KISH: Tell us about you.
My name is Rosheda McClendon. I was born and raised in Wrightsville, GA. I am the wife of Travis McClendon and we have a 13-year-old daughter named Taylor. My passion is anything “kid!” I have almost 22 years in Early Childhood Education. I have worn many hats in the field and each hat pushed me to walk in my full purpose. I resigned from a teaching position in 2017 to pursue my dream of directing and one day owning a childcare center. After several years of working in the business, my dream became my reality. In 2020, I decided to give birth to another dream of becoming a children’s book author. After working on it for months, I released my first children’s book, “Look Mama, I can!” After a day of releasing it, it was the #1 seller out of 83 new releases. I am now working on the series.
KISH: What is your dream and how will accomplishing your dream benefit you and others?
Rosheda: My dream is for my book to be global. I want to inspire little girls all over the world to dream big and never to stop growing. I want them to know that small accomplishments can turn big and anything they put their mind to can be achieved.
KISH: Who or what inspired you to pursue this dream?
Rosheda: My daughter as a toddler inspired me because she would always call us to watch her master a skill. My Pre-k students that I taught over the course of 3 years inspired me! My childcare center babies inspire me daily to keep going. I always knew that I would write a children’s book one day but never knew what the topic would be until one day in my center, one of my babies said “Look, Mama, I can” and then he went on to show me what he could do. I instantly thought of how Taylor, as a toddler, would do the same. It hit me. That’s the name of my book! “Look Mama, I can!”
KISH: What challenges have you encountered while pursuing your dream?
Rosheda : The major challenge I had was finding the time to get my ideas on paper so I could start the process. When Covid hit in 2020, we were all in a panic mode so to be on the safe side, I closed my childcare center for 6 weeks and I had no choice but to get it done because I had nothing but time. So, time was a major challenge.
KISH: Who or what inspired you to keep pushing regardless of the challenges you’ve encountered?
Rosheda: My daughter and husband inspired me to keep going especially when they saw the illustrations that were going to be published. They always hype my visions so I know that I have to keep them coming.
KISH:Please provide final thoughts/advice for others by finishing this sentence… dream.
Rosheda : DREAM so big that they’ll think you’ve lost your mind! If you can think it, you can achieve it! God would not have given you the dream if he knew you would only sleep on it. KEEP DREAMING! KEEP GOING! KEEP PUSHING! Greater is already in YOU!!
The photograph was taken by Tanner Peebles Photography.
