The Best Way to Introduce phearnik!® to Kids

Helping Kids Overcome Anxiety

If you’ve been following the phearnik!® Campaign, you know it’s about helping fearful children overcome their fears. You’re intrigued by the little plush. You’ve seen the “How To” steps and know how it works. You’d like to introduce phearnik!® to your child. But you’d like to have some help. You want something like a book that helps kids with anxiety.

A picture of the phearnik! plush, a small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy blue jumpsuit and a wild head of yarn for hair. It has big black eyes and a squiggly mouth. Funny, cute and a little bit ugly. The toy helps reduce child anxiety.

A Picture Book to Help Kids Overcome Fears

Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears is just the thing! It’s a children’s book that helps kids with anxiety. In it, a little girl, Phoebe, experiences a lot of irrational fears. In particular, she’s afraid of the dark and going in the water as well as other similar kid fears. These fears keep her from doing things she really wants to do like playing with other kids and having fun.

In the book, Phoebe’s mom tells her,

“It’s okay to have a little fear. It helps you pay attention and keeps you safe. But your fear is too big. It keeps you from doing what you want to do. You need to make your fear small.”

A Toy that Helps with Anxiety

After this, Phoebe takes the reader on an amusing journey. Trying to “make her big fears small,” she finds nothing works. That is until she creates a “phearnik!®,” her “Little Fear.”  The toy helps Phoebe reduce her anxiety. She takes  phearnik!® with her everywhere to remind her to keep her fears small. In this way, Phoebe shows fearful kids it’s okay to have a little fear. Like her mother says, it helps her to pay attention to being safe. And, when you don’t let it get big, you have more fun playing with others.

A picture of a little girl holding her phearnik!

An Easy Way to Help Kids with Anxiety

A picture of an adult most likely a parent reading reading a book to a child. The picture helps illustrate how the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears" children’s book provides parents, teachers and counselors with an easy way to help a kid with their fear.

The Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears children’s book provides parents, teachers and counselors with an easy way to help a kid with fear and anxiety. The colorful paper collage illustrations readily engage both boys and girls in Phoebe’s story.  Additionally, the even reading pace clearly tells the story of how a kid solves the problem of making their “big” irrational fears small.

An illustration from the The "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.
Illustrations from “Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears.” See a trailer of the book here.
An illustration from the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.
A picture of a collage from the aws Studios.art picture book when Phoebe gives a phearnik! to her dad.

A Children’s Book About Mental Health

At the end of Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears, there’s a letter for adult readers. The letter explains  how Phoebe teaches herself a mental health skill. It explains the type of skill Phoebe learns and how it works to reduce a child’s anxiety. Furthermore, the letter says, even though Phoebe’s too young to understand the brain science, she’s learned a way to calm her fear or “keep it small.” This helps her do the things she really wants to do.

A picture showing the letter to readers at the end of Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears providing adults with more information about how the book helps children with anxiety.

One Of The Best Anxiety Books For Kids

Here’s what people are saying about phearnik!® and the book:

Alis Wintle Sefick has freshly written and illustrated a lovely children’s storybook which highlights strategies to combat anxiety in children. This interesting story, told from the voice of a school-age child, offers a tool to address current emotional stresses, which are affecting kids, in higher numbers these days.  I highly recommend this gem of a book. Laura Dolan Jacobsen FNP-BC, Child Development

My now grown daughter could definitely have used a phearnik doll. She was very fearful of new things to the point that it affected her social connections with other kids her age. At the time there was no product like phearnik on  the market. We relied on tiny “worry dolls“ to help her manage her fears. I definitely would have invested in phearnik had  it been available at the time. I think it would’ve been a big help to her then. Rebecca Passanante, Retired Pre-school Educator

How to Get the Book

The Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears picture book will be available through the phearnik!® Campaign. Sign up and be the first to know when you can get the book!

What about you? What books have you used with kids to help them with their anxiety? Let us know in the Comments.

Give this post a “Like” if you’re inclined. Share this post with others. You never know when you could be helping a parent with a child in need.

phearnik!® is No Stella Al Fresco

Who is Stella Al Fresco

I made a doll and it is not like Stella Al Fresco.

Sunday morning in the NYTimes, I saw an article about how Megan, The Dutchess of Sussex, promoted a doll on her new show “With Love, Megan.” Commonly known Stella Al Fresco, Megan’s daughter’s doll is sold with “a little baguette and a little cheese.” The dolls’ creators claim the dolls and their accessories help kids mimic adult behavior. Says  Acorn Store owner  Heather Hamilton where the dolls are sold, “Kids really like imitating life, and if this is what they’re seeing on their parents’ patio, then they just pretend play.”

