Meet Kimberly Reyes | Founder & Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kimberly Reyes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly, what inspires you?
I am inspired by the beauty found in the little things. Motivated by embracing the slowness and simplicity of quiet joy. It’s the 30 second hugs and the midday snuggles, or the laughter that a sink full of dish soap bubbles can bring. I take inspiration in seeing the world through children’s eyes. For they have taught me to appreciate the small wins, to live in the moment and to feel with unbridled passion the things that make my heart happy

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work comes from a very personal place. It has been shaped by my own experience of becoming a parent in the way that I did. I spent 15 years as an educator, teaching and developing learning programs, before my daughter was born. She arrived a little over 3 months early, after I had experienced complications and a hospitalization. Throughout the time I was expecting I scoured the internet for information and resources to answer the many questions I had. I found it difficult to find information about a pregnancy that was out of the ordinary. The same would be true during her 109 day stay in the NICU. And so it was out of an effort to save other families from the same stresses and lack of information, that I launched All The Unexpected at the end of 2020.

I wanted families to be able to not only find the answers to their questions, but also to be able to hear stories that mirrored their own. I wanted to create a community that stripped away the feelings of isolation that I so acutely remembered. Launched as a podcast initially, ATU has grown into a multidisciplinary resource library, media production organization and publisher. We use our platform to tell stories and to offer expert insight in many different topics surrounding pregnancy, birth and parenthood. All The Unexpected has grown with me as a parent and professional. We expanded into documentary filmmaking to tell some of the history of birthwork in an effort to explain the disparities we see in today’s healthcare landscape. As a trained historian it has been a challenge to marry my own scholarship with narrative storytelling. I had to take a step back and understand how to make information more accessible. I’ve learned a lot about how to communicate with families who range from being very informed to those just starting out on their journey. Our most recent projects have had me wearing both the hats of author and publisher as we released a series of educational coloring books. And with a children’s book and third documentary on the way, we continue to support families as their journey continues along with our own.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
James Baldwin for teaching me that even life’s most haunting pain can be transformed by the beauty of the written word. That there is power in telling our stories because it allows us to heal collectively.

Website: www.alltheunexpected.com

Instagram: @alltheunexpected

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reyes-atu

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alltheunexpected

Other: Educational Coloring Books https://amazon.com/author/kimberlymreyes