Rock Your Kindness highlights extraordinary stories of everyday people experiencing life-changing kindness. Whether it's a random act, saves a life, or helps you be kinder to yourself, these stories will increase empathy, compassion, and hope. You never know how your kindness can change the trajectory of your life or the life of another. Rock Your Kindness is hosted by Tracey Ferrin. Tracey is a mother, wife, best-selling author, and TikTok superstar. She is often called a "breath of fresh air" by those who know and meet her. She is a mom of 4 and has been married to the love of her life for 18 years. Together, they call Texas home. In this episode, Tracey and Katie chat about the making of Mighty Mila. Mighty Mila is a hilarious tale of a spunky deaf girl who’s determined to prove she can be a big kid! Katie discusses with Tracey how her daughter, Mila inspired her mission to write the book, how it exceeded her expectations, how it creates awareness and normalcy for the hard-of-hearing community, and so much more! “The best thing for me is hearing from individuals that Mighty Mila made a difference to them, or saying that they wanna get it for their kids' classroom, and for the library so that they can share the message. Just hearing those things from readers just really makes my heart happy.” Show Notes:  [0:00] Introduction to the episode with guest, Katie Petruzziello who wrote the children’s book, Mighty Mila [0:49] Welcome back to Rock Your Kindness Podcast, hosted by Tracey Ferrin [6:22] Question: Did you find books with children with hearing aids?   [8:10] Question: Can you describe when Mila asked you why children didn’t look like her in the children's books she read?  [11:53] Question: How did you and your husband decide you were going to raise your daughter after finding out about the hearing loss? [16:03] Question: As a mom, why was it so important to you to create your book? [19:06] Question: Can you tell us how you started the process of self-publishing your first book?  [22:17] Question: Can you tell us what Mighty Mila is about? [24:11] Question: Has Mighty Mila exceeded your expectations?  [25:03] “The best thing for me is hearing from individuals that Mighty Mila made a difference to them, or saying that they wanna get it for their kids' classroom, and for the library so that they can share the message. Just hearing those things from readers just really makes my heart happy.” [28:47] Question: What type of hearing loss does Mila have? [28:49] Sensorineural hearing loss  [33:14] Question: What does Mila think of her implants? [36:05] Question: Has Mila thought about creating her own headbands?  [36:46] Question: Is Mila involved in the making of the rest of the series of books?  [38:39] Katie speaks on how she gives back to the hard-of-hearing community and how she participates to raise  [41:19] Question: What advice can you give parents who find themselves on this journey, but are just really struggling and having a hard time? [45:47] Question: What are three things you wish you would've known in the very beginning that you had to learn along the way? [57:34] Thanks for listening to this episode of Rock Your Kindness. If you know someone this story might resonate with, send them a link to this episode. Also, tag me Tracey Ferrin on Instagram at @Traceyferrin and let me know what part of this story resonated with you the most. The best way to help support this show is to rate, review and subscribe. :) Until next time.. Rock Your Kindness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices