Rising Stars: Meet Leslie Adame of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Adame.

Hi Leslie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, but I never once considered becoming an author growing up. I come from a long line of small town Mexican hard workers who didn’t have the means to complete their education. My siblings and I are the first generation of our family to get a high school diploma and a college degree, so “becoming an author” was never something that I felt was attainable for me or even a consideration. But I loved reading. I loved reading stories about magic and misunderstood kids taking down huge foes, especially during a time where I wanted to escape reality because of the fears surrounding ICE and deportation and wondering if I would ever see a member of my community again.

When I got into UCLA, I went in with the intention of pursuing politics. I desperately wanted to give back to my community, and this felt like the only route. But halfway through, I realized it wasn’t for me. I had a lot to say about the world, so I started channeling that energy into books. This was also during the time immigrant families were being separated at the border. I wanted to do something about it, so I began drafting what eventually became my debut novel, CHLOE VEGA AND THE AGENTS OF MAGIC (HarperCollins 2025).

I firmly believe representation breeds positive change. I figured that if I wrote a magic school book comped to stories like PERCY JACKSON, but made the main character the daughter of undocumented immigrants, it would encourage people less familiar with the plights of these communities to pick it up and get a glimpse of what it’s like for them (while also enjoying their experience, CHLOE VEGA has a lot of fun scenes too!). On the other hand, it would make kids currently undergoing experiences similar to Chloe to feel seen.

It took me three years to write the book before I felt it was ready for querying. When I got my literary agent, we pitched it to publishers, and it found a home with HarperCollins Children’s. The book recently released on September 16th, 2025, and the amount of love its received has been wonderful.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
To reference my childhood again, I’m the first generation of my family to complete a higher education. I knew from a very young age that I needed to be realistic about my career choices so that I could chip away at the generational poverty that has stuck with our family for multiple generations. Unfortunately, although being a published author is a dream come true, it’s not the most sustainable financially. Publishing is a very slow industry, and we often don’t see compensation for it until many years have passed. For this reason, I’ve been balancing it out with a full time job in the tech industry. This has oftentimes been a challenge. It’s required waking up early to work on my manuscript before logging in for work or working late nights to meet a deadline. I’ve since figured out a routine that works for me, but it isn’t always easy.

However, I am grateful for my corporate job because of the valuable lessons its taught me about advocating for myself, which is a huge skill I would recommend for anyone interested in traditional publishing, or any entertainment job in general. You have to be your biggest believer, even when it feels like you’re the only one who does. People will eventually take notice of your passion, and they will find it inspiring. I was a shell of who I am today when I graduated college, and it’s thanks to the leaders and mentors I’ve met in my corporate journey that I’ve grown a lot as a human being.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a storyteller through and through! CHLOE VEGA AND THE AGENTS OF MAGIC is my debut novel, with a sequel coming out in 2026. I’m currently working on a new YA fantasy project I can’t talk about yet, but I would classify myself as someone who aims to write stories that haven’t yet been told about the Latinx/e community.

My degree in political science also tends to bleed into my writing. In CHLOE VEGA, there is a magical war taking place in our world in secret, and although at first glance it seems clear who is good and who is evil, you realize as you’re reading that this is definitely not the case. It makes sense why each side is fighting, even if one side is more morally right than the other.

Outside of books, I’m also fascinated with the film industry. I studied film, television, and digital media when I was at UCLA, so I have some experience in screenwriting. Down the line, I hope to eventually return to this!

If you want to take a look at my work, here’s the book description for CHLOE VEGA AND THE AGENTS OF MAGIC:

Twelve-year-old Chloe Vega’s biggest fear is that her undocumented parents will be detained by immigration. That is, until she learns that her parents are actually part of a secret magical society…and that the suspicious looking police officers who have been hanging around their block are henchmen for an evil sorcerer determined to settle a decades-old score.

Just when Chloe discovers that she has powers, too, her parents are kidnapped. In order to rescue them, she’ll need to harness her abilities at an elite academy, run by the very agency who exiled her parents from the magical world.

Finding herself in the center of a magical war that might destroy everything she has ever known, Chloe can’t shake the feeling that the Agents of Magic are hiding secrets. With her parents’ lives hanging in the balance, she must uncover who is truly on her side and fast to save her family—and the world itself.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
When I first started drafting CHLOE VEGA AND THE AGENTS OF MAGIC, I was doing a political campaign internship in Las Vegas for the 2018 midterm elections. At the time, I was living with a host family, and my host was a screenwriter. One day, she and I were sitting on her couch and I shared that I liked writing books but didn’t think I would ever publish one.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I feel like every story has already been told,” I responded, fully believing what I was saying.

And then she said something that has stuck with me to this day, so I wanted to share it with you all. She said, “It may seem that way, but it isn’t. We all live different lives with different experiences. If you have a story you want to tell, tell it, because no one is going to be able to tell that story with that specific perspective better than you can.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leslieadame.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslieadame/

Image Credits
All pics taken by me!