teacher who changed her life.
Brooke also takes us on a journey through her passion for writing, revealing her ambitious plans for an eight-book series that promotes empathy and kindness. Engage with her on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where she actively connects with her readers. Brooke's enthusiasm for creating a more compassionate world is infectious, leaving us all inspired to spread a little more kindness in our everyday lives. Don't forget to follow our community on social media for more uplifting content and join us next week for another thought-provoking episode of the Kindness Matters Podcast.
The Kindness Matters Podcast is part of the DEN-The Deluxe Edition Network. Check them out to find your next favorite podcast.
Do you dread Mondays? Does the thought of another Monday steal the joy of your weekend? Let me tell you about a product I have found and tried that can do away with the Sunday Scaries. Oddly enough, it’s from a company called Sunday Scaries. I have personally tried their products, gummies and tinctures and I can personally attest to their efficacy. If you go to their website and order any product, use the code Kindness20 to receive a 20% discount on your order.
Do you like good coffee? Are you like me and go to bed in anticipation of a great cup of coffee in the morning (and afternoon, maybe). Then let me introduce you to my newest sponsor, Coffee Bros. They have built their business on the cornerstones of sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. From coffee to brewing techniques to coffee and espresso machines, they should be your go-to for all things coffee. And if you order from them, use the code Kind10 to get a 10% discount on your order.
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
This podcast is part of the Deluxe Edition Network. To find other great shows on the network, head over to DeluxeEditionNetworkcom. That's DeluxeEditionNetworkcom.
Speaker 2:Kindness, we see it all around us. We see it when someone pays for someone else's coffee or holds the door open for another person. We see it in the smallest of gestures, like a smile or a kind word. But it's different when we turn on the news or social media. Oftentimes what we hear about what outlets are pushing is the opposite of kind. Welcome to the Kindness Matters Podcast. Our goal is to give you a place to relax, to revel in stories of people who have received or given kindness, a place to inspire and motivate each and every one of us to practice kindness every day.
Speaker 2:Hey there, hi there, ho there, everybody. I am your host, mike Rathbun, and you are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. We are a member of the Deluxe Edition Network. Go to the deluxeditionnetworkcom and check out all the great podcasts, including this month's podcast of the month, horsin' Around, where host Joel Sharp, with producer Jared Picone, lead the boys from the Red Horse Hair Studio Shane Anthony, cisco Collazo, sean Boyle and Joel Capalupo through their nonsensical banter from the cutting room floor and deliver it in this hilarious, no-holds-barred podcast. From conspiracies and monsters to ghosts and surreal true life, your squishy brain will be filled with much of the awesome. Also, make sure to check out the show notes, where you'll find links and discount codes for two companies that I have partnered with Sunday Scaries, a company that makes broad spectrum CBD gummies, and Coffee Bros that make an amazing blend of coffees and coffee products. I use both of these products and they are nothing short of amazing.
Speaker 2:And now let's get into the show. Hey, welcome everybody. I am so glad that you are here. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. My guest today is a literary critic and promoter. She is a published author, critic and promoter. She is a published author, the pride of McKeesport, pennsylvania, and only 20 years old. Please welcome Brooke Aukerman to the show. I'm going to put in some canned applause there. I think I need to Welcome Brooke. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. Oh, it is my honor because I absolutely love this. Now you are the author of a book and it's doing really well on Amazon, from what I can tell, called Be Kind Loretta Owl Is that correct. Yes, that's correct when. Okay, so tell me a little bit about the book. Let's start with that first. What is Be Kind Loretta? I mean, it's kind of all in the title there, but what is Be Kind Loretta Owl about?
Speaker 1:So it's an anti-bullying story told from the bully's perspective. So we follow Loretta as her and her classmates get a new classmate in their classroom and they're not really welcoming to her. She's not like everybody else. She's more quiet, she likes to read. She doesn't like to play on the playground, so they all make fun of her. In fear of being victimized by her peers, she joins in on the bullying. As you continue to read, she learns her lesson on how important it is to be kind to other people.
Speaker 2:Nice, excellent. That's so cool. And bullying is such a huge issue today because, really, I mean well, and you're younger, because I mean when I was growing up we didn't have social media, so you know, if there was a bullying situation, it happened at school and probably stayed at school, right, you went home, you decompressed, you played ball or whatever. But these days it just kind of follows you everywhere, doesn't it? Yes, it does. So talk to me about the inspiration for this, and I'm so impressed with the fact that you're only 20 and you've already written a children's book. What inspired you to do this? What I mean? Is it from real life?
