victoriacortezbooks.com

Victoria
Cortez

"Stories that grow with your family — from the first breath to the classroom."

Author Advocate Mother of Seven Educator Doula Storyteller
Victoria Cortez
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Press Bio

Victoria Cortez is a children's book author, family wellness advocate, and education activist whose work spans picture books, parenting guides, and cultural coloring adventures. A proud mother of seven and former school board member raised in San Jose, California, she writes stories that give children mirrors to see themselves and windows into the world around them. Her catalog includes the Mixed Girl series, Raising Resilient Kids, the All Good Things N More series, and co-authored cultural titles celebrating Filipino heritage. Through her books and her work as a birth doula with Guided by Grace, Victoria's mission is the same whether she's on the page or in the room: help families feel seen, supported, and strong from the very beginning.

Where I
Come From

I was raised in a multigenerational, multicultural home in San Jose shaped by strong women, deep faith, discipline, and the kind of laughter that fills a whole house. Education was treated like liberation in our family — something you worked for, and then turned around and handed to the next person coming up behind you.

I've carried that belief into everything I do.

"I've been in the room for some of the most tender moments of family life — and I've written books for the quieter ones, too."

When I became a mother — and then kept becoming one, seven times over — I started writing the books I wished had existed. Books where the kids looked like my kids. Stories where mixed wasn't a problem to solve, it was a superpower to celebrate. Books that helped parents have the hard conversations without having to start from scratch.

I'm a mother of seven, a San Jose native, a former school board member, and a birth and postpartum doula. I've lived through the beauty and the breaking of generational cycles. I know what it means to be the bridge — to hold the past in one hand and a better future in the other.

My books aren't just stories. They're tools. They're conversation starters. They're mirrors and maps for families navigating the beautiful, complicated work of growing up together.

Three Lanes,
One Mission

For Children

  • Mixed Girl – How She Got So Weird
  • Mixed Girl: My Journey to Resilience (Revised & Expanded)
  • Elva the Brave Swimmer
  • Severino and Saguday Kaykayo (Whisper Tree)
  • Coloring the Philippines
  • Intricate Wonders of the Philippines

For Parents & Families

  • Raising Resilient Kids: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Emotional Strength

For Educators & Advocates

  • The Learning Shift: Helping Families Thrive in a Shifting Education Landscape
  • The Power of Now in Education

Advocacy,
Birth Work & Community

My advocacy didn't stop at the page. As a school board member, I fought for school choice that actually respects families, culturally responsive curriculum, and equity in education — because the kids I write for deserve to be seen in their classrooms too, not just their bookshelves.

Doula Services

Guided by Grace

Compassionate, evidence-based birth and postpartum support for families in Alameda, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties. Walking alongside families during one of life's most transformative moments.

Visit guidedbygracedoulas.com →

Doula Training

GGCD Certification Program

Equipping the next generation of birth workers through the Guided by Grace Certified Doula program — training compassionate, community-rooted doulas to serve families with excellence.

Learn about training →

For me, birth work, doula training, and book work all come from the same place: a deep belief that families deserve to begin well.

Let's Stay
Connected

If you're a parent, educator, librarian, faith leader, or fellow storyteller — I'd love to hear from you. Whether it's a school visit, a workshop, a bulk order for your classroom, or just a conversation about raising the next generation with intention and heart.

Together, let's plant seeds. Tell stories. Build futures.
Because childhood isn't just a phase — it's the foundation. — Victoria Cortez

Reading that moved
the needle

These are the voices that showed me what it looks like to tell a hard, true, beautiful story about being a woman, a mother, and someone who doesn't fit neatly into any one box.

Memoir
The Meaning of Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey

"She's Black and Irish and spent her whole life being told she wasn't enough of either. That tension — being too much and not enough at the same time — is one I know deeply. This book gave language to something I'd felt but never read."

Find on Amazon →
Memoir
Black, White, and Jewish
Rebecca Walker

"Daughter of Alice Walker, growing up biracial in America with a foot in two worlds and a home in neither. Raw and honest in a way that shifted how I thought about identity in childhood — and why representation in books matters so much."

Find on Amazon →
Memoir
Mixed: My Life in Black and White
Angela Nissel

"Witty, sharp, and deeply human. Nissel writes about navigating Philadelphia as a light-skinned Black girl who never felt like she belonged in any room. The humor is the armor — and I recognized that immediately."

Find on Amazon →
Memoir
Becoming
Michelle Obama

"A book about becoming — not just famous, but yourself. Michelle's story of navigating systems that weren't built for her, raising daughters with intention, and staying rooted in where she came from is a blueprint I return to."

Find on Amazon →
Memoir
Secret Daughter
June Cross

"Born to a white actress and a Black comedian in the 1950s, June was hidden from her own mother's public life. A heartbreaking, gorgeous book about the cost of loving across color lines when the world punishes you for it."

Find on Amazon →
Poetry & Memoir
Native Guard
Natasha Trethewey

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet writing about growing up biracial in Mississippi and the grief of her mother's murder. It's not a memoir in the traditional sense — it's something more. Poetry that reads like grief made visible."

Find on Amazon →