Jess Ayala

I’ve made enough beautiful mistakes to fill a memoir, and enough questionable dating choices to fill another.

I write about the parts of life people often hide: childhood wounds that follow us into adulthood, relationships we stayed in too long, red flags we creatively repainted, and the uncomfortable journey of realizing that being wanted is not the same as being loved.

Every book I write is rooted in lived personal experience. My Beautiful Mistakes traces the wounds and patterns that shaped me. Tainted Fish dives into dating, desire, heartbreak, situationships, and the years I spent searching for love in other people. My poetry collection, Never Mind Who She Was, turns toward the woman who survived it all and finally chose herself.

You may notice earlier titles connected to my name that are no longer available for purchase. I chose to unpublish those works when I realized they no longer represented the writer I had become. I don’t regret writing them. They belong to earlier versions of me, and those versions had stories worth telling. But growth sometimes means deciding that what once represented you no longer does.

I write with honesty, humor, tenderness, and just enough sarcasm to make the truth easier to swallow. My work is for anyone who has stayed too long, forgiven too much, started over, or wondered whether life could still become something beautiful.

I’m no longer writing from inside the wound. I’m writing from the life I found on the other side of it.

Find me on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and X by searching nvmdwhoshewas for honest stories, ordinary moments, laughter, and life beyond the wound.