Melissa Souza (2:26)

Okay, well I am a 42 year old mother of five. I've homeschooled for the past 18 years. I used to be an elementary school teacher, been married almost 20 years and now we live in the mountains of North Idaho with our five children. I just had my last child one year ago, and so I've got kids from 20 all the way down to 1. It's been a very blessed season. The new one was a little surprise for us, but Nevaeh was where it all started, and that was kind of when our. I feel like we started living when we had Nevaeh, and that's formed everything that we are now.

Nevaeh Souza (3:02)

Wow.

Kylie Griswold (3:03)

Yeah. And how about you, Nevaeh?

Nevaeh Souza (3:05)

I am the only adult daughter. I am the. The product of a life of homeschool and living out in the middle of nowhere. And so I just kind of started showing my journey online, my coming of age story on our YouTube channel and things like that. And now my mom and I get to partner on some projects, which has been really fun, but awesome.

Kylie Griswold (3:28)

Well, you guys living in the backwoods and homeschooling and homesteading and all of that, you'd fit right in with our federalist family here. That is just. That is perfect.

Nevaeh Souza (3:36)

So amazing.

Melissa Souza (3:37)

Yeah. When people ask if she was raised in a barn, she can say yes. When we first moved out here, we literally lived in a barn as a family of six.

Kylie Griswold (3:45)

That is crazy. How did that. How did that go?

Nevaeh Souza (3:48)

It was.

Kylie Griswold (3:49)

It was fun. Yeah. Oh, my word. That is so wild. Was that always the plan?

Melissa Souza (3:55)

No, not really. We were living very traditionally up until 2020. My husband was a police officer over in Vancouver, Washington, right outside of Portland, Oregon, when everything kind of fired up with the protests and all of that. And we always had a dream of building our own house and homesteading and just living this free life where we can just have our kids running feral through the fields and have horses and grow food. And so in 2020, when all of that fired up, I called him at work, and I'm like, we have to go. We have to go right now. And so we bought this piece of land in Idaho. We pulled up, and it was a field. We had no power, no water. We sold everything we owned. We had a tiny little trailer, four kids in tow at the time, two sheep in the back of our truck, chickens, three cats, a dog. We look like the Beverly Hillbillies rolling in the town.

Kylie Griswold (4:47)

That is the coolest thing. I think you're living the more extreme version of what a lot of people experienced during COVID which was just like, completely uprooting, changing things. You don't get much bigger contrast than being outside Portland, you know, living your traditional life to, like, packing up and going. I had a similar thing. I was living in D.C. during COVID and everything just came to a grinding halt and crime skyrocketed, and I just. It didn't feel like home anymore, and it sent me packing back to the Midwest, and I met my now husband, and the rest is history. And I. I have no regrets about. About turning. Turning around from city, city life. Covid changed a lot of things for a lot of people, so that's incredible.

Melissa Souza (5:24)

Is that what started your online career?

Kylie Griswold (5:27)

No, actually, the Federalist has always been remote. We have always had employees from all. We did the COVID work from home model before it was Covid. So we were really set up well for success during that. And that's actually one of the things I love about working here is that, you know, a lot of news agencies, conservative or otherwise, are based in big cities. And so people, you know, grow up from around the country and have all of this, like, diverse perspective of. Of being in the heartland of America, but then they all move to one place and kind of adopt this, you know, insular DC Beltway speak and then speak it out to the rest of America. And so one thing that I love about our organization is that we really are all based everywhere from, you know, I'm in Wisconsin, but we've got people in Alaska and Texas and, you know, kind of on both coasts. And so you really do get the flavor of all of America, even though we're all. All working for one organization. And so we were. We were set up for success during COVID actually, which. Which works really well to our advantage. So.

Melissa Souza (6:23)

Yeah.

Kylie Griswold (6:24)

So Melissa and Nevaeh, you guys have a pretty inspiring and crazy story. Melissa, why don't we just start. Start at the very beginning. Can you just share a little bit about what it was like finding out that you were pregnant with Nevaeh and what was going on in your life at that time?

