Kindness is Embracing Empathy Through Children's Literature with Children's Author Betty Larrea

Dive into the transformative power of children's literature and the importance of embracing empathy in storytelling. Kaitlin is joined by Betty Larrea, author of "Lucinda's Magical Yoga Adventure," to explore how books can shape young minds, foster imagination, and promote social-emotional learning.Betty shares her journey as a certified yoga teacher for children and discusses the challenges and rewards of writing and publishing books that resonate with diverse audiences. We delve into the significance of representation in literature, the role of mindfulness in education, and the necessity of building supportive communities to amplify positive values in storytelling.Check out Betty's work at beyogabelove.comQuotes"I just fell in love with reading... it was a way for me to go and explore places and escape and just have this imaginary world that I could really just dive into whenever I wanted to." "Books are magical, impactful... all children deserve to see themselves in the books that they read.""I wanted kids to have this tangible tool that they could take along with them wherever they want.""It's the message inside that each author... each one of us has a voice and each author is using their voice to really amplify their message to the world.""When we're seeing through the lens of kindness, then we're really seeing through the lens of love." "Children see themselves... It's important to have representation in books.""We just want to give adults picture books and say please take a look at this book and read it and take it in and understand someone else's humanity.""It's not often I say something that I'm like, 'yes, that was powerful,' but truly it's all about community." "Teaching empathy and mindfulness is critical... it's powerful.""Kindness to me is being able to see the world through someone else's eyes, have empathy, and to treat other people the way that you would want to be treated."Connect with us on social media:Kind Cotton InstagramKind Cotton TikTokFull transcript: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2247/9287/files/Kindness_Is_Podcast_with_Betty_2024-05-08_08_56_GMT-4_-_Transcript.docx?v=1715542656