About Me

Hey! I’m Julissa Santoyo. I’m a 25 year old, born to a Puerto Rican mother and a Mexican father on the Southside of Chicago. I’m bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish and am now in my 4th year teaching high school Spanish.

At a very young age, poetry became my favorite form of expression. Writing is, and has always been, one of the things I enjoy most in this world. Being bilingual has given me the privilege to reach both English and Spanish speaking populations.

As a kid, I wrote poems on any piece of scrap paper or in any notebook I could get my hands on. I dreamt of writing a book my mom and I thought would be titled "Big Thoughts for Little Minds: Poems from the Heart of an 8 Year Old." Having never published those poems, I started to realize that I had years worth of writing that I never shared. I spent years thinking about sharing my writing with others but let fear convince me it wasn’t a good idea. 13 years later, I decided I would finally do it. I created a space for myself to share my writing and personal experiences.

I can’t promise you’ll love everything you read here, but I can promise that the short pieces that I share are genuine and each one is something that I hold close to my heart.

Photo by Jessica Dimento. Styled by Lexi Mischnick.