Speaker 1:Yes, it is from real life, so I have always been bullied. I was bullied as a child, in kindergarten and up.
Speaker 2:Boy.
Speaker 1:Because of my skin color, because I am biracial, so I would always get called pinky because I wasn't white enough for some of my peers, or black enough for some of my peers, um, I oh my gosh because I had a learning disability.
Speaker 1:So they're like oh well, you have your special needs, so you're just stupid, you're not like us. And then in high school I actually got cyber bullied twice. So the bullying would happen at school and then it would follow me back at home and I'd get terrible messages and terrible statuses on my social media. So that's really what motivated me to write this book. I feel like bullying's not really talked about. When I was younger, not a lot of teachers got involved. In high school they did, but, being a little kid, no one really did. So I just felt it was so important to have a story with the character learning how not to be a bully, but also having a teacher like Ms Honey that is correcting the behavior.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I never actually thought about it. Does being bi and apparently so because you just brought it up I was. I never thought about being biracial as, like it opens you up to so much more bullying.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You're bullied from both sides.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I think that being biracial is is easy, but sometimes it's not oh my gosh, I and I don't know where kids get this from. You know you want to say, well, it must be the parents, but probably a lot of them are a lot like loretta owl they want to fit in right.
Speaker 2:They want to fit in with the crowd and not get picked on right, right, um, so, and you've got a really cool story that kind of goes with this, and maybe we'll get to it in a second, because I really like that, but you were when you said you had special needs. You are on the spectrum, are you not?
Speaker 1:Yes, I am.
Speaker 2:Asperger's? I believe Asperger's syndrome yes. What is your superpower?
Speaker 1:Berger syndrome. Yes, what is your superpower? Um, I don't know. I just I never really thought about it. I just think I'm unique and it just makes me different.
Speaker 2:And that makes you amazing. Hello, um, that's so cool. So when you were writing your book, where did you come up with the name for the main character?
Speaker 1:So my great grandmother's name was Loretta and I lost her my senior year of high school to a rare form of ovarian cancer, reoccurring grandolosa. So she battled it for a long time and took her last birth October 28th, and she was always a big advocate for me. She loved my writing. I would write essays for school. I would just write little stories at home and she'd be like, oh my gosh, I want more. One day you're going to write and people are going to read your stories all over the world and I'm like, yeah, okay, grandma, but she was right. Wow, I'm going to write to honor her memory in my first book.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so cool. Did she get the dedication in your book?
Speaker 1:She did.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, so did she pass before you had finished the book?
Speaker 1:She did so. She passed in 2017.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:When I was in high school, but I think she knows she's watching Heavenly Balcony.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. She knows, and she's smiling down on you. That's so cool. That's so cool. So you wrote this book and it went out. How has it changed you? Has it changed you at all?
Speaker 1:It definitely has touched me. I didn't think it was going to be so impactful, being it's my first story that I publish professionally, but I get messages every day from parents that read it to their kid. I actually have a family friend her, her daughter's on the spectrum and she reads it to her every night. I sent her a copy personally and she loves it that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I think there are parents out there and they see this right and they see this happening to their kids and they would like somebody to talk about it and you have given them that voice. Hey, everybody, we will be right back with more of my chat with Brooke Aukerman right after these great messages from another Deluxe Edition Network podcast.
Speaker 1:Are you looking for a place for all things horror and don't know where to go?
Speaker 2:Well, you've came to the right place, my friend.
Speaker 1:We are the Grave Air Club podcast For all your horror needs visit us on youtube and spotify, and you can follow us over on instagram at the grave air club pod.
Speaker 2:see you there, and that's that's amazing, and you are such a a kind kind. Well, that's what the podcast is all about, right? Yes, so are you working on any other books?
Speaker 1:I am. So I'm actually working on book two to the Loretta Owl series. It's coming out before Christmas. It's a Christmas book. And I love the lesson this time, so I'm really excited.
Speaker 2:That's cool. Now do you have a website?
Speaker 1:I do not have a website yet.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I was thinking you know we could direct people to your website, or what have you, and so when the new book came out, if they wanted to be alerted of it, they could do that. But what's the best way? What social media are you on?
Speaker 1:So I'm on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. My Instagram and TikTok are the same. It's all lowercase. Brooke Loves Books 23.
