By Wakisha Bailey
PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — Fifteen-year-old Mas’ood Holloman is a baseball player, an entrepreneur and now a published author.
His first children’s book, “Finding My Voice,” is inspired by his own experience growing up with a stutter.
The story follows a young baseball player who faces speech challenges but ultimately learns to embrace his stutter as part of what makes him unique.
“He goes through struggles. It’s based off of me,” Mas’ood said.
Mas’ood’s mother first noticed his stutter when he was about 3 years old. Because Mas’ood has a twin brother, she was able to see that their speech was developing differently.
Mas’ood said his stutter has changed over the years, but so has his confidence.
His aunt encouraged him to turn his experience into a book that could help other young people facing similar challenges.
“[She said] we should write a kids’ book because I stutter, and for the people who stutter just like me,” Mas’ood said. “She said it would inspire them to keep going.”
The book’s main character also plays baseball, just like Mas’ood. When he is not working on the field, the young author is busy promoting and selling his book.
Every Thursday afternoon, Mas’ood sets up a stand at the Point Breeze Community Market in Philadelphia. He also takes his sales pitch door to door.
That determination is how Mas’ood first arrived at the CBS Philadelphia studios with his mother and a copy of his book in hand.
Now, he hopes his story will remind other children that a stutter does not have to stand in the way of their goals.
“It makes me proud inside that I actually wrote a book,” Mas’ood said.
Mas’ood is already working on a second book titled “The Young Voice of a Muslim.”
He sells “Finding My Voice” Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Point Breeze Community Market.
The-CNN-Wire
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