Allie Millington’s Journey to Publishing ‘When You Find a Hope’

A podcast interview with Allie Millington discussing When You Find a Hope on The Growing Readers Podcast, a production of The Children’s Book Review.

Ever felt like your dreams were slipping away, buried under an avalanche of rejection and disappointment?

You’re not alone. In this heartfelt conversation, bestselling author Allie Millington reveals how she transformed hundreds of rejection letters into a creative “rejection collection” that ultimately inspired her beautiful picture book When You Find a Hope.

This touching story about a girl who carries, breaks, and regrows hope serves as both a metaphor for Millington’s own publishing journey and a powerful tool for parents and educators to discuss resilience with children. Through her innovative “brain drain” morning writing practice and commitment to maintaining a childlike perspective, Millington demonstrates how creative perseverance can turn life’s biggest disappointments into art that heals.

Listen as Allie explores the creative visualization of hope, the emotional power of Anne Lambellet’s illustrations, and how success with her debut novel Olivetti has influenced her approach to writing her newest works.

Press play to discover how holding onto hope—even when it feels shattered—can lead to unexpected growth and beauty in your creative journey.

Listen to the Episode

Read the Transcript

Bianca Schulze: Hi Allie, welcome to the Growing Readers podcast.

Allie Millington: Hey there, so excited to be on today.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah, I’m thrilled to have you. Your new book is just right up my alley, basically. And I feel like it’s so needed right now. Before we dive into it, can we start with some rapid fire questions just to get to know you?

Allie Millington: Yeah, I would love that.

Bianca Schulze: Okay, perfect. What is one word that your friends would use to describe you?

Allie Millington: Quirky.

Bianca Schulze: What’s something small that never fails to give you hope?

Allie Millington: Nature, which I guess isn’t that small, there are small things in nature that give me hope.

Bianca Schulze: I love that. If hope had a color, what would it be for you?

Allie Millington: I think it would be yellow.

Bianca Schulze: Alright, finish this sentence. Hope feels like…

Allie Millington: Floating.

Bianca Schulze: What song do you play when you need a boost of hope?

Allie Millington: Anything from the Little Women soundtrack.

Bianca Schulze: I love it. Who gave you the most hope when you were a child?

Allie Millington: My parents for sure.

Bianca Schulze: Morning sunrise or evening sunset, which gives you more hope?

Allie Millington: Morning. Absolutely.

Bianca Schulze: And if hope were a food, what would it taste like?

Allie Millington: Wow, that’s a great question. Maybe cotton candy to go with the whole floating theme. Yeah.

Bianca Schulze: I love that. Clever, clever. All right. What’s a hopeful message that you’d write on a sticky note for someone?

Allie Millington: Hmm. Even if your hope doesn’t look exactly how you thought it would in the moment, don’t lose sight of it. Don’t let go of it.

Bianca Schulze: Beautiful and on the spot too. All right, well, let’s go into some longer questions. So you’re a first time guest on the show. I always like to ask to be a writer, they say you need to be a reader first. So was there a pivotal moment in which you considered yourself a reader?

Allie Millington: Yes, I love this question. I honestly, I really don’t remember a time when I wasn’t a reader. I grew up reading with my parents, any chance I could get. But I do remember kind of that monumental change when I got to read on my own for the first time and I got to choose the books. And it felt like I was creating these worlds with these authors and these characters. And they felt so real and alive to me.

I think my parents just giving me that freedom to choose the books I wanted to read and, you know, always taking me to the library. I just felt like the world was at my fingertips and I couldn’t, I wouldn’t put a book down honestly. I just always had to have something in my hands that I was reading.

Bianca Schulze: I love it. Just off the top of your head, is there a favorite book from childhood that, you know, comes to mind?

Allie Millington: Yeah, there’s a well Winnie the Pooh, I think is just something that’s always stuck with me. I fell in love with that story when I was young. And then growing up, I fell in love with the writing even more. There’s just so much cleverness in those books, those tales, and so many beautiful messages too. And so it’s definitely something I still read. Just when I want a little spark of hope or I want to feel like a kid again.

Definitely turn to Winnie the Pooh.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah, so many great, great, great quotes. And I’m sure just like me, you probably when you’re if you’re on social media and the algorithms probably show you a lot of book related memes. And I always love it when a Winnie the Pooh quote or meme comes up. It always is like it just warms your heart.

Allie Millington: Yeah. It does and it’s still so timeless. I mean all the things he wrote back then just kind of transcend to now so I love it.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah. Well, can we talk about your morning practice? I know you call it the brain drain and you fill a sheet of paper with whatever thoughts are in your head when you wake up. So just tell me about the practice. Like, do you do it first thing? Is it after breakfast? And like, how do you feel that it helps with your storytelling?

Allie Millington: Yes, so I, I’m a person, love to wake up really early before the rest of the world has kind of started. And I immediately grab my notebook and sit in my office and just write that full page. And you know, it’s kind of a stream of consciousness. I’m not worried about how good it sounds or there’s no point to it other than just getting everything out of my head. Because I’m sure we’ve all experienced days when you wake up and you just feel off or something is nagging at you and you can’t quite understand what it is. And so kind of just clearing my head and getting it out all on the page helps me understand myself a little bit better, kind of getting in tune with what I’m feeling. And then it also, the word brain drain, it clears my head out to where I’m able to create freely and without as many distractions and worries that are just kind of buzzing around my mind. As soon as they’re on the page, I feel like I can kind of let them go and move on from there. So that’s a habit I’ve had for years now. And it’s definitely something that I feel like has enabled me to quickly transition from waking up and then jumping straight into writing because I do try and get as much writing done as early as possible. And then I feel like emptying myself of all of those feelings and distractions beforehand really helps me to focus and then get into the story.

Bianca Schulze: That’s so great. I always have to do a chore drain. So I can’t write first thing in the morning. But if I haven’t done like all the to do list items, like it’s that it’s what you’re describing now. It’s like the brain is too busy to let the imagination run free. So it is I think it’s so important to do the brain drain. I love that. I love the way you coined that.

Allie Millington: Thank you. Yeah, it’s a practice I learned from a book called The Artist’s Way, which I know a lot of writers and different artists use. So she calls it the morning pages in that book. And so, yeah, it’s just something that is definitely going to be a habit for as long as I can help it.

Bianca Schulze: That’s great. Has that brain drain ever led to a story idea? Or, yeah, it has.

Allie Millington: Yeah, yeah, I think because there’s something really powerful about that in between stage of first waking up and you still have maybe some leftover dreaminess going on you’re not fully lucid I guess you could say, and so I think that that could be a really interesting and creative space, which is why I do try and start as early as the minute I wake up because if there is something that’s worth noting that’s just floating around my head, I kind of want to capture it before it gets bogged down with all the other distractions and things that the day kind of brings. So yeah, definitely some good nuggets have come from those brain drains.

Bianca Schulze: Alright, well how important is it to you to maintain a childlike perspective to help you create authentic stories for kids?

Allie Millington: I love this question. It is of the utmost importance to me. I think, you know, just remembering who I was as a kid is so pivotal in my writing routine and practice because I am writing for kids. I want to remember how that felt holding a book that felt like it spoke to me and gave me a sense of belonging in a world that I could escape into, gave me these words for feelings I didn’t even know I had. And so I really tried to hold tightly to those feelings that I had as a child, because it’s been my dream since then to create books that could do the same thing for other children. And so it’s definitely been an interesting switch having books out now in the world. And suddenly there’s more voices involved and input. And there’s a different sort of pressure that comes into your writing process and so I’ve had to sort of adjust and learn, okay, how do I quiet those voices and still just protect little me as a child? How do I tap into that? And how do I, you know, honor that and be authentic to who I am as myself now and also as a child? So it’s definitely something that I’m always trying to learn how to grasp tighter. It kind of ebbs and flows just depending on those different pressures and deadlines and all the things that come with the publishing industry. But it’s probably my favorite part of writing is that it does make me feel so connected to my childlike self.

Bianca Schulze: I love that. It kind of sounds to me that maybe you always imagined yourself as a writer. Is that true?

Allie Millington: Yes, yep. I’ve never wanted to do anything else with my life ever since I can remember. Yeah, books just changed my life. They shaped me and it hit me very, very early that I would be so honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to get to write books that would hopefully impact people and getting to share my stories with others was just, it was always the dream. It’s been a really long journey getting here. But now that I’ve had this opportunity, it still hasn’t sunk in. I’m not sure if it ever will, but I definitely want to just make the most of this opportunity that I have because it means so much to me.

Bianca Schulze: I love that you said that it’s been such a long journey because I know that there are creators that have been creating stories and wonder at what point do they give up submitting to a publisher and an agent, right? And the perseverance that’s required to be a published author, I feel like it’s not given enough credit.

