Look and Listen

Biography

I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and now live in Southern California. Like my mother, Esther, (the illustrator of my books) I was trained as an artist at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the University of Hawaii. I am currently a real estate investor and developer and entrepreneur like my late father, Henry Floyd Nowell.

Inspiration

After I watched a program on my local PBS station about the difficulties in the California community colleges, I knew what I had to do. The program showed students who were working very hard to succeed but because many of them had to work full-time as well as go to school, they were struggling to get everything done. Some were single parents trying to balance education with parenting. Many community colleges had raised their prices in recent years and the cost was putting a strain on already tight budgets. In addition to these personal issues, because the colleges were suffering from over-crowding in many cases, students were getting less and less individual attention. In some colleges, there were 1,500 students for every guidance counselor. I knew that college was a vital and enriching component of many careers, but I also knew that a college degree was not required to own a business. I decided to write a book to inspire children, especially girls, to think about owning their business