My Biggest Mistake Led to a Book Deal

I have some news. Big news.

But first, I want to tell you something I don’t think I’ve ever said quite this directly here at Scandi Class.

Can American motherhood literally break you? As a Finnish mom in the US, I would say yes. It broke me.

I moved here chasing a media career, and for a little while, after I was able to establish myself, it felt like the American dream. Then I became a mom, and my American dream quickly turned into my American nightmare.

When you grow up in the Nordics, you don’t realize that all the basic things around you, like a nearly year-long paid maternity leave and the fact that you never have to worry about childcare or how you combine and actually balance work and family, are not actually self-evident elsewhere. You also can’t fathom how intense the parenting culture is, and how many things, chosen and not, are on moms’ plates or considered a mom’s job. It can all take you by surprise, and be such a shock that you don’t know what hit you.

I burned out. Completely. At one of my rock bottom moments, I had so many random symptoms that no doctor or wellness professional I saw could figure out what to do with me or what was happening. For instance, the bottoms of my feet were suddenly covered in “paper cuts” that would not heal, even though I hadn’t stepped on anything sharp. I couldn’t feel any emotion: nothing good, nothing bad. I was like an empty, numb shell crumbling to pieces. For a couple of years, I thought moving to the US was the biggest mistake of my life — a mistake I couldn’t reverse.

Then, in the fall of 2022, I went back to Finland for a semester—and it felt like I had taken a rocket ship to another planet. All I could think of was:

“Why didn’t anyone tell me life could be like this?”

It became clear to me that parenting was not supposed to be this exhausting, this intense, this hard. And quite unbelievably, as weeks went by, it felt like the clouds parted, my head cleared, most of my physical symptoms vanished, and I started feeling deep contentment. I even started writing again—something I hadn’t been able to do for a long time.

If you made it here, tap the ♡ at the end of the post — it means the world, it’s the best way to tell me you stopped by, and it helps this reach more moms like you.

But then the time came to leave. It wasn’t an option to fully move back. So I asked myself: what if I tried living like a Finnish mom, in the US? Surely, it was my birthright to live like the happiest people on earth—I was born one of them. But what’s more, I realized, it wasn’t just my right. It should be yours, too: Finland holds no patent forbidding us from adapting the best secrets of Nordic parenting into our lives, anywhere we live.

So, I started sharing it all with you — on this Substack, and on Instagram. Finnish parenting literally changed my life. And it might change yours, too.

Now, the news.

I have just sealed my first American book deal — with HarperOne, a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, one of the most respected publishers in the world. I will be working with Gabriella Page-Fort, an executive editor known for publishing New York Times bestselling work “that expands our understanding of ourselves and the world”.

I now know why I ended up on this motherhood journey. Coming here wasn’t the biggest mistake of my life, after all. I believe this book is what all of it was for.

This is the mock-up cover I had created for the book proposal (ignore the tea cup with two handles:-). I get to work with an illustrator for the real cover.

Now here’s what I want from you.

As I write this book this summer and fall, I want you to be part of it — not just as a reader, but as a real voice. I’m personally reaching out to a small group of readers to hop on a short phone call with me. I want to hear about your life: what motherhood actually feels like for you, what you’re exhausted by, what you’re dreaming of. This informs what I will write about, and you can also be an inspiration to others—you can show how you have adapted these Finnish parenting philosophies in your own life.

If you’d be open to a short call, comment on this post, say “hi!”, and tell me a little about yourself and where you are in your motherhood journey. I’ll reach out personally.

Scandi Class is where I’ll be sharing the behind-the-scenes journey of writing this book — and the weekly insights of Finnish wisdom you have come to love, and all the chaos of doing this while raising three boys in Connecticut—like a Finnish mom.

The main concepts are always free, but I also have a much deeper layer, the Scandi Circle—the paid section at the end of most newsletters, the detailed how-to’s, the guides, and my most personal stories I’d never share on the public internet. The Scandi Circle also gives access to the full library: the Finnish meal philosophy that made dinner easy, the independent kitchen system, the radical declutter guide for a beautiful, low-maintenance home, the SISU reset for moms, live workshops with Nordic experts, and the upcoming Summer Guide.

The book is being written right now. This is the only place you’ll be inside it as it happens. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the moment. Annual subscribers get the limited-time Midsummer discount:

Upgrade Now

I’m so glad you’re here. Please make sure to comment below to say “hello!” so I can “meet” you—I’ll reach out personally for the phone chats!