JAZMYN SIMON

Writes a Perfect Picture Book Debut

by Melissa Fales

Best known for her role as Dr. Julie Greane on HBO’s Ballers, actress Jazmyn Simon has recently released her first picture book, Most Perfect You. The book, inspired by a heart-wrenching conversation Simon once shared with her daughter, encourages young people to embrace everything that makes them uniquely themselves. “In all honesty, I am trying to write books I would have liked as a child,” says Simon. “Books that my children would enjoy; books with messages I feel they need to hear.”

Growing up an only child, Simon was an avid reader. “I loved James and the Giant Peach in my preteen years, and I loved The Baby-Sitters Club and anything by R.L. Stine,” she says. “And to this day, my favorite (seven) books are the Harry Potter series.” After high school, Simon enrolled at the University of Nevada as a Journalism major. She got her start in acting quite unexpectedly. “Once I had to produce a TV show and my talent dropped out, so I had to step in front of the camera,” she says. “That was when I realized I preferred being in front of the camera to editing on the AVID machine. The next semester, I enrolled in theatre classes, and as they say, the rest is history.”

After a stint with the legendary Chicago improv group, The Second City, Simon’s acting career took off. Since then, she’s been in a number of films, including Tyler Perry’s Acrimony and is now featured as Kat Neese on the popular Netflix show, Raising Dion, streaming its second season. “Dion is a little bit older and wiser,” says Simon. “So that is so fun to see. My character, Kat has a more prominent role in his life, which I love. Dion and his friends are mature beyond their years and ready to take the bad guys head on. It’s such a fun show to be a part of!”

An exchange Simon had years back with her daughter, Kennedy, led Simon to try her hand at writing a picture book, and, ultimately, to the publication of Most Perfect You. “I wouldn’t say she struggled with insecurities,” says Simon. “More so that she struggled to see in herself what the world considered beautiful. Kennedy was about three or four years old and we were riding in the car and from the backseat, she says to me, ‘Momma, I want to have lighter skin so I can be pretty.’ It felt like I had been punched in the stomach.” 

Simon consoled Kennedy by sharing the story of how, while she was still pregnant, she had asked God to send her a daughter with the prettiest color skin. In fact, Simon told Kennedy, she had picked out all the details of her daughter’s looks, selecting all of her favorite attributes. “She accepted that answer and never questioned her looks again; at least not to me,” says Simon. “Later in life, I asked her was there anything she didn’t like about herself, anything she would change. She took a minute or so to think, and replied, ‘No.’ That makes me feel good about the way I raised her to love herself.”

In Most Perfect You, Simon introduces a little girl named Irie who feels she comes up short when comparing herself to others. When Irie tells her mother about her concerns, her mother makes her feel better, as mothers often do. Irie’s mother tells her that not only is she perfect just the way she looks, but she is also a good person, too. “When you were finally born, I looked at you and you were everything that I had asked for,” Simon writes in Most Perfect You. “And as you grew, you were not only the most perfect you, but you were kind, too.”

Simon’s hope is that the children who read Most Perfect You will come to understand that they are enough. “I hope the readers and those being read to realize that they are perfect just the way they are,” she says. “That someone made them in a divine way to be a masterpiece. One of one.” Simon believes that in today’s visual-heavy culture, it’s even more common for children to question their own looks and compare themselves with others. “In the time of social media and influencers it’s easy to see a face or body type that you don’t have and feel undervalued,” she says. “I want children, from a young age, to know they are valued. They are beautiful. They are perfect just as they are.”

Artist Tamisha Anthony illustrated Most Perfect You and Simon says she couldn’t be happier with the results. “I love the ethereal and magical way she brought my words to life,” she says. “She read the book and went to work on the illustrations … and when I saw her first sketches, it was like she read my mind and brought to life this world that had previously only lived in my mind.” 

Simon, who is married to fellow actor Dulé Hill, is already working on her next children’s book. “One of the beautiful things about having a 17-year-old and a 2-year-old is they give me a lot of material,” she says. For now, Simon hopes that Most Perfect You will promote self-esteem within young readers. She wants her message of self-acceptance to help young people grow up with more self-confidence. “I’m just a mom who loves her kids and wants to raise a generation of children that love themselves,” she says. “I think if I knew my worth throughout my life, I would have been a lot kinder to myself. And that’s what the world needs more of: kindness.”

For more about Jazmyn Simon, follow her on Instagram @jazmynsimon.