by Victoria Azarian
It has been an eye-opening experience launching my first book “THREE LITTLE STARS”. While my book has had amazing organic success, I was hoping to catapult its reach through celebrity engagements where common-folk fans are asked to join their national shows on a particular topic, a virtual audience per see to connect to their fans. This was my chance I thought. A moment to tell the world about the joy of adopting and raising money for a good cause.
I was sadly disappointed. Many celebrities and online personalities talk about the virtues of giving back until your efforts collide with their own agenda. Recently I was invited to join a “fan” zoom call to celebrate adoptive parents by a notable celebrity, who is an adoptive mother herself. Each participant was asked to send in what they are working on with the promise of a moment of celebration about their cause. This was it, my chance to talk about the difficulty of adoption and the inspiration that drove me to write my book in order to help others and give back.
We all waited, anxious with excitement for our product, book, or charitable effort to finally be given a moment in the sun. Hours went by as we listened to the celebrity talk about how “it feels good to do good, women need to support women, be the reason to make someone’s day”. The cliched sayings went on and on during the broadcast. All the while momentarily cutting to footage of our smiling faces on the screen to the thousands of viewers that lovingly joined the broadcast to hear our stories. Then the celebrity, surprisingly, announced the launch of her own book. Never acknowledging the people on the zoom, never celebrating their work. never stepping aside to let others shine. She closed the show by thanking us all for joining and then used our image in a PR campaign to promote her new book. I left the online event feeling used and deflated.
I truly believe that there is enough success to go around, with small businesses closing at alarming rates, those in positions to help, especially this year, should take a hard look at their character before taking advantage of people trying to make the world a better place for all.
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Victoria Azarian is a Chief Creative Officer, an accidental activist, and a practitioner of intuitive healing. THREE LITTLE STARS, is a magical and true adoption story of her daughter from Armenia. Every night she prayed on three stars in the sky for a baby to join her family. The miracle of what happened proved that the universe and guardian angels heard her prayers. A portion of the book sales will go to aid the children at the Nork Baby Home in Yerevan, Armenia.
Availability: Three Little Stars is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or on the website at: 3littlestars.us