Meet Amy

Author of the Strong Girls Travel book series

  • Hello! I’m Amy Friedl and the author of the Strong Girls Travel series, as well as a few other books. It’s been a childhood dream to write children’s books, and I’m thrilled to be at a point in my life where I am able to make it happen! For the last 22 years, I’ve been teaching middle & high school English, raising kids, and helping in my community.

    But only in the last few years have I really been discovering who I am…

  • The idea for this book series came from an all-girls trip I took to Glacier National Park in 2021. While sitting on a roadside wall, watching a storm roll in over a mountain peak, I thought, “Every girl should know they can get out there to adventure the world.” And the idea of a book series set in National Parks with a girl for the main character was born! Our trip was self-titled “Strong Women Travel,” so the name kind of stuck.

  • From the parks themselves!

    So I took to adventuring back in 2020. I was going through a depressive chapter of my own life and struggling with mental health, physical health, and family relationships. Thanks to the brave choice to call my doctor, I received the medicine to help, the therapy I needed, and the referral for weight loss surgery that was the tool my body craved. In this journey, I found a peace and calm in nature that I never had before. I started hiking local parks. I started kayaking. Then I branched out and met a goal of adventuring at all of my WI State Parks within 18 months.

    With each adventure, I learned something about myself, my world, and my part in it all.

    So when I go adventure at a National Park, I know I’m bound to learn something new as I’m there. And that’s the lesson that makes its way into AJ’s story.

    The illustrations always come from my own pictures and the native plants and animals found at that park.

    The world is too full of ways to make us stronger and more aware. I just want to share that.