Exploring Themes of Self-Love and Personal Growth
Jessica Ayala shares her inspiring journey from single motherhood to successful author, exploring themes of self-love, personal growth, and balancing career and writing, while offering valuable life advice.
Jess Ayala’s journey is a testament to resilience and transformation. Raised by a single mother and becoming a single mom herself at seventeen, Jess has navigated life’s challenges with determination and grace. Her writing career blossomed after surviving COVID, leading to the creation of her deeply personal trilogy, beginning with “My Beautiful Mistakes” in 2021. This was followed by “I Was The Sidechick In My Own Relationship” and “God’s Gift; Becoming.” Jess has also explored poetry with “E V E: every vast emotion” and humor with “Tainted Fish,” a tale about modern dating.
Having worked in the legal and healthcare fields for over two decades, Jess’s experiences have enriched her understanding of human emotions and relationships, which she skillfully weaves into her narratives. Now, she is taking a break from the corporate world to focus on building her social media platform, spreading joy, hope, and inspiration while promoting self-love and self-care. With new projects on the horizon for 2025, Jess continues to inspire others to live authentically and pursue their dreams.
Jess, your journey from single motherhood to a successful career as an Executive Assistant is incredibly inspiring. Can you share some pivotal moments or decisions that significantly shaped your path and helped you break away from generational patterns?
Raising my first two daughters, I realized county assistance was barely going to pay the bills and fast food wasn’t going to be much better so when I was given a chance to dip my toes in the corporate world I worked very hard to ensure that I would be seen as more than just a teen mom. Watching my mom struggle to raise me alone was always the driving force that pushed me to want more.
You’ve worked in diverse fields such as legal and healthcare for over two decades. How have these experiences influenced your writing, particularly in terms of understanding and portraying human emotions and relationships?
Spending ten years in the legal field and another fifteen years in healthcare, my roles always revolved around service to others. My purpose has always been to help others because of the experiences I myself have gone through. I have lived my life out loud and learned plenty of lessons the hard way which in return have turned into the tools I use to help others see that they are not alone. Speaking my truth I hope encourages others to do the same.
In My Beautiful Mistakes: Author’s Edition, you explore themes of self-love and personal growth. Can you delve into the process of writing this book and how your own experiences and challenges informed the narrative?
Through the years, I have joked around about how my life could be a series of afterschool specials or even a lifetime movie. I have had a story to tell since I was a little girl and My Beautiful Mistakes was me finding my voice and speaking my truth. This book was definitely a challenge for me to write, especially reliving certain chapters to get those past experiences down on paper. Reliving my childhood traumas was definitely cathartic and my own version of therapy.
Your love for spontaneous road trips, like your memorable journey from Utah to Colorado, is quite unique. How do these adventures contribute to your creative process and overall perspective on life?
Being on the road alone during one of my road trips really does open up the communication between me and God. I use these trips to not just take in nature in all its beauty, I also use these trips to talk to God and release any pent up emotions I may have at the time. I use these adventures to clear my head and map out the future of what I want to write about. I also spend a lot of time during these trips to envision what I want next out of life.
In I WAS THE SIDECHICK IN MY OWN RELATIONSHIP: Author’s Edition, you tackle complex and often painful relationship dynamics. What motivated you to write this story, and what message do you hope readers take away from it?
While writing My Beautiful Mistakes, I was dealing with a man known as Reese, he had originally hid a wife from me while we were together and when we tried a second time around I found out there was another woman who later became his fiance, then his second wife. After speaking with both the wife in 2018 and this new woman in 2019, I realized that this man uses women to get his own selfish needs met and once I had both those conversations staring back at me in Facebook Messenger I realized I had a great story to tell that would serve as a cautionary tale of what to watch out for in the world especially when you lack self love.
Balancing a demanding career, single motherhood, and a passion for writing is no easy feat. What strategies do you employ to manage these responsibilities, and what advice would you give to others striving to ‘have it all’ while pursuing their dreams?
I grew up with a mother who’s advice to me growing up was to focus on graduating highschool and finding a good job, nothing more and nothing less. My father was absent for the most part with absolutely no life advice for me, but his wife, also known in my book as the “step monster” had only one piece of advice: “learn to cook and clean and then marry rich”.
I had no one to push me to want more, I had to learn that on my own. That is one thing that I have done differently with my children. I have told them that college is a great accolade to have on the resume, if college is in fact for them but whatever they want to do in life they should put everything they have towards making those dreams come true.
If I had to give advice to others who strive to have it all while chasing their dreams, I would tell them to surround themselves with like minded people and don’t let anyone else put value on the dreams that they have.
I would also remind them that life is short so they should live it for themselves and not worry about whether or not their dreams are socially acceptable.
