Author Victoria Wright compares confronting her internal bully to that of a caterpillar folding completely within itself and decomposing inside its cocoon in order to be born again as a radiant butterfly.
At an author talk hosted by the Aquinnah Cultural Center at the Aquinnah town hall on Wednesday, Ms. Wright explained how this idea became the premise of her fifth novel, A Quiet Butterfly.
The story follows Neepa, a Black Native American teenager who gets bullied at school. Struggling with low self-esteem and grief after the death of her grandfather, she copes by listening to nature’s wisdom, just as her Native ancestors did.
Ms. Wright shared with the audience that writing the book, her first young-adult novel, was deeply personal for her. During the process, she confronted her own insecurities, many of which she experienced while growing up in Aquinnah as a Wampanoag child.
“When I started writing and I was sitting there I thought, wow, I just turned 56. Half of my life is potentially over and I’m sitting here and still have times of self doubt and questions about self worth,” Ms. Wright said. “When I go deeper into that, it’s because of seeds that were planted when I was younger.”
She shared an example from when she attended the West Tisbury School. One day she asked her teacher why she had a dimple on her cheek.
“He looked at me and said ‘well it’s because your cheeks are so fat they have to buckle somewhere,’” Ms. Wright said. “I have gone through my entire life thinking that I’ve got a fat face.”
Ms. Wright said that although she doesn’t think her teacher meant explicitly that she had a fat face, she has carried that insecurity her whole life. She wrote A Quiet Butterfly to help today’s youth deal with their own insecurities.
“Hopefully by talking about Neepa’s circumstances and what she’s going through will give [young people] the opportunity to open up and maybe not feel so vulnerable about their own circumstances,” Ms. Wright said.
Ms. Wright said she has a 14 year-old son who is often bullied. She feels young people have more stress today and she worries about their well-being.
“Some kids aren’t coping,” Ms. Wright said. “Bullying in schools has increased, particularly after the pandemic.”
A Quiet Butterfly is for all children, but especially multi-racial kids. Ms. Wright said there is a lack of positive representation in the media, and like Neepa, many young people who are multi-racial feel as if they don’t fit-in.
“There are a lot of kids that are out there that are in the middle,” Ms. Wright said. “They don’t necessarily feel like they found their place yet and I hope that [my book] gives them some solace that they will, in the end, find their place.”
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