A picture of the doll commonly called Stella Al Fresco. It helps to show the difference between it and the aws Studios.art phearnik! plush and how it is different , has a different purpose and is not like Stella Al Fresco.
The doll commonly known as Stella Al Fresco
A picture of the phearnik! plush, a small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy blue jumpsuit and a wild head of yarn for hair. It has big black eyes and a squiggly mouth. Funny, cute and a little bit scary.
The phearnik! plush

Which makes me think that my little phearnik!® has a long, uphill slog to the market. How does my slightly scary looking doll/plush that is not like Stella Al Fresco compete with the sweet, cute and Cabbage Patch-like doll? And how does my aws Studios.art doll stack up against a doll promoted by Megan?

phearnik!® is no Stella Al Fresco

A Little Scary Looking

Yes, phearnik!® is not a sweet looking doll like Stella. phearnik!® actually looks a little scary. It’s supposed to look scary. I made phearnik!® to look a little scary because the plush represents a “little fear.”

The idea behind the phearnik!® doll was to make an object that represents fear.  I would take the “little fear” with me to remind me to keep my fears small. When I keep my fears small, they don’t get big and take control of things I want or need to do. More about where I got this idea here (hint: it’s from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear).

A picture of one of the original versions of the phearnik! plush prototype. A small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy-blue jumpsuit, googlie eyes, a crooked mouth and wild hair kids love.
One of the original versions of the phearnik! plush

Sharing the phearnik!® Idea

Initially, I created phearnik!® to help me with my fear of the blank canvas. Then one day my granddaughter spied the doll on my dresser. She wanted one too. (How couldn’t she? With its quirky face and wild hair, I thought!)

A picture of the cover of the original book about phearnik! titled "Adventures with phearnik!." The book has been revised and is now "Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears"
The original picture book about phearnik!. Now revised as “Phoebe and phearnik! Fight Big Fears”

While making my granddaughter a phearnik!®, I came up with the idea to tell her its story in a book. Hence, I created the picture book Adventures with phearnik!® and gave her both the book and plush as a birthday present.

A picture of a little girl holding her phearnik! The plush helps her overcome her fears so she can join in and have fun.
Guess who with her phearnik!

The phearnik!® Campaign

Since then, I wanted to share the book and the plush with others. phearnik!® definitely helped me. Every day it’s there to remind me not to be fearful of things that are new to me like a blank canvas. More importantly, it helps me with becoming an entrepreneur to promote the phearnik!® idea to others. I believe phearnik!® can help others who, like me, are held back by irrational and debilitating fears.

phearnik!® has helped me do everything I have needed to do to get to this point of launching the phearnik!® Campaign. The campaign seeks to raise funds to support mental health making the plush available to others, both kids and adults, dealing with irrational fears.

A picture of a bookmark that says "Support Mental Health, Join the phearnik! Campaign" with a QR code to sign up.

Yes, phearnik!® is no Stella Al Fresco but That’s Okay

A picture of  the doll Stella Al Fresco holding a phearnik! plush symbolizing how the plush reminds kids to keep their fears small.
Stella and phearnik! as friends

phearnik!® is not like Stella Al Fresco. But I like to think that even Stella would like to have a phearnik!® It would remind her to keep her fears small so she can live a more fearless life. Ah, yes, what a vision. Instead  of competing with each other, Stella and phearnik!® could be  friends!

Do you agree? What do you think? Have you ever had a doll like Stella? Or phearnik!®? Tell us about it in the Comments.

Find out more about phearnik!® and get a free “How to Use phearnik!®” pdf here.

Coming soon: the many faces of phearnik!®

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How to Achieve Your Resolution

A New Way to Achieve Your Resolution

It’s resolution time once again. This year, I was intrigued by the NY Times article, “For a Happier New Year, Focus on Your Loved Ones.” In it, writer Holly Burns, posits a new way to make and  achieve resolutions.   Instead of self-focused goals, Burns suggests making other-serving resolutions – goals with or about others. She then supports this idea with research. The study shows that when we take the focus off the “self,” we can positively impact both ourselves and others.

Struggling with Next Steps

If you’re anything like me, you struggle with achieving your goals. Also like me, with many steps and so much to do,  it feels overwhelming.

I have been struggling with my next steps with my aws Studios. My plan is to put most of my efforts into launching my therapy doll into the toy and novelty market. My deadline is this year. It’s a lot to do in a short amount of time. My goal objectives include:

  • Setting up a crowdfunding campaign
  • Getting quotes and samples of the toy and its companion book
  • Creating an eBook
  • Getting a doll and book package designed and
  • Promoting my “product” with this blog and social media posts.

