An Interview with Born Just Right Authors Jordan Reeves and Jen Lee Reeves
As the mother of two daughters, journeys about mother-daughter duos lift me up. That’s why Born Just Right, written by limb difference advocate Jordan Reeves with her mother, Jen, pulled me right in. I loved hearing about how Jordan and Jen both support and challenge each other. Read on and you’ll be inspired, too!
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Questions for Jordan Reeves:
When your book comes out in June, what grade will you be going into?
Jordan: I’ll be a rising 8th grader! I can’t believe it. Time flies!
What are your summer plans when Born Just Right is published?
The book drops on June 4 so I’ll be traveling a lot with my mom to help promote it this summer—NYC, D.C., Chicago, and the San Francisco area to name a few cities. But I’m really looking forward to our annual family vacations to North Carolina in June and Maine in August. It’s just a really fun time with family and friends. It’ll be a great break from the media tour and a long school year.
Later in the summer, I usually go to Paddy Rossbach Camp through the Amputee Coalition. We usually just call it Amp Camp. It’s a bunch of amputee and limb difference kids hanging out for a week. It’s my favorite camp in the whole world. I also usually go to an event called Camp No Limits in Missouri.
Questions for Jordan Reeves:
When your book comes out in June, what grade will you be going into?
Jordan: I’ll be a rising 8th grader! I can’t believe it. Time flies!
What are your summer plans when Born Just Right is published?
The book drops on June 4 so I’ll be traveling a lot with my mom to help promote it this summer—NYC, D.C., Chicago, and the San Francisco area to name a few cities. But I’m really looking forward to our annual family vacations to North Carolina in June and Maine in August. It’s just a really fun time with family and friends. It’ll be a great break from the media tour and a long school year.
Later in the summer, I usually go to Paddy Rossbach Camp through the Amputee Coalition. We usually just call it Amp Camp. It’s a bunch of amputee and limb difference kids hanging out for a week. It’s my favorite camp in the whole world. I also usually go to an event called Camp No Limits in Missouri.
What was the mother-daughter writing process like? For example, did you and your mom sit down to write together every week?
First, we sat down and talked through the whole outline of the book. We talked about the different stories and examples we wanted to add into each section. When we started writing, my mom had more to say about topics when I was little and I had more to say in parts of the book about when I got older. There were times when my mom wrote sections and I went in and totally changed it. Other parts I wrote and she edited. I always say my mom writes just like I talk but better.
I remember this one Sunday we had a pow-wow in my mom’s bed just reading through the first draft of the book together—going back and forth. It was kind of cool to just zone in on one thing for a change, but it took us a long time.
How do you balance it all, between schoolwork, a book deal, promoting your organization, a TED talk (!), 3-D design projects, friends, and family?
My parents help me a lot! Sometimes it gets to be too much, but my mom and I have a great relationship so when I start to feel overwhelmed she helps to pull things back so I can do the things that I sometimes miss out on when I’m on the road. I miss hanging with my friends. Often, I sneak in a sleepover when I’m in town. It can be tough to find balance, but we make a good team and try to add to the schedule opportunities for me to let my hair down and have fun. For example, I got a cool new scooter when I visited Chicago and rode it all over the city. It was great!
I was so happy to hear that Project Unicorn uses biodegradable glitter. What’s the glitter made of? How did you find “BioGlitz”?
The glitter from BioGlitz is a “secret formula” that is totally respectful of the environment. It is even “certified compostable.” We found the company after my mom reached out to every single biodegradable glitter company she could find. BioGlitz was excited to work with us.
Since writing your book, has the American Girl company made any changes to offer dolls who made have a limb difference?
We are still waiting for changes at American Girl. But I am really honored to have worked with the Barbie design team to release the first doll with a prosthetic leg. It even comes off! I want to see even more dolls show all kinds of differences. But this is a great start!
Where’s your favorite place to go in Columbia, Missouri?
My backyard! It’s my happy place. We live on a lake and we have a dock, kayak, canoe, and even paddle boards. I am so happy it’s getting warm again. But I’m not so happy about our dock when a bunch of spiders hide. If you get a certain spot extra wet, the spiders run out. That’s why we have an extra float pad so we can play in the water without the spiders getting in the way. It’s kind of gross but it’s also funny when my friends get scared!
I also have a favorite ice cream spot called Sparky’s. It’s quirky with weird art on the walls but I love to go there. My favorite ice cream to get is cookies and cream. They have a lot of creative flavors but I can’t stop with that classic. I try to take everyone who comes for a visit there. Ooh and Shakespeare’s Pizza is right down the street. It has the best pie around. Columbia is a big college town so pizza is kind of important.
Tell me about your big brother Cameron. What do you two like to do together?
We get along best when we watch movies together and play video games. Cameron is now 17 and really interested in film and he has an awesome Instagram account where he posts movie reviews. He even started writing scripts! Even though we fight sometimes, Cam is a really great older brother and I know he’s proud of me. He wrote a really cool article about what it’s like to be my brother and it made me really proud.
Questions for Jen Reeves:
I love when you write, “Jordan and I are a team. I’m also her mom, so I have to do mom things (like say no sometimes).” I’m curious: what do you need to say NO to sometimes when it comes to Jordan?
Often that ‘no’ is around times when Jordan needs to stop and relax. We are very similar people and we could go and go non-stop if someone doesn’t call us out. I am sometimes Jordan’s internal monitor. After one sleepover, she does not need a second one the next day. Sometimes she’ll get into a movie or a string of “satisfying” videos on Instagram and I have to say no and make sure she knocks out her homework. Jordan is a great self-motivated student, but there are definitely times when I have to step in and make sure she’s doing her work.
What would you like readers to know about your foundation, Born Just Right?
Jordan and I launched our nonprofit Born Just Right in 2016. Our mission is to build creative solutions that help kids with differences live a more enjoyable life. We believe giving kids design and STEM knowledge empowers them to create their own solutions.
We are focused on three major outcomes: 1) Raising awareness about the power of design and STEM education; 2) Identifying and supporting inclusive designers and brands; and 3) Empowering and growing a community for kids and parents to help foster learning.
We believe and we KNOW kids with disabilities are natural problem solvers. Born Just Right taps into that natural skillset and teaches design thinking. I really hope we can develop new job paths for our workshop participants.
What are you working on now?
Right now, we’re working on developing partnerships for our BOOST workshop that brings together kids with disabilities and designers and engineers to create and build really cool and creative prosthetics and body modifications. Our program director is testing out a curriculum for schools and we hope to launch a youth consultancy so more kids can help offer insight to companies that need them. (In the same way Jordan worked with Mattel to launch a Barbie doll that uses a prosthetic leg.) All that growth requires sponsorship. We hope to encourage more companies to support our mission so we can reach more kids with disabilities.
Born Just Right is on B&N bookshelves now.