Superhero Cowgirl Princess was created by the mother-daughter team on which the book is based. The story spotlights a tender and poignant discussion about using one’s imagination to think past limitations. Through this, the girl forms her own unique identity in the form of a one-of-a-kind Halloween costume.

There’s a takeaway for everyone. Even adults reading this will find themselves inspired and have their imaginations reinvigorated.

We have all heard the phrase, “Think outside the box.” As adults, we hear it most commonly at seminars given by motivational speakers or at job orientation programs hosted by over-eager human resources personnel. Thinking outside the box has become a sitcom joke, a cultural cliché. And yet, to think outside the box is to risk rebuke for expressing uncommon ideas.

The wonderful thing about a young child’s imagination is that it is not boxed in yet. It is limitless and healthy and capable of anything. As parents, caregivers, educators, and mentors, we can respect and value the open imagination of childhood. For it is open imagination that powers creative problem-solving, which is so necessary to help solve the world’s current problems. This book exists because, as a toddler, my nearly three-year-old daughter Juliet showed wisdom beyond her years one Halloween season. She could not settle on one of the Halloween costumes at the local party store. She wanted to be many things. Juliet wanted to express multiple sides of herself: the magical and beautiful princess side, the brave and heroic world-saving side, and the adventurous and free cowgirl side. At first, I was perplexed. Then it dawned on me: each child is multi-faceted. My daughter taught me she need not limit herself to a pre-labeled identity that society could use to pigeonhole her for quick convenience. As one who loves her, it was my job to recognize my child’s need to build her own identity and help her express her full, unique self. In telling of Juliet’s urge to define herself, I hope to teach what my daughter taught me: that creative imagination is healthy and innate and deserves to be nurtured. It also occurs to me that there are benefits to this story for every person and for the world.

I wrote the text of this book when at the time that its events happened. For years, this book was put aside, because I was a busy working mother with other responsibilities. Little did I know that my daughter would grow up, go to college, and become the professional illustrator for this book.

The purpose of this book is to remind adults and children that Life gives us the liberty for self-definition and self-creation beyond the prevailing labels of our era. In toddlerhood and early childhood, the imagination is not yet boxed in by societal conditioning or political constraints. This book celebrates imagination that is not yet squelched by others’ expectations.

Janine Parker

When I was little, I was notorious for playing dress-up and throwing around all these wild ideas. As a young woman, I still like to think that I play dress-up, only now I’m dressing up as myself. Specifically, I get to wake up every day and dress up as the “myself” that my Mom helped me become. It was not until high school that I learned she had written a story of the most memorable dress-up day in Juliet Parker’s history. She recollected the conversation I had with her in walking through the creation of the Superhero Cowgirl Princess character. Apparently, I had found the costumes at Halloween stores to be inadequate and insisted on making my own. While I myself do not remember the conversation, I still found myself getting nostalgic when my Dad showed me the manuscript. This was late into high school when it became apparent that I would pursue illustration as a career. He thought it would be an amazing gift to Mom to see her book come to life, as previous attempts to illustrate the story fell through when I was still young, and Mom had all but shelved the idea.

Unfortunately, my initial years in college saw me swamped by homework and projects, and I barely had time to take on small commissions from friends, let alone illustrate an entire book. Still, I do not regret starting the book so late. My skills grew immensely in just those first two years, and I learned more than I ever imagined. Occasionally I spoke with Dad about making time to start it up again before almost always getting assigned another major project. We agreed not to tell Mom about it until it was done, whenever that would be. Somewhere in there, I drew up some rough thumbnails for a 24-page version of the book, and I am pleased to say that a LOT of changes were made since that draft.

In September 2020, I dressed up as a college student to sit in my dining room with my paints, brushes, and laptop to attend class. I was taking an illustration course that could coincide with doing the drawings for this book and ran the idea past my Dad. He said go for it, and for the next three months, I had two art directors: My professor and my Dad. It was a wonderful challenge balancing the feedback from both of them to make this story come to life. What started as 24 text-heavy pages became the wonderfully illustrated story it is now. It came with many dress-up nights of comfy clothes and little sleep or sequestering myself at the corner of the dining room table every spare moment between classes, a surprising benefit to not having to commute every day.

At the end of the Fall semester of junior year, I had a finished book in my hands—a stack of over forty fully-illustrated pages, accompanied by a PDF with the type layout. I drove home for the holidays realizing with each minute building to the moment I knocked on that front door that this was really happening. The most painful part about it all was not saying a word to my Mom about it until Christmas! Dad’s eyes jumped out of his head when he saw the finished book, and we tucked it safely away until that magic morning when she would get to see it.

Over breakfast that holiday, Mom opened a yellow envelope and pulled out a fully-illustrated story she had written fifteen years prior and watched gather dust. I am not ashamed to say we both cried, and I still get teary just thinking about how happy I am to be a part of sharing this story with whoever is lucky enough to read it. I get to wake up every morning and dress up as an illustrator thanks to the passion for art that my parents always endeavored to nurture. Parents, always encourage your kids to do what excites them. The results are truly magical.

Wishing you all my sincerest joy,
Juliet Rose Parker
https://jparkerillustrating.com/

Happy Halloween.