From Self-Focused to Other-Serving

I’m guessing that, like me, you make self-focused resolutions. These goals center on becoming a better person, have a better body, etc. Often, we don’t get too far with these promises. But I am digging this idea. I like the idea of taking the focus off us. And, making resolutions that impact both ourselves and others.

 Perfect Timing

Because of my feelings of overwhelm, I have been looking for a “sign” to keep me going. The idea of making resolutions for others comes at a perfect time for me. we are more apt to keep working on our goals knowing it will affect others. It is the sign I have been looking for.

What Is Your Other-Serving Resolution?

To help you think of a resolution that benefits someone else, here is mine as an example:

In 2025, I resolve to launch my phearnik!® crowdfunding campaign. phearnik!®, or “little fear,” is a small rag doll. It helps fearful kids and adults manage their fears. Once, managed, they can  join in and have fun (more about this here and here).

My Other-Serving Resolution Can Help You Make Yours

If you are looking to resolve feelings of fear and anxiety or help others with theirs, phearnik!® can help. The quirky plush teaches fearful kids and adults to be more mindful of their reactions to fear. It prompts its user to make the important brain switch from primitive reaction to a contemporary, non-life-threatening response.

Let’s Achieve our Resolutions Together

Fear of the blank canvas!

In the Comments below, share  your resolution (self-focused or other-serving, it doesn’t matter). I’ll support you in your quest to achieve your resolution.

And if you sign up to this blog, you’ll be supporting me. I’ll be updating my resolution – all about helping fearful kids and adults learn an important mental health skill.

Happy New Year!

Perfect Art for Empty Walls

Filling Space on a Large White Wall

Finding large original art to fill a wall frustrates even the savviest of interior decorators and designers. And, often, large art is too abstract for more relatable needs.  As well as obtaining a perfect fit can take a while. With the holidays coming, many experience anxiety that their home or office won’t be ready. Time is running out.

A picture showing a dining room with table and chairs and a big empty wall needing large original art

Finding That Illusive Treasure

A picture of a treasure chest filled with framed paintings. With the aws Studios.art large original art you will feel like you've found a treasure chest of art

If this sounds like you, you don’t want to shop any longer.  Furthermore, you want large original art and different from what other people have in their home or office. You’d like the art to go with your contemporary style and furnishings and for it to fill you with joy. You’d like guests and clients to notice the work and make positive comments. Additionally, you prefer art with mountains, especially the Adirondacks, a family favorite.

New Large Original Wall Art

A picture of the aws Studios.art large original art titled Blue Mountain Lake: A view from Castle Rock

“Blue Mountain Lake: A View from Castle Rock” is a new large original art collage from aws Studios. The large mountain art pleases the buyer who needs to fill a large wall in a home or office. An Adirondack landscape, the three 20”x 34” panels, or “triptych,” satisfies an art enthusiast’s love of the mountains. “Blue Mountain Lake:  A View from Castle Rock” checks all the boxes:

  • Art to fill a large wall
  • Perfect for the contemporary home or office
  • A good fit with modern furniture
  • A representational abstract
  • Unique collage art made with recycled fabrics
  • Depicts the pastel colors of the distant mountains, the sparkling water of the lake, and the warm white viewing platform of Castle Rock
  • Ships unframed. All panels together weigh less than 1 lb.

A Pleasing Conversation Piece

Another picture of the aws Studios.art  large original art  of Blue Mountain Lake fabric collage shown hanging in a living room

If you need art that will fill a large space in your home or office, “Blue Mountain Lake: A View from Castle Rock” fits the bill. The collage is a different mountain and lake landscape seen in most galleries.  You will be proud and pleased and the envy of friends and family of this large stunning “conversation piece.”

The art is sold unframed. It is shown here in frames to give buyers an idea of how the art be placed in a home or office. If you have questions about this artwork or the shipping window, email me at: alis@awsstudios.art

A Picture Book with Help for the Fearful and Anxious!

My picture book “Adventures with phearnik!™” helps people with their fear and anxiety and thanks to Anna David at Legacy Launch Pad, I am using her Elevator Pitch Template for a pitch of the book. So, here it goes. See what you think!

PITCH:

My picture book, “Adventures with phearnik!,” is for fearful and anxious children and adults who yearn to be free of their fear so they can join in, have fun, and get things done that they want or need to do!

So, what do you think? Would you be interested in this book? Let me know in Comments! Or you can contact me here or pre-order the book here!