Melissa Souza (6:40)

Yeah. So I had always been the good girl. I was in Young Republicans. I was the most likely to argue religion with you at the lunch table. And in high school, I went to a public school. Originally, I was homeschooled. Then I went to public middle school and high school, and my grandparents were so proud of me, and I was doing everything right. And then I went to university. I was the first in my family to graduate high school, first in my family to graduate college. And then I went and got a teaching job, and everything looked really good. And I met a boyfriend right out of college and ended up pregnant nine months later. And I had to tell my very conservative Christian family that the one that was Doing everything right was the one that actually screwed up. And that was really difficult because I had this. It wasn't a fake image. I really did live this kind of squeaky life. And I was always going to all the pro life rallies and raising money for them and doing the walks. And then all of a sudden, I'm out of college, I'm broke. I have $30,000 in student loans, a car payment, an apartment I can barely afford. I'm making $1,300 every two weeks on my first teaching job. And I was excited to have the job, but it was October when I found out I was pregnant. So literally, one month into starting my career, I find out I'm pregnant with a boyfriend I'm not married to in a one bedroom apartment I can't afford with all of this debt. And the worst thing about the, like, worse than the timing was that I had to tell my conservative Christian parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandparents what I had done and what, you know, and so that was really hard. And the first thing was I see these, you know, these pink lines pop up on the test and it feels so unreal. I mean, you're pregnant now. You know when that first. You take that first pregnancy test and it feels so unreal. And it's like, well, I've never been pregnant before, so I can't possibly be pregnant now. This isn't real. This doesn't. It just feels so foreign and so disconnected. And I had instant panic. I mean, hot face panic, heart racing, panic attack panic. And my boyfriend didn't want to have a baby at that time. And I told my principal, so she knew what was going on. And she said, so you're gonna have a baby in August. We're not gonna be able to hold your job for next year. And there was just like, we can't start the school year with a substitute teacher. And so there was so many reasons to make it go away. And I thought, I can make all of this go away today. I never have to tell my parents. I never have to tell anyone. I never have to tell the pro life community that I've raised all this money for. I can just make it go away and tell nobody. And I didn't do that, which I'm so glad I didn't. But I understand the panic and I understand where women get there in their mind. I couldn't do it. I never could have walked through those doors and done it. But the panic and the fear that I felt in that moment and all of the reasons that Mounted up to why it was a horrible time to have a baby were there. And so it gave me an appreciation for how women get there that maybe were never abortion minded in the first place.

Kylie Griswold (10:13)

Right, right. Because the rubber is really meeting the road. Like, you really actually need to put your beliefs into action in that moment. So how was faith a role in that decision at all? How did it go telling your family? How did Nevaeh's dad respond to all of it? Like, what was the immediate fallout of all of it?

Melissa Souza (10:31)

Yeah, he. Well, he was in Hawaii trying to get a job as a firefighter. He was born and raised in Hawaii. And I called him on the phone. I don't know why I didn't wait till he got home, but I called him on the phone and I mean, just immediate panic there might have been crying. I. He was, you know, we were 22 years old, we hadn't known each other very long and. And now it's like, hey, you're now stuck with this person. You don't have to marry them, but you have to parent with this person forever now. And so I think there was just panic on both sides. He was not happy about it. And I called and told my parents and my dad told my grandmother. My grandmother called me and said, we're going to tell your grandfather that you got married in Las Vegas. Because that's where I was teaching. And I thought, really? And I was like, you don't have to protect me, Grandma. It's okay. And she said, I'm not protecting you. I'm protecting him. And that broke my heart. I thought, he's gonna. He would be so disappointed that my grandmother, his wife of 60 years, is going to lie to him. And I felt that I had made my grandmother lie to my grandfather. And so it was this whole. There was just so much shame around it. And so being raised evangelical Christian, conservative sometimes puts added pressure, sometimes. So it's how good girls can go and get an abortion because they don't want that shame that they feel. And maybe I blew some of it up in my mind, but I just. That moment with my grandfather was such a wake up call of like, I had really messed up. But instead of wallowing in it, instead of going and making it go away, we decided, no, we're gonna lean into this. We're gonna do better. We have a child on the way. And we went to that first ultrasound expecting to see nothing. Honestly, I thought they were gonna put the ultrasound wand and say, there' here, because there had never been anything there before. You know, like, didn't feel real.

Kylie Griswold (12:31)

Right.

