Local StoriesMay 22, 2023

Meet Abena Bosia

Local Stories

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Abena Bosia. Abena was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Zollyann Howell.

Abena, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
Growing up, I always knew I wanted some type of role/job that involved working with younger children. In high school, I was in this teaching program and when we started visiting elementary schools, I knew exactly what I wanted to for my career as an adult. I went to college on a basketball scholarship and got my Bachelor degree in Elementary Education. A got a teaching position right out of college and that’s where my journey began. I also went back to school 5 years later to get my Masters Degree in Developmental Disabilities with a concentration in Applied Behavior Analysis so that I could work with children with Developmental Disabilities. I have been teacher for over 13 years and my last 3 years, I was teaching in China. I returned to the U.S June 2022 and decided I would take a year sabbatical to travel and find out what else I’m capable of. I started jotting down notes and self-reflecting and realized that throughout my teaching and traveling journey I’ve had so many experiences. I decided to share one of my experiences by writing a children’s book that was inspired by one of my students in China.

Please tell us more about your brand, Bee Books
I am a newly published children’s book author. I have published a children’s book called Yana, Not Today and Coloring and Activity book. What sets me apart from others is my purpose for my book and future books. I’m big on Social Emotional Learning and I want to make sure we are raising up children that know how to be self aware, can manage their emotions, make good decisions, have great social skills and are able to show empathy. I’m most proud of the support I have received thus far. I know my book has a great message, but just hearing parents break my book down and telling me that they, as adults really enjoyed the book too makes me so happy.

Books by Zee has been a great friend to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Books by Zee and your experience with them.

Another author friend of mine, Tymell put me in contact with Zollyann. He said she is full of resources and could possibly assist me with answers to any question I had since she had already been through the same process as me. I reached out to Zollyann and she responded immediately and we were able to set up a Zoom call for us to talk. I asked her a lot of questions and she was able to answer every one of them. She walked me through every thing that I needed to do, such as how to make a book cover page, the process of formatting my book, different ways I could publish my book, advertising my book, etc. She also emailed me a checklist that was extremely helpful because I was able to use it throughout the process of getting my book completed. She was very encouraging throughout our zoom call which made me feel more at ease. The best thing about Zollyann that will always stick with me were her words right before we got off the call. I said, “You gave me so much information and resources, that this may be our only call because I feel good about this. She responded, “That’s good, but if you need to call me again then I’ll be right here to help”. It felt great knowing I had someone that I could reach out to if needed without feeling like I was a burden or aggravating. With all the help and answers Zollyann gave me, I was able to publish my first book without any issues.

Zollyann is such a sweetheart and very motivational. I’ll forever be grateful for her service.