Compassion - Author Feature - Erin Stewart

Have you ever walked into a room and felt like everyone was staring at you? Whispering about you? Judging you?

What if every second of every day felt that way? How would you react? How would it change you? Those are some of the questions I asked myself as I wrote Scars Like Wings.

The main character, Ava, has survived a house fire, and her body is covered in scars. Wherever she goes, people stare at her. Talk about her. Treat her differently because of her appearance. So Ava stops going to school. She avoids her old friends. She doesn’t want to be the thing everyone looks at. So when her aunt says it’s time for her to go back to school a year after the fire, Ava is terrified.

But when Ava meets another burn survivor named Piper and a fellow theater fan named Asad, everything changes. Her new friends see beyond Ava’s skin. Because of Piper and Asad’s compassion, Ava realizes she is so much more than her scars. She even begins to see her wounds as something beautiful—a story of how much she has survived.

The character of Ava was actually inspired by a friend of mine, Marius, who was burned and severely scarred by a house fire as a child in Romania. Now 20, Marius has had children run screaming from him. He has had bullies call him Freddy Krueger. (Yes, people actually do those horrible things!) Marius has told me, the only way he survived was because every time he wanted to give up, someone showed him compassion. Someone helped him when he needed it most.

This is what compassion is all about. Reaching out and helping the people who may look different, who may act different, who may scare us because we don’t understand them. But when we can see beyond their skin or their differences, we can see that we are all the same underneath. We all need love.

We all need that one friend like Piper who will stand up in the cafeteria when we are feeling extra awkward and alone and say, “Hey! Come sit here.” That may seem like a small act, but it could make a big difference.

I hope Ava’s story makes you think about the people who have shown this kind of compassion to you when you needed it most, and maybe about the people who could use a little extra kindness. How can you reach out to them? How can you make them feel less alone?

Remember, we all have scars, some are just easier to see. Everyone needs an extra dose of compassion. Because while we can’t fix each other, we can be always be stronger together.

– Erin Stewart, NEW BOOK JOY Guest Author

About the Author

Erin Stewart

lives in Utah with her husband and three children. She is represented by the amazing Rebecca Sherman of Writers House.

She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern and a BYU undergraduate who works as a freelance writer and editor, as well as a weekly columnist in Salt Lake City.

Erin is a “neurotic extravert”, a heart failure survivor, a firm believer that Hot Tamales should be a recognized food group and believes people are put in our path for a reason… Always.

You can read more about her and her books on her beautiful website www.erinstewartbooks.com.