By Rachel Huss, staff writer
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Melissa Rice and her now 10-year-old daughter, Hope, about their new children’s book, The Worry Shark.
This book is inspired by Hope’s personal journey with anxiety. Since kindergarten at age five, Hope began worrying that her mom wouldn’t pick her up from school or something bad would happen to her. She also noticed an upsetting feeling in her stomach. When Hope expressed her feelings to her mom, who is a powerfully motivating force in the mental health field, Hope was given the chance to speak to a therapist. Within six months, Hope’s teachers and her parents recognized a remarkable change.
I asked Hope and Dr. Rice a few questions to learn more about Hope’s incredible journey. Many people are diagnosed later in life, so it’s incredibly significant that Hope was diagnosed so young. Rice shared, “It felt kind of weird because I feel like no one else had it.” As adults and teenagers, we often feel the same way… but for a child, these thoughts and feelings can be extremely polarizing.
I was curious how Hope and Dr. Rice came up with the title for the book. I discovered that The Worry Shark is a title as much as it is Hope’s anxiety. In one of her therapy sessions, her therapist asked her to pick an animal she was afraid of. She chose a shark. This led to an empowering exercise where she drew two pictures: one of herself smaller than the shark and another where she was bigger. This helped her feel more capable of confronting her racing thoughts and fears. She told me, “I put the shark in my fish tank.”
Dr. Rice emphasized the importance of early intervention. With her background in mental health and writing, she created a personal book for Hope to read when she felt down. Dr. Rice recalled, “I only made this just for her. I made a book out of paper. I drew 15 scenes. and I went through basically her story, and I wrote it.” When Dr. Rice told child psychiatrist David Halpern about the book that she made for Hope, he complimented the idea and said the story would help many other children and families. So, Dr. Rice went to her daughter and asked if she wanted to publish a book, and Hope said yes because she wanted to help people.
One of the jarring questions I had for Dr. Rice was how she coped with finding out her daughter had anxiety at a young age. She revealed to me that she was also diagnosed when she was five and in kindergarten. She felt guilt, worrying her daughter’s diagnosis was her fault.
Dr. Rice reflected, “I had to get past the point of that mom guilt. When I found out my daughter had it, it was hard because number one, you’re like wait, is this my fault? Number two, I don’t want my kid to go through what I went through.” Dr. Rice now understands why it was hard for her mom and commends her for everything she had done.
They’re unsure of how many copies they have sold but it is available to purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. A donor from Hope’s school bought 500 copies and is giving one to each student. The book has gained traction on various platforms and Dr. Rice mentioned the startup of some social media accounts and a podcast being released on Spotify and Apple. Their Instagram and TikTok handle is @momofhope143. They plan to have Andie Summers from 92.5 XTU’s The Andie Summers Show as theirfirst podcast guest.
Their key takeaways from publishing this book are to let children know that they’re not alone, to name their anxiety, and encourage them to receive help promptly. We need to normalize and accept mental health and mental health treatments before it may be too late to make a difference.
