Amanda Stock

Amanda Stock was born is the United States and immigrated to Canada in 2004.

At the age of 16 she started noticing she was "loosing time." For example she was out for dinner with friends for a going away party. Three of them arrived together and they were waiting for two more. The next thing she knew the other two girls had arrived, they all had drinks, and the girl next to her was saying something about milk shakes.

This scared her and the loss of time continued happening. She sought medical help, unfortunately someone in her life who should have been there for her did everything in their power to discourage her from seeking help again. Including public shaming. For the next 10 years she lived in silence.

Narcolepsy is such a weird illness. Before her diagnosis at 26 she would never have thought that her loss of time, exhaustion, and knees randomly giving out were connected. Thing is they are. After becoming a Canadian Permanent Resident and marring her husband she was accepted by her in-law's family doctor and told him everything. In tears she told him how scared she was and that she wanted it figured out before her and her husband start planning a family.

Four months later she was officially diagnosed with Narcolepsy and she felt true relief that it had a name and she could now take steps to balance that aspect of her life.

A few years later Amanda was hit with another dilemma. How does she explain an invisible illness to a child? She started writing the Talking to Kids About Narcolepsy book series as a way to talk to her own child. The first two books, Sometimes my socks are in the freezer and My dad naps too!, were a three year project. Unfortunately Amanda can not draw to save her life. In June of 2015, she was struck with the idea to illustrate by taking pictures of scenes built with LEGO. (Any books written and published by Amanda Stock are in no way endorsed or approved by the LEGO Company)

She is overjoyed that she not only has a way of communicating her illness to her daughter but she can help other people in the same situation talk to their loved ones, co-workers, dates, etc. about what they go through every day.