When questioned about any inspirations for her journey as an author, Cindy Rodriguez said, "I was already teaching and reading a lot of middle grade and young adult novels because that was the age of my students and that was my biggest influence. If I was working in an office with adults, maybe I would have written an adult book. I was hearing kids talk to each other, and they’d come to me and talk about issues that they were dealing with. Then I was in grad school, and Emily Dickinson’s poetry was in my head, and these things all just kind of collided.”