Woman Owned
My name is Elizabeth and I founded Hideaways Essentials to help spread emotional intelligence and growth mindset starting at an early age. Having a safe space for emotional exploration is super important to be able to identify and express emotions while developing healthy emotional habits that will last a lifetime.
My Story
I have anxiety. Growing up, I never journaled or kept a diary because of the number of shows and movies produced from 1995-2005 about girl's journals/diary being stolen and put on blast at school. So one of the best solutions to anxiety, was in fact giving me anxiety. While locking journals have always existed, free-writing is a learned skill that I personally did not get comfortable with until college, and even then I struggled. It's as if when presented with a blank page, all my thoughts fly out the window unless it's a very specific circumstance of overwhelming emotion. So I decided to produce what could have been incredibly helpful to me at a younger age, a diary that not only locks, but also has prompts to guide one through the emotions of the day. Based on the 'Name it to Tame It' philosophy coined by Dr. Seigal, the "My Feelings are Valid" diary encourages journaling about emotional triggers and turning the day around with a growth mindset. Most importantly, if the writer has been experiencing negative emotions for an entire week, the diary encourages them to reach out to a trusted adult and provides the language to do so. It breaks my heart when I see stories about kids going through a hard time and it took their parents months to figure out because the kids just weren't talking to their parents about it. By providing a template on how to frame their emotional journeys I hope the "My Feelings Are Valid" locking prompt journal can increase communication lines between parents and their children so emotional support can be provided sooner rather than later during tough situations such as bullying.