A little behind the scenes info on Amanda Perna's first illustrated book, F is For Fashion. — Amanda Perna | Designer | Author

As Stella was growing, I wanted to fill shelves with books for her to grow a love for reading. At her shower, I even had people give books in lieu of cards! I got a lot of the typical kids books for her. I was looking for an ABC book for her and I just couldn’t find the right one. There were books with animals and colors and food, but none of them were just right for my little fashionista. Since I was taking her to my studio with me all the time, she was in love with the bright colors and shiny fabrics. She needed to learn her ABC’s by looking at something she loved. Fashion! I knew that other kids love fashion and bright colors, too. Who wouldn’t love their little one to learn the alphabet that way?!

So, I sat down and started writing F is for Fashion. My amazing husband, Solomon, helped fill in some blanks and I got to drawing. This was a true passion project for me. It was something I wanted to create for my beautiful daughter. I identified something that was lacking and made it myself. If you’re looking for something and can’t find it, make it yourself. If you’re listening for a voice that sounds like yours and can’t hear it, start speaking up louder. Put your creations out into the world and the world will open its arms!

I never could have imagine where this book would have taken me. I printed a copy of the book for Stella, and people saw it at me house and went crazy, everyone kept asking to buy it and insisted I showed it to stores.

I knew the store manager at Neiman Marcus and showed it to her. She LOVED it and said she would send it to the buyers. She said she couldn’t make any promises, but I felt in my heart that it would all work out! A week went by and we got an email! They wanted to order hundreds of copies of an exclusive edition!!

Now the real work started, we had NO IDEA how to get that many made. We literally used Google to figure it out and filed all the appropriate trademarks, documents and everything. Then we did a ton of research and found a printer who could make all the books at a price we could afford to sell them at. It took a lot of time, work and effort but WE DID IT!