POWER TO THE WRITER!

It’s been a week since I have written in my blog. It has been a busy week and I always wait for the PAWFECT inspiration. I love to write and I am comfortable with the written word but it always helps to have someone  or something inspire you.

After my trip to the inauguration I was very inspired by being an American and by all the wonderful people I met like Marie and Shirley.  The friendship and hopefulness was everywhere and I want to be sure I do my share to keep it coming. Lucky me I get inspiration on a daily basis—actually sometimes minute by minute from our Guests in our stores and on Buildabearville.com.  Maybe the best part of creating such a special company is the creativity it inspires in others. Everyday I am lucky enough to receive hundreds of ideas and suggestions to make our company and our special fun place, buildabearville, even better. I call them BEARY bright ideas and when received from a Guest on buildabearville.com I reward them with a virtual light bulb hat they can wear in BABV. This has become quite the status item.

It is all about the WE factor and how people can join together to have an even greater impact on the world. I call it 1+1=10! It is a magic formula—maybe not like Einstein’s E=mc2 but important to the well being of the world nonetheless. It is about partnership and free sharing of ideas to make something better and take the impact even farther. It’s what this country needs and what our world needs.

My inspiration just a few days ago was my friend on BABV, ZoeyGirlsRock327. Like me, she likes to read and she also likes to write. She wrote a book called Zoey and the Magical Bear and sent it to me to read. It is one of the best children’s books I have read and I have been smiling ever since. We have been emailing and I suggested she post the book on tikatok.com where so many kids have written books about their furry friends and my friend Sharon Kan, another person who inspires me, would help her get her book published….yes, printed and published. That is hard to do for anyone, let alone a child but it can all happen on http://www.buildabear.com/tikatok. You can see her first novel at:

Zoey and the Magical Bear    It is PAWSOME!!!

ZGR327 has become one of my special friends on buildabearville. While we have not met in person YET, we have exchanged emails and learned that we have a lot in common, like reading. She just finished reading Nancy Drew and  is now reading The Diary of Anne Frank and we were discussing how sad it is. I agree…very sad, but Anne inspired so many people by her beautiful writing in her diary.

Last April, I went to Amsterdam and visited the house where Anne was hidden and it is exactly as she describes it. After reading her book so many times I could probably have sketched it out blindfolded. After I read the book the first time when I was about 10, I started keeping a diary myself. It really mattered to me to be able to “talk to myself” about what was on my mind or in my heart. Sometimes when I was having a tough time at school or being a big sister I would just sit down and write out my feelings– it definitely made everything feel better 🙂  As I got older I jotted down my feelings about the world, my boyfriends, my job, my hopes and dreams…whatever was on my mind. Now that I think about it, I think that Anne Frank also inspired blogging which is basically a diary gone public. Anne would have loved blogging. She yearned to share her feelings with others to smile and sing and dance again in a free world. Instead she wrote to her hearts content so that others could someday better understand the hardships of war and the negative impact of bigotry and hatred.

Thanks Anne for being such a forward thinking young woman. The world wishes you were here but we appreciate all you have taught us about the power of the written word.

Maybe my friend Sharron Kan was inspired by Anne Frank too. I will have to ask her. She knows how important writing and creativity is and she has created a fabulous company and online phenomenon, Tikatok. Tikatok and BABW is a quintessential example of my 1+1=10 magic formula.  I was first introduced to Sharon by a mutual friend who teaches at Northwestern University. He had a feeling we would be great friends. We met and we instantly felt that we could work together to encourage children to read and write and to even be published authors. WOW!! Sharon has two daughters of her own and Leia is already a great writer and a great bear builder I might add!

 

For years people have been creating stories about their furry friends and sending them to me and asking could we publish them. Now with Tikatok I can send them there to write their story and even use our art and photos or they can draw and take their own photos and create a real book. Boy, I wish they had Tikatok when I was younger, it would have been my most fun thing to do.

 

A few weeks ago when ZGR327 wrote to me after making a furry friend at a BABW store she declared she wanted to work at BABW when she grew up. Last night after finishing her novel posting on tikatok, she declared, “I am going to be an author when I grow up.” I think an author who writes books about making bears would make us all BEARY happy!

Hugs,

Maxine

P.S. Let me know what you think about ZoeyGirslRock327 book! let me know if you decide to write one too. The more books written by kids the better the world will be.

Tags: Anne Frank, blogging, diary, Diary of Anne Frank, Sharon Kan, Tikatok