Before Wii begins reading her book to a group of young children, she asks them one simple question:
Have you ever felt nervous introducing yourself in front of a class?
Hands go up.
Not just a few. Every student raises their hand. Even the teachers do.
For Wii, a Grade 12 student at International School Bangkok (ISB), it is a small moment that says something much bigger. The emotions at the heart of the story she spent months writing and illustrating are not unusual at all. They are feelings many of us share, even if we do not always talk about them.
And that is exactly what she hoped her story could help change.
A Story Begins With a Feeling
Wii is the author and illustrator of Where Milo Found His Breath, a Thai English children’s picture book exploring social anxiety, emotions and ways of finding calm.
The story follows Milo on his first day of school. When it is time to introduce himself to his new classmates, nervousness takes over. He feels scared and overwhelmed, almost as though he is running out of breath.
Soon, Milo finds himself in an underwater world surrounded by frightening sharks. Then a whale guardian appears and helps him discover mindful breathing, giving him a way to slow down and find his calm again.
For Wii, creating Milo began with something she had loved for years: art.
“I love drawing. I love illustrations,” she says.
She had always wanted to create a picture book, but for a long time, she did not know what story she wanted to tell.
That changed through her involvement with ISB’s InvisAbilities Club, where students advocate for greater awareness of neurodiversity, mental health and disabilities. Through that experience, Wii began thinking more deeply about how children learn to understand difficult emotions and how complex topics could be introduced in ways that feel approachable.
She did not want to simply give children information.
She wanted to create something they could connect with.
A children’s book gave her the space to bring those ideas together through storytelling, imagination and illustration.
“I knew I wasn't the only kid that had these difficult and hard feelings,” Wii shares. “My hope with this book is that maybe even just one kid could resonate with Milo's story.”
Creating Milo, Understanding Herself
As Wii began developing Milo’s character, one question kept returning:
What is Milo feeling right now?
Answering it required more than thinking like an illustrator or writer. It required her to look inward too.
“In the process, I always had to think about, what is Milo thinking about right now?” she explains. “That required me to be very vulnerable with my own emotions.”
As the pages came together, Wii realized the project was changing her relationship with her own feelings as well.
“I wasn't only trying to help others understand their own emotions,” she says. “I used the book as a creative outlet to understand my own feelings as well.”
What began as a project for young readers had quietly become a journey of self discovery too.
When Creativity Gets Difficult
Bringing that idea to life was not always easy.
There were days when Wii could draw for hours. She remembers several back to back seven hour workdays spent developing storyboards, illustrations and artwork.
And then there were days when she could barely draw at all.
Artist’s block became one of the biggest challenges of the project. The creativity that flowed easily one day could disappear the next.
At the same time, Wii was completing the full IB Diploma Programme, balancing the demands of her final year at ISB with the commitment required to write, illustrate and develop the book.
What kept her going was thinking beyond the unfinished pages in front of her.
She thought about the child who might eventually read them.
She thought about how her artwork could become something useful, something that might help another person recognize and understand their own feelings.
Purpose became part of the creative process.
Then Every Hand Went Up
That purpose became real when Wii began sharing Where Milo Found His Breath with younger children through read aloud sessions.
Before reading, she would ask her audience whether they had ever felt nervous introducing themselves in front of their classmates.
Every time, hands went up.
Students raised them.
Teachers raised them.
Everyone seemed to know the feeling Milo was experiencing.
For Wii, the response reinforced an important idea: emotions that can feel isolating are often far more universal than we realize.
Sometimes, we simply need a way to talk about them.
And sometimes, that conversation can begin with a story.
From an ISB Project to a Wider Community
Throughout the journey, Wii found support from people around her.
She credits ISB’s counseling team with supporting her as she navigated the demands of the full IB Diploma Programme alongside such an ambitious creative project. She also found encouragement within the ISB community that helped her recognize the potential for her work to reach beyond the school.
That reach is now growing.
Wii is preparing to present Where Milo Found His Breath as a social emotional learning resource through an international webinar, creating an opportunity for the book to reach school counselors across more than 50 countries.
She has also taken the story beyond ISB through read aloud sessions with younger children in the wider community.
What started as an idea from a student who loved to draw is becoming something with the potential to support young people far beyond its original pages.
Finding Her Own Voice
Milo learns to find calm through mindful breathing.
For Wii, finding what helps her stay grounded has taken different forms.
One of them is art.
But she has also found her voice through speech and music, including her experience in Jazz Vocal Ensemble. Each has asked her to step outside her comfort zone, improvise, perform and allow herself to be vulnerable in front of others.
“As for me, I found my voice through the arts, through jazz vocals, and through speech,” she says.
Now in her senior year, Wii has come to understand that courage does not necessarily mean never feeling nervous. Sometimes, it means finding what helps you move through that feeling and continuing anyway.
It is something she hopes younger children will discover for themselves.
“I want them to understand that their fears and restrictions don't make them any weaker or lesser.”
Perhaps that is where the real story of Where Milo Found His Breath can be found.
It began with a love of drawing.
It grew from a willingness to explore difficult emotions.
And somewhere between the first sketch and the finished story, Wii discovered that creativity can become more than a form of expression.
It can become a way to understand yourself, connect with someone else and create something with purpose.
