Today we’d like to introduce you to Sofia Elena Politano.
Hi Sofia Elena, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I think I started the way many people do: inexperienced, uncertain, and without a clear sense of where I truly belonged or what I was capable of becoming.
The first story I ever wrote was in my high school Spanish Literature class during my senior year. We were given the freedom to choose our final project from a long list of options: essays, poems, board games, and among them, a children’s story. That one immediately stood out to me.
I decided to write a story for my little brother, Dimitri, who was five years old at the time. I was preparing to leave for college, and the thought of missing so much of his childhood completely broke my heart.
After that, life carried me in many different directions. I studied at universities in several countries, including the United States, Ecuador, and Israel, constantly searching for my “north” and trying to understand where I fit in the world. Along the way came experiences, challenges, and transformative moments that deeply shaped who I became.
While living abroad in Israel, I met my now-husband, and eventually life brought me full circle back to Miami, where I was born and raised. But before returning home, during a brief period in Mexico about twelve years ago, I found myself feeling especially lost. I felt as though I could move through life blending in, adapting to my surroundings, yet somehow unable to truly see myself.
That was when Leon the Chameleon was born.
At the time, it wasn’t so much a story about finding myself as it was a story about hoping to.
Since then, I’ve grown tremendously, though not in a straight line. Becoming a wife and mother intensified that journey in unexpected ways. Motherhood is beautiful, but for me it also came with moments of looking around and realizing I had lost sight of myself somewhere in the process of caring for everyone else.
As I slowly began reconnecting with myself again, I rediscovered a collection of stories I had written over the years. I decided to begin with Leon the Chameleon because it felt the most personal and the most meaningful.
Publishing it became my metaphorical leap; it was a decision to finally put both myself and my story into the world.
I did it for my children, so they could grow up watching their mother pursue her dreams. But I also did it for myself: to finally believe in myself in the way I always should have.
Leon the Chameleon was originally written in Spanish, but I quickly realized how important it was to make the story accessible to families in multiple languages. Preserving the language spoken at home and honoring cultural roots is something that carries weight with me. The book is currently available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with hopes for more languages in the near future so that even more families can connect with its message.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, though honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone whose journey truly has been.
This past year alone has been an enormous learning experience. I had to teach myself virtually every aspect of self-publishing a children’s book: finding and working with an illustrator, formatting manuscripts, learning platforms like KDP and IngramSpark, understanding business licensing and LLC management, bookkeeping, outreach, content creation, video editing, inventory, social media, event planning, and connecting with schools, hospitals, bookstores, and libraries.
Right now I’m trying to learn marketing, which still feels incredibly overwhelming to me. But I’ve learned that growth often begins with not knowing what you’re doing and being willing to learn anyway. The key is simply not giving up.
At the beginning of this process, I also spent time reaching out to publishers and literary agents. Most of my submissions went unanswered. That was discouraging, of course, but eventually I realized I didn’t want silence to determine whether this story deserved to exist. I believed in it enough to keep going independently and learn along the way.
But the deeper struggles existed long before publishing.
I think the hardest things I’ve faced have been loss and depression. And by loss, I mean many different kinds of loss, like the loss of loved ones, pregnancy loss, and even periods where I felt disconnected from myself and unsure of who I was. I’ve also struggled with depression since I was thirteen years old. Some seasons have been much harder than others, and while it’s not something that completely disappears, I’ve learned healthier ways to navigate those feelings over time.
In many ways, writing became part of that healing process. Stories gave me a place to process emotions, reconnect with myself, and eventually find the courage to share that vulnerability with others.
That’s part of why Leon the Chameleon resonates so deeply with me. At its core, it’s a story about identity, belonging, and learning to recognize yourself again after feeling lost.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I do today is honestly a little bit of everything.
As an independent children’s book author and self-publisher, I oversee every aspect of my business, from storytelling and creative development to the administrative, logistical, and marketing side of bringing books into the world.
Through my company, Enchanted Bullfrog, LLC, I manage the development, publishing, and distribution of multilingual children’s books. That includes writing stories, coordinating with my illustrator, managing copyrights, ISBNs, and LCCNs, formatting manuscripts for print and eBook platforms, overseeing translations, organizing inventory, maintaining my website and social media, planning events and school or hospital visits, conducting outreach to bookstores and libraries, and creating promotional materials like sell sheets and press releases.
Because I’m currently a one-person operation, I’ve had to become comfortable learning things I never imagined I would need to know. Some days I’m writing poetry for a children’s story, and other days I’m learning bookkeeping, editing videos, designing event displays, organizing spreadsheets, or researching distribution platforms. It can absolutely feel overwhelming at times, but it has also been incredibly empowering.
At the heart of all of it, though, what I love most is creating stories.
Many of my stories explore identity, emotions, belonging, resilience, and human connection in ways that are accessible for children while still emotionally meaningful for the adults reading beside them. I think children’s literature can hold incredible emotional depth, and I care deeply about creating stories that resonate across generations.
One thing that is especially important to me is making stories available in multiple languages. I want families to be able to preserve the language spoken at home and maintain a connection to their cultural roots through reading together.
What I’m most proud of, honestly, is that I didn’t give up.
For much of my life, I had a tendency to leave projects unfinished or abandon ideas before fully bringing them to life. Publishing my first book felt like breaking that pattern. I finished something that mattered to me and shared it with the world. Now I’m working on my second book, which feels like proof that this was not just a dream I almost pursued, but one I finally committed to fully.
As for what sets me apart, I think it’s probably the emotional honesty behind my stories and my desire to create books that speak not only to children, but to families as a whole. I want children to feel seen while also helping adults reconnect with parts of themselves they may have forgotten along the way.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is creating something meaningful.
I’m invested in sharing messages that are worth sharing, not only with children, but also with the adults reading beside them. Children’s books are often seen as simple, but I think they can hold enormous emotional depth. The stories we hear as children stay with us for a lifetime, and sometimes the person who needs the story’s message the most is the adult turning the pages.
I hope my stories help people feel seen.
Maybe that means helping a child better understand their emotions, or helping a parent feel less alone in something they’ve quietly struggled with themselves. Maybe it’s simply offering comfort, connection, or recognition. There is something powerful in echoing feelings someone has carried but never quite had words for. And I think there is something profoundly healing about realizing someone else understands part of your experience.
That’s what I hope my books can offer: connection, honesty, and a reminder that there is nothing wrong with being human. We all struggle, we all grow, and we are all trying to find our way back to ourselves in one way or another.
If my stories can help even one person feel a little more understood or a little less alone, then to me, they’ve already done something worthwhile.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.SofiaElenaPolitano.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SofiaElenaPolitano/#
- Other: https://geni.us/LeonBuyNow
