Transcript
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Welcome, you're listening to Between Our Pages, a Premier's Reading Challenge WA podcast.
My name is Fiona Bartholomaeus and together we'll be diving into the wonderful world of books and reading right here in WA.
Today we're hearing from champion tennis player Jelena Dokic about the next step in her writing journey, diving into children's literature.
Let's go!
Jelena Dokic is a tennis player, champion, commentator and also an author. She's written two books detailing her history with domestic violence and how she's not a victim or survivor, but in fact a thriver, using what she's learnt to help others and spread messages of support and change.
After releasing her second book, ‘Fearless’, Jelena now wants to dive into the world of children's literature.
She spoke to Marie-Anne Keefe, or MAK, Director of Communications at the Department of Education, about her plans and what she wants to achieve with her first children's book.
MAK
Now, we have this little reading program we roll out to all our schools called the Premier's Reading Challenge, and we run a competition to see who can read the most books out of all the students in our schools.
Last year combined, over 360,000 books were read in about 5 months. So it's seriously mind-blowing how brilliant our kids are.
We're pretty serious about literacy here at the Department of Education and a little birdie has told me that one of the next things for you is a children's book.
Jelena Dokic
Yes, it is.
MAK
Talk to me about that.
Jelena Dokic
I've wanted to do that actually straight away after ‘Unbreakable’, that was always my kind of next thing and dream to do and even thinking about turning actually ‘Unbreakable’ into a book for the younger generation and how we turn that language.
So ‘Fearless’ was kind of the next thing though because of how quickly things changed for me with ‘Unbreakable’, with how my life changed and how I changed and just found happiness. So yeah the next kind of natural step was ‘Fearless’ and another book from more of a thriving perspective as I kind of really found like that I went from victim, survivor, to really more importantly thriver, that's that was a bigger and a next step.
I've always said we got to do we got to do a children's book, now I have an idea to do one for the really really young ones, like preschool and something. Something still very, very powerful with still some drawings and some things like that. But I also want to do something very important and like to concentrate and really zero in on the 10 to 16 year olds.
I think it's really important because talking to even parents, there is, there's nothing really too much on the market, there's a missing link there that kids can read when it comes to the way that they deal with even bullying, the way that they can even deal with social media and the internet, the way that just they deal with life today, what they're exposed to, but also even like what's the next step?
That's kind of a little bit I found in sport, for example, and in tennis it's a turning point you have a lot of kids that quit at the at around the age of 13, 14, 15, why is that? And if that does happen and they choose to go a different route how to do that and how to still believe in themselves? So there is a lot there that I kind of feel like we can and cover and I still want to kind of merge ‘Fearless’ in there, ‘Fearless’ and ‘Unbreakable’, more ‘Fearless’.
MAK
The themes? Those key themes?
Jelena Dokic
Yes those themes.
MAK
Which is so appropriate given social media and how social media has taken over our young people's lives.
Jelena Dokic
And still some of those core values that I believe in but also the hard work, that get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I think kids also these days as well it's all about ‘oh if I make a mistake it's the end of the world’ and I used to feel like ‘okay I made a mistake let's go again’ so I kind of want to put it out that it's okay if you make a mistake and fail and fall, you've got to try things to be able to grow. You can't improve if you don't make mistakes but that the more important thing is if you get up and how you get up and that you've learned from it, so that's the resilience part.
So there's different parts in chapter steward that I already know what I want to go into but it is now working also with the children's editor on that language and how we put that together.
MAK
So exciting.
Jelena Dokic
Yeah it is, it really is.
MAK
Will there be pictures in the in books for the younger kids?
Jelena Dokic
Yes absolutely, so it's all, we're having those meetings already we're going to start a little bit later this year. I'm really excited that Jess Halloran's back on board as well, she wrote both of my books with me. The whole team's back plus a children's editor so I'm excited because the same team worked on both books, which is amazing.
So we've done a great job in really understanding me, my story, but also, yeah, the way that I work and function. And a lot of that is my own words and writing and paragraphs and I've always said, ‘leave that, leave my voice in there’. That's what people are going to recognise and that's what I actually want to do with the children's book as well. So I'm excited, it's very, very different.
So I'm excited to see what that will look like.
MAK
Will there be a main character who's a tennis player? I have to ask.
Jelena Dokic
Yeah, I think so. I still want to put that kind of, yeah it is who I am and it is my story and I do still want it to come from me. So maybe, yeah maybe it'll be, I don't know maybe it'll be a little Jelena I don't know.
But yeah I was always even as a kid I was, yeah I was a fighter, I was competitive, I liked school, I liked the education part of it as well so maybe we’ll put that in there just to follow your dreams, your passions yeah some of those things.
So we'll see how that goes and which one we do first. Maybe we can do even 2 kind of simultaneously and see how we do that but I'm also very excited to do the one from you know 9, 10 year olds to 15, 16 it's such a sensitive time for both, especially girls, but I think it's also important to write it for boys as well. They're a big part of a lot of the things that we're trying to achieve, including equality, and I want the younger generation to already know that from a very young age.
MAK
Well, I look forward to having you back on the Premier's Reading Challenge podcast, and Minister Winton, who is the minister, one of our ministers, and she's the Minister for Early Childhood. You've already spoken with her, I believe, about this and her eyes lit up and she was so excited about that.
So we look forward to those up and coming chapters.
Jelena Dokic
Thank you. No pressure.
MAK
No pressure at all. This is a no-pressure zone, you know that.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
You've been listening to Between Our Pages, a Premier's Reading Challenge WA podcast.
Thanks to our guest, Jelena Dokic, for joining us on this episode.
This episode was recorded on Wadjak Noongar land, we acknowledge the traditional custodians and pay respects their elders past, present and emerging.
Stay tuned to your favourite podcast player for future episodes.
Thank you for listening. Happy reading. We'll see you next time.