You Are Allowed: A Story of Finding Where You Belong, Not Where You Began shares your story of searching for your birth mom while exploring your own emotions and memories of growing up and how it has impacted your personal identity. Why was this an important book for you to write?

It was an incredibly important book to write because I was feeling lost and without a true sense of belonging. Living that way, without roots or a solid foundation, is incredibly difficult. Writing this book helped me process those feelings and begin to find my own place in the world. Ultimately, I found my sense of belonging within the pages of my memoir—within myself.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

I think the whole book was difficult to write. Initially, I started writing from the perspective of a victim—being adopted made me feel like I had been abandoned. But as I wrote, the manuscript led me to face some of the hardest stories of my life. When I began, I never imagined I would share such intimate parts of my journey, but doing so allowed me to forgive and release. By the time I finished, I was grateful for my adoption. I let go of judgment and found internal peace and freedom.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

One of the most important ideas I wanted to share is the importance of perspectives. We all see things differently, and I believe this is an opportunity for connection between people. I’m sure my parents, my birth mom, and my sister all have very different views of what really happened with my adoption. But that’s the beauty and freedom that writing gives us—space to explore our own perspectives. Another key theme for me was the complexity of the relationship between a mother and her daughter, particularly being both a daughter and a mother myself. That dual experience really shaped my writing.

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?

I hope readers understand that they have the power to reflect on their own lives, release past hurts, and experience rebirth. But most importantly, I want them to take away that it’s essential to forgive themselves first, love themselves first, and respect themselves first.

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Esther, a young woman living in a kibbutz in the south of Israel, undertakes a journey to find her biological mother who abandoned her at birth in Paris. She is fueled with the belief that reuniting with her birth mother will provide the answers she’s been searching for and will fill the void she’s been feeling her entire life.

In careful and precise writing, You ARE Allowed takes the reader through turbulent pieces of Esther’s life journey: her childhood in France, a relationship with an Israeli woman that exposes her to a world of crime and danger, an unplanned pregnancy, and a seemingly routine life in Israel filled with secrets and old wounds.