Showing Up to the Page with Salma Ali

Creativity, curiosity, and listening to your inner child

Hi Friends,

I was so excited to sit down and chat with Salma Ali for this episode of Showing Up to the Page. If you’re new here, these are short and sweet conversations with creators about how they show up to their work in the middle of full, busy lives.

Salma Ali is an Egyptian-American author-illustrator whose work is deeply rooted in child-centered storytelling. Prior to delving into KidLit, Salma completed a Ph.D. on designing with children, drawing inspiration from their unique stories, voices, and lived experiences. She now creates picture books to uplift and inspire young readers, particularly those who are underrepresented. She has been recognized as a PB Rising Stars mentee and a Highlights Foundation scholarship recipient.

🎬Watch our video here:

Ways Salma shows up to the page

As a new mom, Salma is in a busy season of life, but she continues to find meaningful ways to stay connected to her creativity.

Salma finds inspiration by mining her own childhood experiences and listening closely to her inner self. She also keeps her creativity flowing by listening to podcasts and following YouTube channels focused on writing and illustration.

For illustration, she enjoys The Illustration Department and 3 Point Perspective. For writing, she recommends Stimola Live and BookEnds Literary.

Salma also shared that deadlines help keep her moving forward. She emphasized the importance of setting short-term goals while keeping long-term goals in sight.

One reminder that really stayed with me was that the creative process should be fun, especially when we’re creating stories for children. Listen to your gut about what you want to work on, and keep the larger goal in mind as you work toward it.

From our conversation, a few things I’m taking away:

• 💡 Listen to your gut about what you want to work on

• 📝 At the beginning of each week, write a list of what you hope to accomplish

• ❤️ Listen to your inner child and the stories only you can tell

One of my favorite moments from our conversation

One of my favorite parts of our chat was hearing Salma talk about her current work in progress. When imagining her story world in real life, she said she would want to give her characters a hug and tell them that no one else is like them, that they are special, unique, and have something only they can bring to the table.

I wanted to give her characters a hug, too. 💛

If you’d like to support my work and these Showing Up to the Page conversations, we can pretend we’re sharing a coffee or tea together. 🎬

You can find Salma online at @salmaillustrate and learn more about her work at www.salmaillustrate.com.

Thank you, Salma, for sharing your time, creativity, and thoughtful insights with us. And good luck with your mentorship. I’m excited to continue following your journey, and I’m always rooting for you.

If something in our conversation resonated with you, I’d love for you to leave a comment below.

Check out some other episodes of Showing Up to the Page

Up Next 📚✨

I was so excited to be asked to guest edit a children’s magazine at Little Thoughts Press. I can’t wait to share more about this issue and the beautiful work being created for it.

Thank you all for being here with me.

Sonrisas,