“A Beautiful Mess”
by Stephanie Yu, Marcus Burwell (Illustrator), Elisha Laurentis (Editor)
“Life is messy.
I’m messy.
But I’m a Beautiful Mess,
and so are you.
That’s what we’re here to be.
Nothing more, nothing less.”
“A Beautiful Mess” is a collection of thoughts, short essays, and diary entries mapping out the author’s experiences of living and learning through four distinct seasons of her life: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. These excerpts offer glimpses into her life during moments of joy, despair and everything in between—from her internal battles to the external struggles, and throughout it all, her underlying quest to find the beauty in the mess.She hopes that in sharing her personal stories of shame, anger, forgiveness, and healing, others can more fully step into and embody their own stories as well. And that in hearing her times of struggle, others can know that they are not alone, and they will be okay. In her own words: “When you are struggling know that I’m right there with you, holding your hand, figuring it out day by day just like you, and happy to be there.”