A Mental Health Toolbox for Social and Emotional Health and Well-being

Even if you are at risk for mental illness, you can maintain your social and emotional well-being by learning and practicing mental health skills.

At the 2022 Mental Health America conference last week, “Forward Together – Recovery, Healing, Hope,” Kristen Harootunian, a young adult from Minding Your Mind, told a powerful and hopeful “story” titled, “Changing Minds: Stories Over Stigma.” Kristen related her experience with health, mental illness, substance abuse, and her subsequent recovery.

Mental Health Toolbox

  • First, young people should connect with 1-3 trusted adults. They could be parents, teachers, counselors, clergy, family members, or friends.
  • “Letting people in and meeting help halfway”:  Kristen talked about how she thought she had to do things on her own and was alone in her struggles. When she opened up to her friends, she wasn’t expecting their support. Instead, they listened and gave her love and compassion. In therapy, Kristen found she wasn’t alone – that many young people deal with struggles similar to hers. Getting help with her emotional health or “letting people in” was what she needed to survive.

Five positive coping skills

  • Kristen’s five positive coping skills:
    • Exercise,
    • Walking,
    • Reading,
    • Connecting with family and friends
    • Journaling: When asked how she was doing, Kristen usually responded with, “I’m fine.” But actually, she was hiding or masking her true feelings. Writing or journaling helped her express her feelings, including guilt (of her mother’s death), shame, substance abuse, pressure, isolation, emptiness, trauma, anxiety, sadness, guardedness, grief, and tiredness. Getting these feelings down on paper helped her work through them and, for the most part, out of them.
Looks like a trusted bunch of celery?

How about you?

Creating a toolbox of mental health skills isn’t difficult. It’s easy and can be a fun use of time. How about you? Do you have a toolbox of skills to help you maintain your mental health? Are they like the tools in Kristen’s box, or are they different? I would love to hear about what’s in your toolbox in the Comments section below!

Thanks for tuning in, and feel free to share this post to help boost mental health skill-building everywhere!

Square breathing or box breathing,” a technique to help calm our bodies and brains down when starting to feel anxious:  4 beats inhale, 4 beats hold, 4 beats exhale, 4 beats hold, and repeat.

Kristen says these tools help her maintain her recovery, but, as she alludes in her presentation, they would have been helpful to know at an early age to provide strategies to protect against mental illness. 

Another Why “There’s a Mental Health Crisis Among American Children”

Something’s Missing

In the NY Times article, “There’s a Mental Health Crisis Among American Children.  Why?: And the pandemic is not the only reason,” I noticed a missing “why”, a big one.

Tingley lists many reasons why we have a mental health crisis in this country. These include issues with data collection, the ability for more children to receive adequate and early mental health care. She also points out how the pandemic has added to  the crisis. But, she adds “rising numbers” of children and youth with mental illness was happening before Covid19. Less than 15% of these youth received treatment. 

A Lack of Mental Health Education

A picture showing to little girls hugging to emphasize the need for more mental health education.

As a mental health educator, the “why” there’s a mental health crisis in the US that I see missing is the lack of mental health education.  The NYT article and others about the state of mental health in the US usually  emphasize the issue of accessing treatment as the number one reason.  But treatment for mental illnesses is a “downstream” strategy, a way to administer to those who are ill.  They are often emergency life-saving measures.  On the other hand, mental health education is an “upstream” strategy.  Its purpose to arm individuals with the things they need to know and do to maintain mental health and prevent mental illnesses and the need for treatment as much as possible. 

Making Mental Health Skill Building Fun and Easy

Because of the lack of mental health education, states like New York and California have made or are making it a law. These laws work to ensure mental health education happens in schools.  It’s too bad we need laws to make mental health education take place.  Teaching and learning the skills of mental health isn’t hard.  And it can be fun!  In my last post, I talked about learning the social and emotional skill of acknowledging fear. Embracing a “little fear” helps us move beyond anxiety to a place of thriving.  For all healthy skills, it helps to understand why we need the skill and why it works.  To learn the skill of acknowledging fear, it helps to understand how our brains work when we’re experiencing it. 

Fear is a powerful emotion.  In its basic form, it keeps us safe.  And in our early human development, tuning into fear was essential for survival.  The thing is, even now hundreds of thousands of years later, fear still wants to react in its primal way.  A lot of fear we experience isn’t a life-or-death. Because of this,  we need to embody the skill of calming our primal brain areas down and tune into the areas that provide a more modern, logical and practical  approach.

