Hello, fronds! Stacey Nguyen here. I’m a 25-year-old writer who loves children’s books and indoor plants in equal measures. Right now, I’m hanging out in California’s Central Valley, where I’m writing away about pop culture, lifestyle, and entertainment while also furiously documenting my love for plants and kid lit on my Instagram page @theplantbbs. I’m starting Hello Fronds as a project to cultivate all things joyful — while remaining cognizant of the ways that we can be even more excellent to each other!

Indoor Plants

Obviously, the name has do with…plants. A frond is, generally speaking, a huge divided leaf. Think ferns or palms. I’m not even particularly great at caring for those plants, but I just think it’s a cute greeting. It reminds me of how on Schitt’s Creek, Moira crashed into Rose Apothecary announcing, “Say hello to all of my hashtag frands!”

But yeah. The plant thing. As a writer, I’m usually holed up in my room toiling away on my keyboard. Growing indoor plants became a healthy way for me to spend time away from the computer. You’ve heard of the benefits of plants — they’re beautiful, stress-reducing, and purifying. Houseplants also helped me connect with people, whether it’s other plantheads through Instagram or my family, friends, and IRL nursery owners. Truly, nothing beats the feeling of sinking your fingers in dirt. This blog will be in part an outlet to share the joys of indoor gardening through plant odes, guides, tips, tricks, and more.  

Kid Lit

Another component of this blog will be books, specifically kid lit. Kid lit is indeed joyful, though it’s deceivingly simple. I’m so enamored with the curious ways that authors communicate big themes to young children. I adore how illustrations communicate with the text. As someone who’s not a parent or in education, my angle here is to critically engage with these books as they fit into the bigger context of the world. I’m especially interested in reading texts that tell racially diverse stories. Oh yes, it’s going to be lit.