EMMA SIMON

When I was four years old, I told my ma I wanted to be a babysitter when I grew up. She videoed it—I’m sitting on the front porch swing, legs too short to touch the ground and hair down to my butt.

She and my dad put me in kindergarten early and instantly regretted it. I was small for my age. So small, in fact, that they asked my teacher if I should repeat the grade. Mrs. Kickbush was tall and blonde and beautiful and responded, “Absolutely not.”

In sixth grade, I spent every recess in the library reading. My parents—concerned, again—asked my teacher if I was normal. She also responded, “Absolutely not.”

I had to go to recess after that.

In high school and college, I took some personality tests that really cleared things up for me (INTP and enneagram 5). I also learned I could get paid to write something other than women’s fiction. I graduated college with a degree in writing and worked my way into an actual full-time writing job.

Currently, I’m a freelance writer and editor.

But I still babysit every now and then.

Get in touch with me by emailing emgiddy97@gmail.com.