Dreams are powerful, but they take strength, perseverance, and passion to achieve, as well as the support of others. This is the inspirational message that senior Jennifer Li hopes to spread with her self-written, self-illustrated, and self-published children’s book titled “Paper Airplanes: A Girl, a Dream, and the Sky Between.”

   “You can find goals within your community, and sometimes it’s worth it to help others achieve their goals,” Li said. 

   Li said that her motivation towards writing the book came from her experiences with children. 

   “I’ve been working with kids a lot during my life,” Li said. “I wanted to use my abilities, in some way, to spread a message.”

   Li’s book follows a girl chasing after her paper airplane that has her dreams written on it. The plane begins to fly, but it gets lost in a city among hundreds of other planes with their own dreams. While she searches for her plane, she helps others find their own planes as they help find hers.   

   Overall, Li felt that the process of writing the book and publishing wasn’t overly complicated.

   “I storyboarded back in the summer of [2024], and I checked with my parents occasionally to see if they liked the direction it was going,” Li said, “But other than that, I didn’t really have too many resources.”

   After creating the illustrations, Li planned out the text for her book. She then self-published it physically and digitally on Amazon in the summer of 2025. To publicize it, she sent it to book fairs, and it has currently sold around 3000 copies.

   However, Li feels like the experience was rushed and didn’t give her the opportunity to complete the book the way that she wanted. 

   “I don’t think I was completely content with the final product,” Li said. “I think I got a little rushed toward the end, and it’s a part of the story I’m not really happy with.”

   Li mentioned that while writing your own book might seem difficult, it is very much possible and can be attempted by anyone who wants to write. 

   “It sounds very daunting, but if you just start it, you’ll see that it’s not as complicated,” Li said.