So why don’t you share just a little bit about what your personal journey looked like? And it’s so different for everybody, but what did yours look like between, okay, obviously being a kid and wanting to be a writer, but from that moment, you really took it seriously and were submitting, like, what did that process look like for you?

Allie Millington: Sure, yeah. I, you know, when I started querying to literary agents, I was very naive. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know that rejection was an inevitable part of the process, but I very quickly learned that it was, and I learned, wow, this really hurts. This can be very disappointing. But the most interesting thing happened, you know, the more I started getting rejections, the more and more I wanted this dream to come true for me.

It was almost kind of affirming, it kind of just strengthened that dream within me. I decided, you know, I’m not going to let anyone determine the outcome besides me. I’m the only one who can decide whether or not I give up. And so I made a promise to myself and to people around me who could hold me accountable that I’m just going to keep writing, kind of keep trying different books and see what lands. And so I ended up writing four middle grade novels and a handful of picture books kind of along the way as I was querying, got hundreds and hundreds of rejections over several years. And I actually started what I call my rejection collection, which is where I made a little doodle or poem for every rejection letter I got. And so that was kind of my way to continue to create in the face of, you know, that rejection and honoring that desire within me and not giving up there. Then I ended up with so many pieces of my rejection collection, I got to start sending them out to other people who were feeling disappointed or they were being rejected in their own way. So it was really cool to take something that felt so negative and difficult and sort of flip it on its head and say, how could I encourage people with this? And how could I encourage myself? But something cool that kind of came from my whole journey of trying to get published was, I was feeling very hopeless, had this dream that I wanted so badly and it felt like it just kept getting crushed and shattered and I just didn’t know what to do with it anymore. And so I wrote a picture book that was called When You Find a Hope and it was inspired of course by that experience and nothing ever happened to it. As I cleared it out, nobody wanted it but of course, long story short, now here we are talking about When You Find a Hope that is coming out in May. So it’s a really sweet full circle. And I’m just so honored to be able to share this book that, you know, it got me through a hopeless season and I’m, you know, it’s just my desire that it would encourage others who are feeling hopeless themselves.

Bianca Schulze: Your response is just making me smile inside because when I asked that question, I didn’t anticipate your answer and that it was going to connect to exactly into the picture book you’re here to talk about today. And so as you were talking, I was like, oh, this makes complete sense why she was the right person to write this particular picture book. Then, you know, I just I was I was really enjoying your answer there. So I’m wondering, do you have a copy on hand?

Allie Millington: I do actually have one right here.

Bianca Schulze: Awesome. Would you be willing to read like the first two, maybe three pages just to set the scene for our listeners and they’ll get the gist.

Allie Millington: Okay, yeah, I would love that. I’ll try to show the illustrations too. There once was a tree that grew hope from its branches.

People came from near and far to visit the tree, plucking off whatever hope they could reach. They’d take their homes and hide them somewhere safe so nothing could ever harm them.

A curious girl came to the tree. When she saw the highest hopes, the brightest ones at the very top, she knew that was what she wanted. She climbed all the way up, grabbing the largest hope she could find.

Bianca Schulze: So the story goes on and it uses the metaphor of a physical hope that can be carried, broken, and then regrown. So we heard a little bit about your experience that led to the creation of the story, but how did you end up visualizing hope in such a tangible way?

Allie Millington: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I think it’s just because my hope felt so big and it truly felt like it was one that I climbed somewhere high to reach and it was the brightest, biggest one I could grab and it was something that, like the girl in the story, I carried everywhere with me. I didn’t, I wasn’t shy about my dream of wanting to become an author, which sometimes it’s vulnerable to say you want something because there’s no guarantee that it’s going to work out for you and those years of it not working out. Sometimes it was embarrassing, you know, or people just fully didn’t understand. But I still wanted to hold on to that hope. And so I think it just always felt so real to me. And it felt like the one thing I always could come back to. And it was what got me through all of that rejection. It’s what kept me going because there was still that tiny seed of hope within me that, you know, if I keep going, there’s a chance that it might work out. And so I think I just had a, you know, it was always such a big part of my story that it was very easy for me to imagine it and for it to feel so real and tangible.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah. So throughout, especially with the visuals included, we see hope shattered, then pieced back together, and then eventually sprouting into new trees, which lends itself beautifully to being a conversation starter between kids and parents or kids and their caregivers. So what kinds of conversations do you hope that your book sparks?

