Children’s Emotional Wellbeing Through Storytelling – Exclusive Interview with Mona Liza Santos

Mona Liza Santos is a children’s author, publisher, and emotional literacy advocate whose work centers on helping children feel seen, safe, and understood through storytelling. Inspired by motherhood, cultural identity, and the emotional uncertainty many families experienced during the pandemic, she has written more than 40 children’s books focused on kindness, confidence, belonging, and emotional wellbeing through World Love Press.

In this interview, Mona reflects on how storytelling became a source of comfort during difficult seasons, what she believes many adults quietly misunderstand about children emotionally, and why kindness, emotional safety, and belonging matter more now than ever before.

Mona Liza Santos, Award-Winning Children’s Author

When did you first realize that storytelling could become a form of emotional comfort and healing for children?

I think I realized it during the pandemic, when everything suddenly started to feel uncertain and emotionally heavy for so many families. Like a lot of parents, I was trying my best to keep my son calm while quietly struggling with my own fears, too. There were days when the world outside felt overwhelming, and I did not always know how to explain any of it, even to myself.

So I started writing little stories for him at home.

Not because I had dreams of becoming an author, but because I wanted to give him something comforting to hold onto during a time that felt unfamiliar to all of us. I wanted him to feel safe. I wanted him to feel less alone.

What surprised me most was realizing those stories were helping me, too.

Somehow, through simple characters and gentle conversations, emotions that felt difficult to say out loud suddenly became easier to hold. I started noticing how children often understand feelings through stories long before they know how to explain those feelings themselves.

That experience changed the way I saw children’s books forever. “Sometimes a story becomes the place where a child finally feels understood.”

How do you turn complex emotions like anxiety, self-doubt, or loneliness into stories children can actually understand?

I try to approach emotions the way children naturally experience them, through small everyday moments, relationships, imagination, and feelings they may not fully know how to explain yet. I do not think children always connect to complicated explanations. Most of the time, they connect to emotions that feel familiar to their own experiences.

Anxiety might look like a child worrying they are not enough or feeling afraid to speak up. Loneliness might feel like being surrounded by people but still feeling different or left out. I try to write those emotions gently, in ways that help children recognize what they are feeling without making those feelings seem frightening or too heavy.

I think children feel things very deeply, sometimes more deeply than adults realize. Even when they cannot fully explain their emotions yet, they still carry them.

Even when I write about difficult feelings, I always want there to be comfort somewhere in the story, too.

More than anything, I hope a child reads one of my books and feels, “Maybe I’m not the only one who feels this way.”

“Sometimes feeling understood is the beginning of healing.”

What emotional struggles are you seeing most often in children today?

A lot of children today are carrying emotions much heavier than people realize. There is so much noise around them now, social media, pressure, comparison, overstimulation, anxiety, and the constant feeling that they always have to keep up or be enough. Even children who seem happy on the outside are sometimes struggling with emotions they do not fully know how to talk about yet.

What honestly breaks my heart the most is how early some children begin questioning their worth.

Children notice far more than adults sometimes realize. They feel tension in a room. They notice emotional distance. They absorb stress, even when nobody says anything out loud. Many children are learning at a very young age how to hide their feelings because they do not want to disappoint others, create problems, or feel like a burden.

Sometimes, the children praised most for being “easy” are the ones carrying the heaviest emotions silently.

Children do not need perfect adults around them. They need adults who make them feel safe, loved, heard, and emotionally supported.

Why do you think emotional wellbeing is still often treated as less important than academic achievement?

For a long time, success has been measured through things people can easily see, such as grades, awards, accomplishments, and achievements. Emotional wellbeing is different. It is not always obvious on the outside, even though it affects almost every part of a child’s life, including confidence, relationships, self-worth, and how they eventually see themselves.

A child can do well in school and still be struggling deeply inside. Some children carry anxiety, loneliness, pressure, or fear of failing while still smiling and showing up every day. That is why emotional wellbeing matters so much.

Children learn better when they feel safe, supported, loved, and understood. When emotional needs are ignored for too long, children often learn to hide what they are feeling instead of asking for help.

Sometimes adults become so focused on raising successful children that they forget children are human beings before they are achievements.

“Children should not have to struggle silently just to be seen as successful.” 