I like how Dr. Steve Peters explains this in a simplified and fun way. Helping to clarify the complexity of brain science, Peters breaks it down. He conveys how our “emotional thinking machine” “The Chimp” needs to placate “The Human,” the area of thinking and planning. Says Peters, “You are not responsible for the nature of the dog but you are responsible for managing it, keeping it well behaved.”  Just as “you are not responsible for the nature of your Chimp but you are responsible for managing it.” And that’s a mental health skill! 

So, yes, we may be in a mental health crisis. But we don’t need to wait for laws and our schools to put a dent in that crisis. Mental health education can be provided now.  As parents and adults, we can help build the skills of mental health in our children. And, more importantly, for ourselves – in fun and engaging ways.  That’s what my picture book, “Adventures with phearnik!™”  is all about.  It’s a fun way to learn how to keep your social relationships and emotions healthy! 

What about you?  Could you use a fun way to help your child not be so fearful or anxious?  Could you yourself use the same!?  “Adventures with phearnik!™” can help! 

Art, Artists, Anxiety and Overcoming Fear of the Blank Canvas

New Way to Handle Fear

Image shows a collage illustration of a man sitting in front of his easel looking unsure of what to paint like he can't start his painting.

My picture book, “Phobe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears,” is a story about a way for children (and adults!) to deal with fear and anxiety.  Compared to how fear presents in other children’s books, my book introduces a new and, may I be so bold to say – revolutionary – way to handle fear.

As an artist, I suffer from what’s called “blank canvas syndrome.”  It’s like “fear of the blank page” that some writers experience or stage fright that actors might encounter. 

Artists + Fear

We fearful artists have the expertise to do our jobs. At least we have enough to produce a piece of (art) work. But fear holds us back from tackling  the canvas, page or stage.  While experiencing this, I feared the outcome.  Would my picture come out as I envisioned it?  I feared my work would be judged by others negatively. When the artist accepts the outcome of their work, they more readily dismiss negative judgements. They then see it as a mismatch between the art and viewer.

Building Confidence

Having these fears mainly shows a lack of confidence. Confidence comes from artists doing a large amount  of work. With this comes the faith that the outcome won’t be so bad. Granted, not all art outcomes are accepted, even by the confident artist.  Doing scores of work – making lots of paintings – might become garbage. I wonder how many artists out there have a fear of wasting materials like me?!  I am a child of parents who grew up during the depression.  People like us don’t waste things!  We eat everything on our plates!  We use and reuse things repeatedly and rarely buy new!  Cheap artists like me want the work to come out the way we wanted it to the first time. Or else we’re wasting materials!  Yes, sad but true.

Studying Fear

For years, I “studied” what I could do about my fear of the blank canvas.  I read books like “Art and Fear”, “Affirmations for Artists” and “The Artist’s Way” and kept them for reference.  But none of these helped me break through my fears until I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear.” 

Take Fear with You

In the book, Gilbert offers a new way for artists to deal with/confront their fears in a now, well-known vignette titled, “The Road Trip.”  In it, Gilbert suggests artists accept and acknowledge their fears instead of trying to ignore it or get over it or, somehow, get rid of it.  She uses the metaphor of taking a road trip as a lesson in acknowledging fear.  On the trip, you bring your fear with you but it must sit in the backseat and it doesn’t get to control anything.  It doesn’t get to drive and it definitely doesn’t get to control the radio!

An illustration of a seated woman with a very frightened look on her face but you don't see what is frightening her.

Revolutionary Strategy

This idea of acknowledging fear but not letting it take control was, for me, revolutionary.  It makes so much sense.  Fear is one of our most powerful emotions.  It’s part of us.  It cannot be willed away.  It’s always there but we can learn to control it.  And, as a mental/social and emotional health educator, I know that’s a skill.  Having an understanding about a health topic and learning the skills is how we are healthy.

A picture of the "Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears" a picture book that helps kids reduce their fear and anxiety.
Book cover

Picture Book Explains Strategy

In “Phobe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears,” I’ve created a picture book using Gilbert’s idea. I take it one step further. I help kids and adults learn the skill of acknowledging fear. In addition, I want them to not let it take control of the things they want to try or need to do.  It’s worked for me and I bet it can work for you too!

How about you?  Are you an artist that has experienced fear of the blank canvas or page?  Or maybe even fear of wasting material!?  Or maybe you are someone who would like to of make art but is afraid of what people would say about it ?  I would love to hear about it in the “Leave a Reply/Comment”.   

And, if you’d like to  be one of the first to get a copy of the “Phobe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears,” picture book, click on the picture to place your pre-order! After your info, type “Pre-order” in the box!

A picture of the "Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears" a picture book that helps kids reduce their fear and anxiety.