Speaker 2:Brooke Loves Books. I'm also on TikTok. I know I'm too old for TikTok, but I'm there. It started a long time. Well, it started during the pandemic and we were my wife and I have a home cleaning business and that's, that's my paying job, right, my day job. And we were cleaning for a client and we were talking about how ugly it was out in the world at that point and she said are you on TikTok? You should be on TikTok. And I said TikTok's for young people, that's not for me. Look at me, can you see me? Do I look like him? And she said you don't have to have an account, just have an account and you just watch the videos and they're hilarious and they make you feel happy. And so that's initially what it was. I would go on some of my favorites the we Rate Dogs. Have you seen that account?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I think every week they do like the five dogs of the week, and I love that account. As a matter of fact, I watched one just before I came on and, yeah, I was just it would go, I would go on there and it'd make me happy. And then I thought I could promote my podcast on this account. And so I do now and make a couple of videos here and there. But so yeah, for absolute sure, now, when we promote this podcast, this episode, I'll make sure and do it on on tiktok and I'll tag you in it sounds good and also on instagram um, so are you?
Speaker 2:how many books are? Are you planning on writing about the loretta? Are you just until you get tired of it, or um, so right now it's eight books oh wow, you have ideas up in your head for eight books. Yeah Cool. Are they all going to follow the kindness theme?
Speaker 1:So they're all going to cover different themes. So the first one was about kindness. The second one is about giving back to your community.
Speaker 2:That's kind of kindness.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool and that one will be out before Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yes, it will.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. That's absolutely. I love every second of that. That's so cool. Yeah, because we see Today, I think and that's part of the reason I started the podcast was because we see in the world so many people being mean to other people, whether it's mocking people with disabilities or what have you and I just think people like you and me we need to change people's minds and say you know what? It's okay to be nice, and that doesn't make you weak. And it doesn't make you weak and it doesn't make you less than it makes you a good person. Yeah, that's that's what we need to do and that's what you and I are doing right here. Brooke, I absolutely love the time that you spent with me and that you've given me here. I know you're busy, so talk to me. I'm sorry. Okay, talk to me about your other work as a literary critic. What do you do there?
Speaker 1:So I get contacted by authors to read their books before they're published. So I read them, I give them feedback and then, when the book comes out, I write reviews and I make promotional videos for them.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice, nice. So that has to be great, because you get these great books before anybody else sees them.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:For a reader like yourself, that's got to be pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm a really avid reader too, so I read a book in one day sometimes.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, Holy cow, I was just going to say how many do you read a day? That's incredible. Sadly, my book reading skills have plummeted. I need to get back into that. But sadly, my book reading skills have plummeted. I need to get back into that. I think the last book I read, and it took me like a few months, was Hamilton, the one the musical was based on. Is it Ron Chernow?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, that was a fabulous book. I loved it, but that was a while back, wasn't it? Yes, oh well, I need to get back into it, but that that's so cool. So you've got that and you've got your writing. What else could you get up to?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I guess we'll have to see.
Speaker 2:Use your powers for good, Brooke.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You're doing that. You're doing that all the time. I love it. I'm going to let you go. I thank you so much for being on the show and I will have a link to the book in the show notes and keep doing good girl.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you, you, you as well thank you, we'll talk to you later absolutely bye-bye, wow, that's all I can say.
Speaker 2:really wow. Brooke ackerman, what a fantastic let's not even say kid or or person. She's a fantastic human being To take her experiences and write them down, albeit in fiction form, so that other people can learn and hopefully be better, so that she can teach, have parents teach their young kids to be empathetic and kind Just such a great, great story. I'm so excited I found her. I'm sure you're excited too. I'll have all of her links so you can follow her in the show notes and I'll even put in a link for the book on Amazon if you're interested. But yeah, what a great conversation and I feel so uplifted and motivated by this chat we had, and I hope you do too. I hope you take something away from this, something positive that you can bring into your own world.
Speaker 2:And as long as you're following Brooke on her social media, make sure to follow us on all of our social media as well. We're on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, you name it. You will find us there as well. I would be honored and privileged if you would follow us as well, and that will do it for this episode of the Kindness Matters podcast. We will be back next week with another great episode, but in the meantime, be that person who roots for others, who tells a stranger they look amazing and encourages others to believe in themselves and their dreams. You have been listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I'm your host, Mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
