Elyssa: The first book, it was weird. I really didn't feel like I had a job because I would write it but there was no guarantee it was going to sell. When people were like, “Do you work?” I would just say, “No. I'm a stay-at-home mom.” They'd have to drag it out of me that I was working on a book. Until I had a contract, it didn't feel real to me.
Courtney: The mother daughter relationship is another really key motor to this story. Her mom is the exact opposite of Sloane. She gives of herself readily, generously. She self-effaces a little bit. Sloane has a sister. Her sister’s about to have her third child. Her mother’s joy is taking care of other people. She went into overdrive when her husband died.
Kwame: How do you remain sane when these lives of brown boys are being moved, or being shifted, or being blown away like sand in a windstorm? How do you remain sane in the midst of that when you have brown boys -- as you said, children -- or you teach brown boys or whatever, if you're just a human being who understands the value of life, how do you remain sane and just move on with your day? One of the ways you do that is you raise your voice, and you share your voice, and you make your voice heard about what's wrong.
Aimee: A lot of people who like the book are saying that it’s not this page-turning thing. Women are feeling understood in what it means to give birth now and to be a woman. There's a lot of these subthemes in the book. Most of the women have had some sort of harassment or abuse at the hands of powerful men. They're dealing with discrimination in other ways. Hopefully that's the reason that it’s also resonating.
Caitlin: How do we connect as mothers? Often it’s through shared confusion, complaint, sharing our challenges, and admitting how hard it is. She’s somebody who it’s almost not in her code to do that because of the way she was raised. She was raised in a harsh environment. It is a bit judgy. She’s almost portraying this, “Cannot compute. I don't understand.” She's one of those quietly on it, effective, efficient mothers and people who get it done. I think of her in the book as a good mother.
Sarah: I always loved fairy tales. As a kid I used to fracture fairy tales also. I would tell the story of “The Princess and the Pea,” but it would be “The Princess and the M&M” because I was not a fan of vegetables. I liked chocolate. I always loved fairy tales. When I had a daughter of my own and I would tell her these stories, I wanted to teach her that she doesn't have to wait for a prince to come and save her. That's not how she's going to get her happy ending. She has to have agency. She has to be empowered.
Jill: My life didn’t change at all. Everyone always says, “It must be so different now.” It’s the exact same that it always was. More people will come up on the street. I'm, for me, the perfect level of exposed. I don't have people freaking out. I have normal, cool people come up, gay guys or moms being like, “I love the show.” They're nice. They're not lunatics. It’s always people I would probably be friends with if I had more time. It’s a nice group. The show attracted cerebral, funny people.
Cristina: I always tell people that I feel like writing is cheaper than therapy. It’s equally cathartic. My life was very much defined by the fact that my father died on September 11th. I was a week into my senior year of college. At the time I thought I was going to go be an English professor. I studied Medieval literature at Harvard, which is totally useless in every possible way except for if you want to go get a PhD in Medieval literature. I was on this very particular track. My dad died in this very dramatic and tragic way.
