Meet Mallory Meseroll of Thousand Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mallory Meseroll

Hi Mallory, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Originally I’m from Seattle. I started there with a degree from UW in comparative literature & film. I worked in the entertainment industry on set & in more corporate roles for a decade. I started a business and with lots of mentorship and time, I eventually bought enough time to leave my job and stay at home with my two young daughters, Monroe & Quinn, who would inspire my first book. “These Two: Ax Gets the Grind” is a children’s book about the messy and comical journey of developing emotional intelligence. Published and released at the end of 2024, this is the first of a longer series that follows my daughters as they age, building their EQ through more and more complex life situations. I’m working on the second book now with my publisher and I hope to start illustrations by the end of this year. My illustrator, Jessica Kutrakun, is a great friend of mine I met while studying abroad in Italy more than a decade ago. I love working with her and I appreciate her style as an animator, and as someone that also loves grungy ‘90s Nickelodeon cartoons like Rugrats and Ahh!! Real Monsters.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course it hasn’t been smooth. I’m reading Grit by Angela Duckworth right now and she’s talking about how it’s actually an advantage to have more rejection and failure and struggles because it gives you even more practice getting excellent at your work. Building a business and writing and publishing a book requires a level of patience that’s literally not present in my DNA, so that’s painful. I’ve had to battle my ADD’s interest in working on several projects at once, when really each project deserves and requires my undivided attention. My daughters are 4 & 6, and I started writing when Quinnie was months old and Monroe was 2, so there have been tons of routine changes, parenting learning curves and marriage phases that have taken my time and attention away from focusing on my long term goals.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I explained my book series already, but I’m also a screenwriter and I’d like to get into writing graphic novels as well. Ever since I was ten years old, my life mission statement was to “empower people to dream their biggest dreams and equip them with the tools to actually achieve them.” I’m proud of myself for manifesting that into my life, and I think I’m able to live out my purpose in many ways because I’m interested in a wide variety of subjects and people. I think my childhood spent moving around a lot, constantly losing friends and having to start all over unexpectedly made me a creative problem solver.. I think my focus on optimism and maintaining a sense of humor through everything is also a trademark I wear proudly.

How do you think about luck?
I have heard that luck is when opportunity and preparedness meet. I think that’s partially true. I also think if your attitude and your energy sucks, luck will miss you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @these2books

Image Credits
I took these photos — Ashley Broad took the one of Quinn and I at the bookstore next to my book.