What if embracing your differences is the key to discovering where you truly belong?
What if embracing your differences is the key to discovering where you truly belong?
About the Book
Derby and the Dandelions is a contemporary young adult novel that explores the coming-of-age journey of a seventeen-year-old orphan who has to choose between her found family and a wealthy adoptive family. It’s a love story between friends and it’s about the quest to find the place we truly belong.
This is a story for people who understand the power of friendship to heal the past, and who believe art can help us create a future worth living.
About Niki
I’m a former aerospace executive turned writer, living in Tucson and Denver. With a BA in English from The Ohio State University and a master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, I explore how stories shape us. I believe the right story at the right moment can change a life.
A Neurodiverse Universe
High sensitivity describes a personality trait based on biology. It means someone’s nervous system is more finely tuned than average, so they take in more information from their environment and they process it more deeply. Saying someone is an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) describes how someone experiences and reacts to the world, both physically and emotionally.
An alternative framework uses the orchid / dandelion / tulip metaphor to explain how this trait of sensitivity is significantly impacted by the environment. Saying you’re an orchid means your growth depends on your environment. With care and support you might bloom beautifully, but in harsh conditions, you struggle more than most. Using the flower framework accounts for both individual sensitivity and environmental responsiveness. It’s focused on nature and nurture.
The flower framework is also inclusive of everyone’s nervous system, to show all the diversity across the sensitivity spectrum. Dandelions with low sensitivity are relatively resistant to adversity. They notice their environment, but they’re incredibly hardy and resilient. Tulips represent the balanced middle-ground between dandelions and orchids. Across the human species, approximately 20-25% are orchids, 50-60% are dandelions and 20-25% are tulips.
I’ve used the metaphor of dandelions and orchids in this novel to normalize the entire sensitivity spectrum and to show how the environment can be managed to help orchids blossom and thrive. And, also… I prefer to say I’m an orchid because it feels more empowering than saying I’m highly sensitive.
Writing Mission
I’ve read dozens of non-fiction books about neurodiversity and high sensitivity. Many outstanding books explained the science and the research. But nothing ever showed the lived experience of a person with high sensitivity. Non-fiction doesn’t illuminate the daily challenges from the inside out. I wanted to know what it could look like to manage my environment to thrive as an orchid.
Therefore, I wrote the book I most wanted to read. I wrote Derby & The Dandelions to increase empathy and awareness about high sensitivity. I hope this story will help highly sensitive people understand themselves better, and help the people who love highly sensitive people to love them better.
I believe in the power of stories to help us live better lives.
Essays
I always carry a small spiral notebook with me to capture random ideas and phrases I overhear. Sometimes these tiny ideas grow up and evolve into full-fledged essays. I’ve learned to follow these ideas wherever they lead me and I’m publishing these essays on Substack, because it’s fun and energizing and free.
Writing essays helps me figure out what I’m thinking and feeling. Sharing essays helps me connect with readers. I mostly write about neurodiversity, creativity and transformation. I write about ideas that might also be relevant for you and your life. You can find my writing via my Substack feed.
