Supporting Pediatric Patients through Therapeutic Children's Storybooks

Hospital stays can be stressful and overwhelming for a child of any age. Many children fear the hospital environment and find it difficult to cope with their illness alone. Realizing this, a group of undergraduate students at UCLA interested in pediatrics and passionate about writing and illustrating came together to impart change! Pages for Pediatrics is a student organization that was founded last year with the purpose of addressing the psychosocial needs of pediatric patients through donation of children’s story books written and illustrated entirely by undergraduate students.

To help alleviate patient anxiety, we focus our stories on characters that pediatric patients can relate to as a means of instilling comfort and solidarity in our readers. Through narrative mirroring, our books aim to normalize patient adversity, advocate for disability representation, and combat stigma towards pediatric conditions in the broader community. 

We firmly believe in providing patients with unhindered access to our therapeutic story books. This serves as the philosophy behind our donation-based partnerships with local children’s hospitals like UCLA Mattel and Cedars Sinai’s Pediatric Department and others nationwide. 

Currently, we are in the process of wrapping up our second book titled “The Giraffe that Stood Tall”, which combats misconceptions towards achondroplasia (dwarfism) in children and brings to light the emotional struggles that these children face with the aim of encouraging society to see past one’s physical differences. 

Once this book is completed, we will begin illustrating our third book which is centered on a narrative highlighting the daily routine and struggles of children with Type 1 Diabetes. 

Printing and distributing our books does have a hefty financial commitment. However, each and every donation matters! Most donations will go towards the large fee of $800 for printing and distribution. Donations will also go towards covering shipping costs to hospitals and towards the creation of themed stickers and bookmarks for pediatric patients.

It takes almost a whole year for us to write, illustrate, and distribute our books! Illustrating takes at most 6 months, while publishing and shipping take at most 3 months. All of your donations will help cover the costs of publishing and shipping so we can reach as many hospitals as possible! 

One year ago, we published our first book titled “Tommy and the Twig”, which addresses misconceptions and stigma towards pediatric prostheses and physical disability. We donated copies to UCLA’s Orthopedic Institute for Children, Cedar Sinai’s Pediatric Spine Center, Stanford’s Lucile Packard, Children’s National Hospital, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital, and Children’s Hospital of St.Louis. Shown above is a patient at the UCLA’s Orthopedic Institute for Children reading our book!

Your donation can help us reach pediatric patients at UCLA Mattel and other children’s hospitals across the country! We are committed to advocating for greater disability representation in children’s story books and your donation can get us there. With your donation, we will be able to donate our books to more hospitals to reach even more pediatric patients. Any donation, no matter the amount, is one step closer to promoting inclusivity and diversity in the pediatric community. Help us make change!

_{CLICK HERE TO READ THE UCLA FOUNDATION'S DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS FOR DONORS.}