Allie Millington: Yes, I you know I would love for it to be something where kids could really connect to their parents or caregivers, know and see. If they’ve maybe had a similar situation and so if a kid is feeling hopeless or something hasn’t worked out or they’re disappointed, they could turn to their parents. Have you ever felt this way or you know just kind of normalizing that feeling because we all are hopeless that many times in our life it’s not an abnormal thing. And so I think just normalizing it, helping kids recognize that just because the hope is shattered, it’s not over. There’s still something that can grow from it. There’s something you can learn, something that others can glean from it. So yeah, I really hope it connects kind of anyone who reads it together and makes them feel this, but this is a universal experience. It’s not something that they have to suffer alone in, but that they’re able to connect with other people.

Bianca Schulze: I love that. Well, tell me how you feel about the way that Illustrator Anne Lambellet brings your story to life because her artwork is so stunning and like it looks, it feels familiar, but it also feels completely unique at the same time. And she has this really clever way of making sort of certain elements glow within the page. Like one of my favorite things is when an illustrator can, I love it when they do rosy cheeks on kids, but I love it when they make things just glow off the page. I think it’s such a unique talent because you have to truly understand the difference between darkness and light to make that work. Like when you first saw the artwork and also did you get a say in who you wanted the illustrator to be? Like just tell me about the pairing and how it makes you feel.

Allie Millington: Yeah, so I originally had another illustrator kind of lined up for this book and then kind of halfway through the process it fell through. And so that was another kind of, you know, feeling like a hope was shattered slightly but then Anne kind of swooped in and saved the day. And I’m just so grateful that I’ve been able to work with her because her illustrations and art are just they far surpass any thing I could have ever imagined. You know, it’s not an easy task to take something abstract and make it feel alive and make it feel something that you care about, something that is very tangible. And Anne did just that. And so even from the beginning, when I saw her sketches, I was just blown away. And then seeing the full book in color, I think one of my favorite things about what Anne did is she just didn’t shy away from those harder emotions. She really put it all on the page and kind of captured the essence of what I was trying to express and everything that I felt. I truly think that she was able to portray that. I love that she does do that mixture of dark versus light because that’s just life, right? Even for kids, that’s something that we have to wade through and figure out and there are dark seasons in our life, but then there’s also those glimmers of hope that we can find it. So I, every time I read it, I get a lump in my throat and a little teary eyed because the illustrations are just very emotional and so powerful. So I couldn’t be happier to be working with Ann.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah, I agree with everything you just said. I’m sure reading it out loud, you know, probably for the first like 20 times, I’m sure it’s going to be an emotional experience for you when you’re in front of, you know, a group of people that you don’t know and sharing that piece of your heart, but it’ll be so powerful for anyone that gets to experience that live reading from you. So you’ve had remarkable success with your debut novel, Olivetti, even getting a review from Tom Hanks in the New York Times. So cool. So how has that journey influenced your approach to this picture book? I have to imagine you already described it when you were writing before you’re officially published, there’s all this time and space to revise and then suddenly you have deadlines. So that’s pressure in itself. And then you get this review from Tom Hanks in the New York Times, right? So like how has that influenced your writing so far? Has it helped? Has it become a little bit of extra weight on the shoulders?

Allie Millington: I definitely think it feels a little bit of both. For the first time, getting some sort of external validation for my work feels, of course, amazing, but it’s also very hard to grasp because for so long, all I was used to was the rejections and the critiques. So, yeah, a lot of it, I feel like it didn’t fully sink in last year when Olivetti came out and so many amazing things happened with that book that I’m so grateful for.

But it also, definitely does put a little bit of a weight on my shoulders, I think, mainly because I just want to do right by my readers. You know, if they’re expecting to feel certain things or they’ve had a beautifully emotional experience with Olivetti, I want to give them that again, which I know is not always possible. I can’t just recreate the same experience over and over. So it has been a bit of a challenge kind of learning how to write from there. Thankfully, When You Find a Hope was already written before Olivetti came out and then also my next middle grade book that comes out next week, which is called Once for Yes, that was also written before Olivetti was published. So those two, you know, I felt like I could still, there’s a different kind of pressure, but not as much as I’m feeling currently, you know what I’m working on. But yeah, at the end of the day, I’m just so thrilled to have more books in the world and especially, you know, jumping into the picture book audience, getting to spend time with those younger kids, I think is just so precious and it’s such a pivotal time for children. And so to hopefully deliver a book that does spark a lot of conversation and connection between families, hopefully at schools too or libraries, you know, it’s just such an amazing opportunity and I am very grateful to be in this with this new audience.

