Gordon Flett

I think, you know, it's no coincidence that angel is in her first name where she has dedicated herself to going around.

She tells me she's talked to hundreds of thousands of kids, telling them stories, making them feel special, but mostly also wanting to hear from them in terms of how they're doing.

So stories can make an incredible difference though.

And I'm very glad to learn about your book.

And I knew that it's been in the works for.

A while because you know, there's the message in the book, but there's also the conversations that come around the book, you know, where a parent or an educator could say, okay, now let's talk about this concept in terms of a time when you might've felt you mattered or you didn't matter.

So it's a way of opening the doors to these conversations that need to take place.

And also mattering makes people feel good.

I just had a paper accepted where I looked at some of these actual feelings

terms of the positive affect that comes from this.

So it's going to give a boost to spirits and that's going to open the door to other emotions.

And when it's shrouded in hope, why wouldn't the kids then say, Hey, maybe I can be somebody who makes a difference by gathering together others and showing them that I care about them.

And, you know, that's how we're going to get a whole bunch more educators and counselors and psychologists.

Angela has done this by the way, where she was a classroom teacher for many years.

She's done this because she told me that each week she would pick five kids to give them the individual attention that they may not get in a bigger class.

And she says, you know, by the end of the week, these kids are transformed because the teacher has centered them out.

But everybody knows that everybody's going to get a chance and it's going to be this way.

And she says, this is how we end up with kids who understand what it feels like to matter and become what she calls mattering ambassadors.

And she's now doing work in Appalachia in some very poor areas to try and give those kids a sense of mattering and hope in addition to how they're already feeling.

Her dedication to this is because she's seen how it transforms lives and always in a good way.