Featured Interview With Jennifer Briggs
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Philadelphia, PA, in Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill. For the second half of my
growing up, I was also in Wilmington, DE. My parents got a divorce when I was eleven. Each
parent remarried, and it was all extremely amicable. I split my time evenly between my two
homes. I’ve lived in Pittsburgh, PA since I graduated from Swarthmore College in 1999. My
husband and I came to Pittsburgh so he could attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon
University. By the time he was done, we loved Pittsburgh, and my massage therapy practice
was thriving. Now Pittsburgh feels like home. I have one cat who is very catlike in that she sits
on any new item left on the floor or sofa. She also likes baked goods so we have to be wary of
leaving any food unattended, even when we think it shouldn’t appeal to cats.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as soon as my mom read them to me, which was
probably when I was five or six. In first or second grade I was reading them by myself, enjoying
the coziness and adventures of Laura’s childhood.
In kindergarten I remember having a journal that I pretended to fill, wanting to emulate my
mom and her journaling. In first grade, we began our school day by writing a few sentences
and drawing a picture. For weeks I wrote the same story basically every day. It was about a girl
going outside. I think I liked drawing the house and the girl. I’m glad my parents and teachers
allowed me to write what I wanted, without pushing me to change my theme until I was ready.
As I got more accomplished and our stories turned into short books, I remember using the word
“suddenly” quite often to make my stories seem exciting.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I really love kids’ books that have profound life lessons and truths conveyed with warmth and
humor. I adore Mo Willems and his Elephant and Piggie books, Pigeon books, and Knuffle Bunny
books, and I get teary every single time I read City Dog, Country Frog. The Frog and Toad books
by Arnold Lobel are similar masterpieces. My husband and I say that I am like Toad (getting
frustrated and upset more easily) and he is Frog (calmer). Sarah also likes to be Toad, especially
when he is feeling “blah” or sad, so then I pretend to be Frog, and we sit on our porch swing
waiting for the mail.
I love the warmth of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books and LM Montgomery’s Anne of
Green Gables series. I have thoroughly enjoyed everything by Caroline Carlson, most especially
Wicked Marigold, and by Jonathan Auxier, especially Sweep.
Glennon Doyle, Amor Towles, Maya Shanbhag Lang, Andrea Gibson, and Brian Doyle are the
writers who somehow put things so beautifully into words that I want to eat their sentences. A
Gentleman in Moscow by Towles is one of my favorite books of all time, both because of the
story that kept surprising me, and the writing full of warmth and wit. Whether fiction or non-
fiction, I am most interested in people sharing their full, real, emotional experiences as humans,
especially if they are able to transform those experiences through learning, love, and growth. If
they can do this with love and humor, all the better.
I love everything Glennon Doyle has written, and I love the We Can Do Hard Things podcast.
What I appreciate and find the most inspiring is how Glennon’s books and the podcast delve
into sharing the messiness of being human. It isn’t just sharing the polished ending, it is sharing
the emotional middle and the process of figuring things out. That is what I aim to do in my blog
and my book. It is so easy to be inspired by someone else’s journey but if they don’t put in the
messy parts then I can put them on a pedestal and somehow assume they didn’t ever struggle
along the way. Not that one has to struggle, but I certainly did and do. In that same vein, Maya
Shanbhag Lang’s book What We Carry was one of the most beautifully written memoirs I have
ever read. She shared the tough moments and the beautiful moments, all tied together so
elegantly I was in awe.
Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues by Barry Neil Kaufman inspired me greatly. That, in addition to
his book, Happiness is a Choice, was what led me to sign up for an eight-week course at the
Option Institute when I was in college. Fourteen years after taking that course, I signed up for
the Son-Rise Program Start-Up training, which then changed my life and Sarah’s life so
profoundly. I continue to take courses through the Option Institute and the Autism Treatment
Center of America because they lovingly help people achieve incredible things, beyond the
realm of what some people may deem possible. The hope and freedom that they have helped
me find and create for myself have been and continue to be transformative. All of that is part of
why I was inspired to write Watching Sarah Rise, because I wanted to help other people know
that there are options and different approaches to autism, special needs, and life in general.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My oldest daughter, Sarah, has special needs and was notably delayed in reaching her
milestones. She has also been diagnosed with autism. When she was 4 and still not speaking
aside from making the sounds for each letter of the alphabet, I went to the Autism Treatment
Center of America for a week-long training session on how to run a Son-Rise Program. As soon
as I got home and started interacting with Sarah differently, her language started to increase.
With help from friends and several volunteers that I found in a variety of ways, I ran a Son-Rise
Program for Sarah for five years. I called it Sarah-Rise, and it was by far the most impactful thing
that I ever did to help Sarah – and believe me, I felt like I tried everything! Not only did Sarah’s
language seem to explode into being, but her eye contact and overall ability to connect with
others increased dramatically. She learned to play games, to play imaginatively, to use the
toilet, to eat healthily, to read, and to write. Our home was host to an incredible community of
volunteers who brought their love and creativity to help Sarah thrive. Our whole family
benefited tremendously, and I became more of the parent I wanted to be. If I could go back in
time and change anything, it would be to start my Son-Rise Program training sooner, because it
helped me feel empowered and helped me let go of the parental guilt I had been toting around
for years. In Watching Sarah Rise I describe the early years of Sarah’s life and the struggles to
get her to eat enough and reach any milestone. I then share how I started Sarah-Rise, how I
found volunteers, and how the program evolved over time. I include my struggles and
celebrations because parenting anyone is a journey and parenting a child with special needs can
feel like an even more challenging journey. I want to help other people feel less alone with their
struggles by voicing my own and how I moved through them. I also want to help other parents
know that the Son-Rise Program exists because it was so monumentally life-changing for my
whole family, and most especially for Sarah. The book is inspiring and heart-warming, as is
Sarah.
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