Learn All About the Creator of the
Self Esteem Journals for Kids

Author Interview

Jill Schoenberg, Author and Creator of the Journal Buddies book series.

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your family.

I was born and raised in a St. Cloud, Minnesota (about 60 miles NW of Minneapolis/St. Paul) and am the youngest of three children and the only girl. Upon graduating from High School, I moved to Los Angeles and then to Minneapolis, where I lived for the next 9 years. While in Minneapolis, I attended the University of Minnesota and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Youth Studies and Sociology.

My parents are absolutely wonderful and have always lovingly supported me in the pursuit of my dreams. They have played a huge role in my work developing and publishing Journal Buddies. I have no children of my own but do have many special nieces and nephews in my life. Currently I live by a lake in north-central Minnesota.

Please briefly describe your book, Journal Buddies.

Journal Buddies is a guided journal/workbook that is unique in that it meant to be shared, and the focus of the journal is on the positive qualities, traits and talents of both the girl who the journal belongs to and her buddies. Thirty journal entries for thirty days offer a "thought of the day", spaces for the qualities, traits, and talents she and her buddy admire about each other, a focus word for the day, and lined and unlined pages to record their thoughts or to let their imaginations run wild.

Friends, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, fathers, teachers, mentors or any person who has a significant and positive influence on the girl and her life are all excellent candidates to be her journal buddies. Also, after a completing the journal, the reflection section narrows down the journal-keeper’s favorite buddy traits, and more importantly, which of her own qualities she is most proud of.

There is also a boys version of Journal Buddies, which grew out of the many requests I received from Mom’s.  I mean who can argue with Mom’s, right?

What motivated this project and how did you accomplish writing and publishing Journal Buddies?

The idea for Journal Buddies first came to be after I discovered and read through some of my childhood diaries and in doing so two things, in particular, stood out to me. One, the journal entries were mostly about the sadness, difficulties and troubles I was having in my life.  Two, after recording only a handful of entries, I simply quit writing.

From this experience grew my motivation for creating Journal Buddies and my desire to help kids form the habit of regular (maybe even daily) diary or journal writing that focuses on the positives in their lives.

Also, I believe that there are so many pressures on kids in today’s society to be perfect and that these pressures are felt at younger and younger ages.

The pressures seem more intense today than in the past AND it has now emerged that boys are feeling more pressured, too. In my quest to help girls and boys successfully navigate these challenges, I created Journal Buddies. This book is a tool intended to help strengthen the self-esteem of girls and boys and to encourage them to remember through journal writing how absolutely wonderful they truly are, despite their imperfections—which of course we all have!

I accomplished writing and publishing Journal Buddies through lots of hard work, tremendous amounts of research and by overcoming many mistakes and challenges. And, although there were book publishing companies interested in publishing this manuscript, in the end I decided to establish my own publishing house and to undertake the challenges of designing, editing, publishing, and promoting Journal Buddies.

Why is it so important that we promote self-discovery and affirmation with our adolescent daughters and sons and how can Journal Buddies help accomplish this goal?

I believe that the better one knows oneself the greater are their chances of success and, more importantly, of happiness. The process of self-discovery can be an exhilarating one once we are comfortable looking at ourselves and honestly embracing what we see. This process, however, takes practice and this is where Journal Buddies can help our daughters and our sons to accomplish their goal of self-discovery.  You see this book is a hands-on tool that helps kids to become comfortable celebrating their amazing qualities, which is a skill unto itself.

Now, as I stated earlier, I do not have children, but I believe that we are all responsible for helping the kids in our communities and nation to become the best they can be, therefore the youth of today are the sons of daughters of the entire community. That is why I use the phrase "our daughters and our sons."

Interview Continued on Next page