Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.

Hello, Mom’s Choice readers! Thank you for joining us for another installment of our interview series. We were so happy to get a chance to speak with the Mom’s Choice Award-winning author of My Sister’s Super Skills, Lauren Mosback! My Sister’s Super Skills is interactive and entertaining book that is told from the viewpoint of a child who learns about a few important life skills through his older sister. Keep reading to learn about everything that went into the making of My Sister’s Super Skills and the person behind the story!

MCA: Hello, Lauren! Congratulations on winning your Mom’s Choice Award for My Sister’s Super Skills! My Sister’s Super Skills is such a strong book in how it teaches children important skill sets that they can use to navigate through some of the tough and challenging emotions that come with childhood and early adolescence. It is clear by reading this book that the writer has a lot of experience with teaching these essential life skills. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience, and just about your background in general?

Lauren Mosback and her three children

Lauren: I’m a mother of 3 little ones, a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Licensed Behavior Specialist living in the Philadelphia suburbs. I have provided counseling services for children, adolescents and their families throughout the last 10 years of my career and opened a private practice a few years ago.

I specialize in helping children, teens, and their families navigate issues related to anxiety, depression, ADHD, grief/loss, trauma, social skill difficulties, and low self-esteem. In therapy, I help cultivate a strong sense of self-worth in my clients and I stress the values of kindness toward self and others. I love helping clients identify and build on their unique strengths, while also encouraging them to learn useful tools to help address their areas of need.

To me, it’s very important to balance family, work, and play. I love exploring and experiencing new adventures and places with my family and I also enjoy doing things that foster my own growth like reading, writing, and continually learning!

MCA: Balancing family, work, and play is very important, and in no doubt challenging at that! Was it your work through counseling that inspired you to become a writer? What was that path like for you?

Lauren: I have always loved writing poetry and expressing myself creatively through writing. This, coupled with many years of counseling and helping children and families work through many life challenges, inspired me to write and share the knowledge I had acquired about the tools I found helped develop resiliency.

MCA: Well, I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say we are very grateful you have shared that knowledge and experience with your readers! All that knowledge is certainly prevalent throughout My Sister’s Super Skills. What was the inspiration behind writing it?

Lauren: My clients and my own children inspired me! Through my years of working with children, and now with my own kids, I have found that kids learn best when they are having fun, are engaged in their learning, and have time with parents or other adults to discuss what they are learning. Mental health and wellness are so important for us all but can be a heavy topic – so, what better way to spread important lessons about wellness than through a fun, interactive book! Also, describing the coping skills as “Super Skills” in a positive light allows these to be introduced engagingly and comfortably.

MCA: Mental health and wellness are so important and it’s great you were able to shine a light on this heavy topic in such a fun and easily comprehendible way. What are some of the key lessons found in My Sister’s Super Skills?

Lauren: My Sister’s Super Skills introduces children to healthy social and emotional skills in an entertaining way as the sister/brother duo encourages readers to follow along with them in the story. This book presents wellness tips, such as mindfulness, gratitude, and deep breathing, by linking each skill with animal behavior. I believe this makes learning the skills more fun, but also allows children to more easily remember and act them out.

My book also highlights the importance of having a healthy sibling relationship and developing a growth-oriented mindset, with a positive outlook on life.

As a counselor for children, I know the importance of learning these invaluable tools at an early age to manage stress, grow self-esteem, and assist in navigating today’s world!

MCA: Those tools are so essential for children to learn, especially in this day and age. What has the response been like from your readers?

Lauren: Since My Sister’s Super Skills book release in January, I have received such positive responses from children, teachers, psychologists, and parents. This has been so encouraging. Parents will often tell me how much their child has been using a particular skill by remembering the animal that is connected with it, such as: “We love taking breaths like a horse,” “going slow like a sloth,” etc. I love hearing feedback, such as: “Thank you for helping my child learn these wellness tips in a fun way!” and “These tips help me and my older kids too!”

I’ve also received feedback from many adults that they are using the strategies in their own lives!

And especially now, with all that’s going on in the world, I’m hearing how this book is helping families at home and how therapists are using this story as a tool to help children adjust to their new schedules and manage the various emotions they are experiencing.

MCA: It sounds like your story has certainly made an impact! Your experience as a therapist has taught you how important “Super Skills” can be for children for several reasons. Can you please elaborate on this?

“My Sister’s Super Skills” Book Cover

Lauren: We all encounter stress. It’s a part of life! By incorporating “Super Skills” into our lives on a daily basis, we can reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, and learn we have the ability, within ourselves, to be happy and bounce back from difficulties in life. This is why it’s so important to introduce children to these skills when they are young – so children learn these great tools that they will carry along with them throughout the teen years and into adulthood.

A growing body of research suggests that when we practice the skills I highlight in my book, such as deep breathing, mindfulness, and gratitude, our bodies respond amazingly by 1). Releasing endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. This makes us feel happy! My clients and I refer to this as a having “feel-good party in our brains.” 2). When we practice these healthy strategies on a daily basis, our brains do this incredible thing of creating new neural pathways from these new positive experiences. We actually rewire our brains to respond more positively the next time we’re stressed. And, 3). By practicing these skills, we reduce stress and this reduces cortisol and inflammation, which results in many health benefits, such as an improved mood, a boost in immunity, better sleep, lower blood pressure, and more energy!

In my field of work, I understand the value of looking at the whole person. Emotional health and physical health are interconnected and affect one another immensely. When the Super Skills are utilized and incorporated into our lifestyle, our physical, emotional, and mental health becomes more balanced. With children, I’ve found this can lead to a happier and healthier child who grows into a confidant, kind, and self-actualized adult.

MCA: In your experience, have you found it to be difficult for some children to develop the coping skills taught in My Sister’s Super Skills?

Lauren: Learning and implementing the Super Skills, like many beneficial and health-focused habits, takes practice! I wanted My Sister’s Super Skills to be fun and interactive as well as educational so that kids would enjoy re-reading the book or enjoy having a parent re-read it with them when they need a refresher. The nature of My Sister’s Super Skills has helped children learn these skills across various developmental and age ranges, which is so exciting to see.

MCA: That is very exciting to see! If you could ensure readers of your book walk away with one main lesson, what would it be?

Lauren: It would be for children to know that they have the ability within themselves to overcome any obstacle they encounter. I hope that children will feel empowered and confident as they learn the “Super Skills” introduced in this book and find the strength, happiness, and peace that comes from learning these healthy skills!

MCA: That is a very powerful message to end this interview with indeed! Please keep posted on what’s next for you!

You can learn more about Lauren, her therapy tips, and her award-winning book, My Sister’s Super Skills, by visiting her MCA Shop page, as well as her Instagram and Facebook pages!