How has your Filipino-American background shaped the way you approach belonging, identity, and representation in your books?

Growing up Filipino-American shaped the way I see family, identity, and belonging in a very personal way. Living between two cultures taught me what it feels like to sometimes wonder where you fully fit in while still carrying love for every part of who you are.

That naturally became part of the stories I wanted to write.

Representation matters because children deserve to see themselves in the books they grow up reading. There is something powerful about a child seeing their culture, family, traditions, or experiences in a story and realizing, “People like me matter too.”

That was especially important to me when writing The Filipino in Me. I wanted Filipino children and multicultural families to feel proud of who they are and where they come from. At the same time, I wanted any child reading the story to connect with the feelings of family, love, identity, and belonging.

Stories can remind children that they never have to hide who they are to feel accepted.

What are some small, everyday ways parents can help children feel emotionally safe at home?

Children usually feel emotionally safe through the little everyday moments that make them feel loved, heard, and accepted. Sometimes it looks as simple as putting your phone down when they are talking, sitting beside them after a hard day at school, or asking, “Do you want advice, or do you just want me to listen?”

Many children remember how adults responded to them during emotional moments more than the actual words themselves. A child who spills something, cries, makes a mistake, or has a difficult day is often watching to see if they will still be treated with patience and love afterward.

Children notice tone, tension, and the way adults handle stress more than people realize. Over time, the way adults speak to children often becomes the voice children carry inside themselves later in life.

Most children are not asking for perfect parents. They are simply hoping for someone who feels safe to come to when life feels overwhelming. “Sometimes the greatest comfort a child can feel is knowing they are still loved on their hardest days.”

What inspired you to create National Intentional Kindness Day and Heritage and Heart Day?

Both initiatives came from seeing how emotionally disconnected the world has started to feel in many ways. I wanted to create something that reminded people to slow down, care for one another more intentionally, and remember that kindness, empathy, and human connection still matter deeply.

National Intentional Kindness Day was inspired by the idea that kindness becomes even more meaningful when it is done with purpose. Not just random acts once in a while, but everyday moments where people choose to be more patient, more understanding, and more aware of what others may be carrying silently.

Heritage and Heart Day was inspired by identity, culture, family, and belonging. I wanted children and families from all backgrounds to feel proud of who they are while also learning to appreciate and respect the stories and cultures of others, too.

A lot of the books I have written center around kindness, self-acceptance, empathy, confidence, and helping children feel comfortable being themselves. Creating these initiatives felt like an extension of that same message.

I wanted people to see that kindness is not weakness, and that making people feel valued, included, and accepted can truly change lives.

What do you think many adults misunderstand about children emotionally?

A lot of adults do not realize how much children pick up on emotionally. Children notice when something feels different at home. They notice stress, tension, sadness, distance, and even the emotions adults try their hardest to hide. They may not fully understand what is happening, but they still feel it. I also feel like many people mistake a quiet child for a child who is doing okay.

Some children learn very young to keep their feelings inside because they do not want to upset anyone, disappoint people, or feel like a problem. So they stay quiet. They smile. They say they are “fine” even when they are hurting.

Children do not always need adults to fix everything perfectly. Sometimes they just need someone who makes them feel safe enough to be honest about what they are feeling without being judged, ignored, or told they are “too emotional.”

Children remember how people made them feel for a very long time. “Sometimes the children who say the least are carrying the most inside.”

If every child could carry one message from your work into adulthood, what would you hope it would be?

More than anything, I hope children grow up knowing they were always enough exactly as they are. The world can be very loud about telling people who they should be, how they should look, how they should act, or what they need to become in order to feel accepted. I never want children to grow up believing they have to hide parts of themselves just to feel loved or valued.

I also hope children learn that kindness, empathy, sensitivity, and compassion are not weaknesses. Some of the gentlest hearts spend years feeling like they are “too much” or “too emotional,” when really they just care deeply.

A lot of my books were written for the child who feels different, overlooked, sensitive, or alone in what they are feeling.

If one child finishes one of my stories feeling a little more understood, a little less alone, or a little more comfortable being themselves, then that means everything to me. “I hope children never lose the soft parts of themselves the world sometimes tries to harden.”

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