During a time of feeling burnt out and depressed, I found my love for reading in 2021 after stumbling upon BookTok and discovering the "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series by Sarah J. Maas. I would be lying if I said I haven't let this series become my entire personality. After firmly securing my fyp to booktok, I quickly began speeding through other series and fell in love with more and more worlds, finding a sense of peace in a fictional wanderlust where I could escape my day to day realities and responsibilities.

I found that I wasn't happy where I was in life between my career, my relationships and myself. So, with the support of my husband, I quit my full time job to focus on my mental and physical health while trying to figure out what I want to do "when I grow up". Reading about amazing and badass FMC's who are unapologetically themselves, helped me to come out of my shell and embrace the inner "me" that I've always shied away from in fear of losing friends, or disappointing family (people pleaser in recovery here!). It wasn't until I started following amazing cosplayers and creators, that I realized, that if these people in my life really loved me, they would be supportive of me regardless of my new found interests. Fully embracing these new interests, I decided to create a bookstagram and booktok account (you can follow me on both with @kimberly.is.reading.) to let out the 'nerdy' side of me. Those friends and family I was talking about? ECSTATIC for me and have pushed me to embrace the inner me that I'm still learning about everyday.

Wanting to take these worlds with me everywhere I go to connect with other readers and make new friends, I decided the best way to do so would be by wearing apparel that takes these strong, independent characters and stories with me to help remind me to be more confident, because they have my back, of course. I found that I enjoyed supporting other bookish businesses, but I wasn't able to find MY ideas, so, I started playing around with designs and the idea of opening my own bookish shop.

Two years after I found reading, creating some designs, and reaching out to Sarah J. Maas and her team to get licensed, Fictional Wanderlust LLC came about.