Gramma Sir is the pen name of Nicola Moore, which she chose in honor of her own grandmother, B.L. Walker-Hess.

B.L. was born in 1927, and she was a brilliant artist who dreamed of becoming an architect. Unfortunately, women were not allowed to be architects in that era, so B.L. made the most of her talents by pursing a gift for tailoring with a major in home economics and a passion for reading with a master’s in library science.

B.L. never quite got over having to give up her dream on the basis of sex, so when she had two granddaughters, she showed them they could be anything they dreamed with the polite but firm, feminist assertion that she would be called “Gramma Sir.”

As a young child, Nicola thought that was weird. (Isn’t a grandmother supposed to be a ma’am?) Every birthday and Christmas, a card signed proudly by “Gramma Sir” became a fresh reminder about the quirky depths of the family gene pool, which always seemed to keep swirling…

Why did grandma buy me a dump trunk for my 7th birthday? Aren’t dolls supposed to ride around in pink convertibles?

Why does grandma have so many books—all card catalogued—in her house? Aren’t books supposed to be kept in libraries?

Why is grandma going to clown college at age 72 so that she can volunteer in hospitals? Isn’t she supposed to be retired?

It wasn’t until Nicola was a grown up, lost on the ladder of “supposed to’s” in a monotonous corporate job void of happiness and hobbies, and without her grandmother who had passed away at the age of 82, that she finally realized what Gramma Sir had been trying to teach her all along…

Plenty of people will try to tell you that you can’t or you shouldn’t be something. Don’t let you be one of them. Believe in yourself and follow your joy.

Because where there is joy there is love. And where there is love there is infinite possibility. And where there is infinite possibility there are ways to make more joy.

And joy is all you need to be.

Making picture books is one of the ways Nicola makes joy, and for that, she has Gramma Sir to thank.