My Story
I have always been told I am a storyteller.
Whether I was explaining every little detail, building suspense before revealing the ending, or imagining impossible adventures, stories always found their way into my life.
Long before I dreamed of publishing children's books, I was a little girl with a beautiful notebook, filling its pages with poems and stories. I was about ten years old when I realized that writing made me feel at home. Although I didn't discover my love of reading until I became a teenager—devouring books by James Patterson—it was that notebook that planted the first seed.
One day, I wanted to write stories of my own.
Where Stories Came to Life
Years later, after becoming a mother to two beautiful children, storytelling became something even more magical.
Some of our greatest adventures began in a rocking chair.
As I rocked my children to sleep, our imaginations would take us anywhere. One night we were visiting another planet. The next we were superheroes saving the world alongside a favorite stuffed animal. In our stories, anything was possible, as long as the adventure continued until little eyes finally closed.
Those bedtime stories reminded me that children don't just hear stories.
They live inside them.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
One of the greatest influences on my writing came from an unexpected place.
When my daughter took a little longer to begin speaking, I became her at-home speech therapist during the pandemic, guided through telehealth sessions with her speech therapist.
Together, we discovered the incredible power of repetition.
Words became routines.
Daily moments became opportunities to learn.
I realized that children's books could be so much more than bedtime stories. They could become tools for connection, confidence, language, and learning.
From that moment on, I knew I wanted to write books that children and parents could enjoy together—stories that felt warm, colorful, engaging, and never like a lesson, even while they were teaching one.
Finding Myself Again
Life has a way of changing us.
I earned my degree in Education from Boricua College, spent years working with children as the Director of an after-school program and summer camp, and eventually made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom.
Every season of life shaped me.
But after years of pouring into everyone else, I realized I needed to rediscover the person I had quietly set aside.
The writer.
The dreamer.
The creative one.
Four years ago, I picked up my notebook again.
I wrote.
I learned.
I studied illustration, self-publishing, and entrepreneurship. I opened my business and slowly began turning a lifelong dream into something real.
Then fear showed up.
Years.
Fears.
Tears.
Sometimes, all at once.
As mothers, we hold ourselves to impossibly high standards. We spend so much time making sure everyone else's ship stays afloat that we forget to refuel our own hearts.
I finally realized that following my dreams wasn't just something I wanted to teach my children.
It was something they needed to see me do.
I couldn't have done it alone. My husband loved and supported me while I was rediscovering the woman I was becoming.
When I was afraid to take the leap, he believed in me until I could believe in myself.
Letters Through Stories
Letters Through Stories is more than a business.
It is a continuous love letter—to myself, to my husband, to my children, to my family and to every family who opens one of my books.
It is a reminder that dreams don't have an expiration date–they simply wait until we're ready to believe in them.
That obstacles don't get the final word.
That every child deserves stories that encourage kindness, confidence, creativity, family, and self-love.
Whether you're a writer, an artist, a musician, a chef, or someone quietly carrying a dream in your heart, I believe the gifts God gives us are meant to be shared with the world. More than anything, I hope my stories remind you that every journey begins with believing in yourself.
Love yourself first, second, and third...
That's all of you.
— J.B. Zarza
Meet J.B. Zarza
Children's Author • Storyteller • Every Line Written with Heart
Every story begins somewhere.
This one begins with a little girl, a notebook, and a dream.