Bianca Schulze: Well, since you mentioned your second middle grade novel Once For Yes why don’t you give us a little like brief preview of it for anyone who hasn’t been able to pick it up yet? What can they expect?

Allie Millington: Sure. So, Once For Yes also has a unique narrator, much like all of Olivetti did, which was told by a typewriter. Once For Yes is narrated by an old crotchety apartment building named The Odenburgh, who has been slated for demolition and sold, and all of the tenants living inside of it only have a month to move out. And so The Odenburgh thinks no one’s going to want to stand up for it. Everyone’s just going to leave and move on, but there’s actually one tenant living inside of the building who wants to do whatever she can in order to save her home because it’s the last place she lived with her sister. And so this 12 year old girl crew teams up with The Odenburgh to try and save the building and rally all of the bickering residents together. So it’s another heartfelt book, lots of big emotions, some lump in your throat moments, and then of course some fun narration styles as well.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah, When you were describing it, I’m glad you said lump in your throat, because I kind of got goosebumps. I’m like, this does sound like a big emotion story. So yeah, wow. All right. Well, I’m bummed I haven’t had a chance to pick it up yet, because it sounds incredible.

Allie Millington: Thank you. Yeah, it comes out next Tuesday, so you’re not too late.

Bianca Schulze: Awesome. Well, As we wrap up, what’s one thing you’d like to say directly to the children who will be reading When You Find a Hope?

Allie Millington: Wow, that’s a powerful question. I hope that you feel seen in this. I hope that you feel safe to feel however you need to feel. And I hope that it just sparked something bright and beautiful within you that you feel is worth holding on to.

Bianca Schulze: And then what advice would you give to parents and caregivers who want to help children maintain hope during challenging times, which we are experiencing? I mean, it’s so devastating that we still live in a world where war takes place.

Allie Millington: Right, absolutely. I think, you know, showing children that adults go through this too, like I mentioned before, you know, having those open conversations that we all feel hopeless. We all, you know, go through times where things just don’t work out how we want them to. And so how do we persevere and why it’s worth it to persevere? You know, for me, it was worth it to persevere through all that rejection because it means I’m here getting to talk to you and getting to share my stories with readers and so I you know I hope that this book can encourage parents to share those types of stories with their children of you know when they they pressed on and they persevered and why it was worth it to get to the other side.

Bianca Schulze: I love it. If listeners would just take away one thing from everything we talked about today, what do you want it to be?

Allie Millington: Hmm. Brain drains can be very helpful. That’s a big one. And then also, yeah, it’s such a challenging, very dark time right now. And so finding those glimmers of hope, finding people you can hold on to that connection, holding on to each other and taking care of each other, I think that’s all we can do right now. Yeah.

Bianca Schulze: Yeah, well, Allie, thank you for sharing When You Find a Hope with us today. And thank you for reminding us all that hope is always worth holding on to, especially when it feels out of reach. I know your book will plant seeds of hope in so many hearts, young and old. So it’s just it’s been a joy having you with us today. And I wish you all the success with all of your books and this particular one just feels so needed right now. It’s definitely got a special place in my heart. So thanks again for being here.

Allie Millington: I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Show Notes

Publisher’s Book Summary: Experience the improbable beauty of a shattered hope born anew in this magical tale about a young girl, a tree full of hopes, and the power of perseverance.

In this tale of unexplained wonder, there is a tree that grows hope from its branches. A curious girl visits the tree and plucks the largest, brightest hope she can find. Her hope can float, so she tethers it to her side and takes it with her everywhere. When the unimaginable happens and her hope is crushed, the girl pieces her hope back together and drags it along behind her until even the pieces are lost—or are they? Looking back, she finds that small trees have begun to sprout in her wake, the beautiful offerings of her now firmly rooted, thriving hope.   

The first picture book from bestselling author Allie Millington (Olivetti), this moving story celebrates the importance of holding onto hope and the improbable beauty of a lost hope born anew. 

Buy the Book

About the Author

Author Allie Millington strives to share relatable, accessible truths from unique points of view in her stories. Her debut middle-grade novel, Olivetti, was an instant national bestseller and received numerous starred reviews, as well as a review in the New York Times by actor and typewriter enthusiast Tom Hanks.

You can learn more about Allie and her writing at alliemillington.com.

Additional Books Mentioned:

When You Find a Hope by Allie Millington, illustrated by Anne Lambellet: ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠

Olivetti by Allie Millington: ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠

Once For Yes by Allie Millington: ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne: ⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