✨ Two Days Since the Book Dropped… and This Is What’s Happening

WHAT IS GOING ON.

Ry's Take Care Blog 🦋

Jul 03, 2025

Two days ago, I published my debut book.

Once Upon a Time, I Survived Myself.

And since then?

Everything and nothing has changed.

My face still breaks out when I’m stressed.

I’m still crying at 2 a.m. because I miss people I’m too proud to text.

But somewhere out there, a boy from Snapchat (NO NO NOT HIM) is 100 pages into my healing arc and said, “This is the longest I’ve read a book in a long time.”

So that’s something.

I thought publishing my story would feel like a movie montage.

Like there would be confetti or a parade or at least a well-lit moment of closure.

But it’s quieter than that.

Softer.

It’s people DMing me, saying they saw themselves in the chapter where I stopped pretending I was okay.

It’s friends I haven’t spoken to since middle school ordering it “just to support” and then sending me paragraphs that start with “wait I didn’t expect to cry???”

It’s strangers falling in love with the girl on the page.

It’s realizing this isn’t a book.

It’s a body.

My body.

Every symptom, every spiral, every hospital bracelet I pretended was a cute accessory.

It’s the boy I loved who couldn’t love me back.

The girl I was at 15, trying to stay alive.

The version of me who believed healing was something you could graduate from.

(Spoiler alert: you can’t. But you can write about it and cry over pasta while reading Goodreads reviews.)

Two days ago, I put the most vulnerable parts of me into the world.

And people… are reading it.

Not skimming. Not scrolling.

Reading.

Like highlighting lines and dog-earing pages and texting me things like “I think your nervous system wrote this for mine.”

Someone asked me what it feels like to be a published author.

And honestly? It feels like finally exhaling.

Like telling your truth and watching it echo in someone else’s chest.

Like maybe everything I went through didn’t ruin me—it just gave me something to say.

So yes, I’m still tired.

Still healing.

Still thinking about the boy I love that is idk where right now.

But I’m also proud.

Of her. Of me. Of this.

If you’re reading this, thank you.

For listening. For staying. For believing that a girl who cries a lot could also write something worth surviving for.

We’re just getting started. ✨📖

OH….

And, by the way?

We hit #1.

Yeah. Number one new release in Body, Mind & Spirit.

Above the coloring books. Above the guided journals. Above the perfectly aesthetic wellness girlies.

A memoir about nervous systems, heartbreak, and soft girls who kept going.

My book.

My name.

On a list that once felt like a dream.

This isn’t just a ranking.

It’s a message:

Stories like mine matter.

And to the girl I was at 15—

The one in the ER with a heart monitor and too many feelings:

We made it, baby.

We made it.

📚

Available now on Amazon:

🔗 amazon.com — Once Upon a Time I Survived Myself by Rylin Rossano

ISBN: 979-8-3196-0395-1

Format: Paperback

Page count: 275

Genre: Memoir / Mental Health / Healing / Coming-of-Age

📖 What It’s About:

Once Upon a Time, I Survived Myself is part memoir, part poetic survival guide.

It’s for the girls who feel too much.

The ones who’ve lived with chronic illness, trauma, anxiety, heartbreak—and still choose softness.

Rylin writes through grief, growing up too fast, nervous system spirals, healing girlhood, and learning how to be loved. It’s raw, lyrical, powerful, and unforgettable.