Justina Chen always knew she would be a writer, even at the tender age of 8, when she wrote her first 50-page Novella. Yet her dream was nearly destroyed during her first year at Stanford University, when a professor dismissed her writing in front of the entire class and announced she would never be a published writer. Justina was crushed, switching her major to economics and, after graduating, going to work for Microsoft in Redmond. “I don’t regret that experience, as Microsoft sent me to work in their Sydney, Australia office for a year, which was amazing as a woman in my twenties. It gave me a great global perspective and truly made me appreciate America,” she says. “But that negative voice in my head persisted.”

     

After moving to Bellevue in 1993, she and her first husband started a family and Justina put her career on hold to focus on her kids, as well as the philanthropic work she had set aside. Determined to squelch that negative voice in her head, she also started writing…and writing, and writing. She joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and took a writing course at the University of Washington, but still felt like she was just scribbling for herself.

     

Then, on a trip to Seattle Children’s Museum, some teenagers started mocking Justina and her kids in pseudo-Chinese. That experience was so upsetting that about three miles into her run the next day, Justina heard a young girl’s voice speaking in her head. “Suddenly I had the first full chapter of a novel, transcribed it when I got home, wrote a second chapter, and got an agent, who sold the book at auction with five publishers vying for it,” she says incredulously. She landed a two-book deal and her first published novel, Nothing but The Truth (And a Few White Lies), was born. “That novel was about a mixed-race girl who felt she didn’t fit into either the Asian community or the White community and was a love letter to my children,” Justina explains.

     

Since then, everything Justina writes is about belonging, because belonging is such a primal need of all humans. Yet in today’s world, she sees this heightened ‘othering’ of people that is dehumanizing and hateful. “It’s no wonder so many people are feeling depressed, anxious, and alone,” says Justina. For this reason, she makes a point of going to elementary, middle, and high schools to tell kids her story because as she says, “In life, we are always going to hear the naysayers who tell us we aren’t good enough in some way. My message to all young people is that you are good enough and you need to box up those negative voices, put them on a shelf, and move on.”

     

Today her novels include North of Beautiful (a finalist for 9 state book awards); Nothing but the Truth (And a Few White Lies), winner of the Asian Pacific American Literature Award; and Lovely, Dark, and Deep. She has also written a picture book, The Patch, and several other young adult novels. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. After an unexpected divorce, Justina’s mentor at Microsoft met with her and said, “Justina, you cannot stay home in your pajamas writing your sad novels. You need to go back to work for one year, be back out in the world, meet new people, and reclaim yourself.” It was the wisest advice she had ever received.

     

She got a job as a speechwriter in executive communications for Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “It was so fun because speechwriting is more like songwriting. You are writing for the ear so there is a lyricism to it,” Justina explains. “And I could not have found a better storyteller in Robbie.” Yet about a year into it, her son said, “Mom, we never see you anymore.” Justina told Robbie, who said, “It is rare for a 14-year-old boy to ask to spend more time with his mom. You need to go freelance.”  So she put her creative writing on hold for another five years to focus on speechwriting and thought leadership with leaders who had great platforms from which to deliver powerful, meaningful messages to the world.

     

Today, she is back to writing for children, and is excited to announce the upcoming release of her first middle grade novel, With Twice the Love, Dessie Mei. She has also found love again after having been told it would be impossible as a divorced 40-year-old woman. She and her husband, Dan Johnson, have been happily married for six years now and his two daughters, both adopted from China, were the inspiration for this latest book. The mutual friend who set them up was adopted from Korea and told Justina, “I never felt I belonged in the Asian American community. You need to write a book about that for these girls. It will be the greatest gift.”

     

Justina recently received the cover for the book and was waiting for the book’s release before sharing it with her mom, but sadly, her mother unexpectedly passed three months ago followed by her mother-in-law just three weeks after that. Justina was devastated and kept looking for a sign her mom was still with her and okay. Then she got the call from the publisher announcing her book’s release date, May 7th, her mother’s birthday. Soon after, the box of her advanced copies arrived with her mother-in-law’s name on it, Nancy Johnson, which just happens to be the name of the publisher’s warehouse manager. If that isn’t reason enough to believe our loved ones remain with us, I don’t know what is.