Melissa Souza (12:31)

And as soon as we saw this little marshmallow person, which is now here, just little arms and leg buds and this tiny blinking heart, we started calling her Blinker and everything changed at that moment. She was real and it was. It was time to improve our life for our child. And that's when we really started living better.

Kylie Griswold (12:54)

Wow. So I love. It's such a challenge for just the faith element of it too. Like, because the way what we believe about God and what we believe about human life should inspire confidence in those moments and boldness and like, resolve rather than shame and fear. And I think, you know, there's been a lot of tide turning on that since different, you know, like, purity culture and things throughout evangelicalism. But, um, what a beautiful picture of, like, being able to overcome that shame and, and see that. That beautiful blinking heart on the screen and just like, resolve to. To bring her, you know, to bring her life to. To fullness and completion. So let's see. Nevaeh, I would love to know just, like, how your mom's experience, and then now your experience has shaped the way that you think about pro life issues and abortion and also just, like, what made you decide to speak out on this issue? Yeah.

Nevaeh Souza (13:46)

So as the daughter of a woman who went through this unexpected, unplanned pregnancy and hearing, you know, the. My mom's thought process when she was pregnant and that kind of shame that a lot of these girls feel, it really. It really put into perspective what a lot of these women are facing. And so I always just wanted to be really involved in the pro life space because I feel like a lot of times we can be so focused on, you know, trying to get these women to keep the baby that then we forget afterwards to continue that support and to show them that motherhood can be possible. I am the product of a woman who chose life, which is something I don't take for granted. Because one third of Gen Z has been aborted. One third of my generation is missing More. More than not, women in that position will choose to have an abortion rather than keep their baby and choose life. So I'm very grateful for that. And I feel like that's such a great opportunity to then go and share a bit of that testimony together. Like, hey, I turned out amazing. She turned out amazing. Like, everything is fine. There was so much fear and uncertainty in the beginning, but that doesn't always have to be the case. And there's so much support that can come later. And the pro life movement does care about what happens to you and your baby. I feel like it's just a very important thing to show again like 20 years down the road, the aftermath of choosing life. Because I think the uncertainty of it all is what drives women who might not want to have an abortion anyway to go ahead and make that decision because they just don't know what that's going to look like years down the road.

Melissa Souza (15:33)

Yeah, I think it's going to derail everything.

Kylie Griswold (15:36)

Right, right. You are like the, the embodiment of the fast forward button. You get to show people what it looks like, what it looks like 20 years later to actually choose life. Well, and it's so crazy that you talk about the amount of the number of Gen Z people that have been aborted. And I mean those numbers I think are probably so much worse now too because of the availability of chemical abortion. You know, women, women no longer have to get the courage to walk into a Planned Parenthood and with a pregnancy and you know, see an ultrasound and hear a heartbeat. Now they, and, or you know, their coercive boyfriends can order chemical abortion pills from, even from a pro life state and have them mailed right to your door. And nobody, nobody needs to know. And that's just, it's so, it's so dangerous. And I mean the numbers are truly awful. I'm, I saw Planned parenthood numbers from 2025. I think they performed almost half a million abortions last year. And that's just Planned Parenthood. So that's, that's not these chemical abortions, that's not other abortionists, that's just Planned Parenthood. And Planned Parenthood alone amounts to almost 1200 abortions every single day. Now multiply that by the number of abortions that we never even know about because again, they're just coming through pills in the mail. These nameless, faceless lives that we will never even know about. And so it's just, it's such a beautiful picture to be able to hear a story like this, hear about the fear and the shame and you know, all of the inter, inter family dynamics and, and the faith element and all of that and be able to say, look at what this looks like 20 years later. Because you don't have to make that choice. You don't have to order those pills. You can do it. And it can be a beautiful, beautiful story.

Melissa Souza (17:16)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like what you were saying about the numbers. You're so correct on reported numbers versus Planned Parenthood numbers. Cause they like to fudge the numbers around, but it's reported that there were 1.1 million abortions in 2025. When you count Planned Parenthood and everything else, 24% of those were abortion pills. It is so easy to do telehealth. Nobody has to know. And we're even seeing men ordering abortion pills. Why is it that men are allowed to order an abortion pill on telehealth and then slip it in their girlfriend's drink? They shouldn't have any access to these. And all the states where they have complete abortion bans, they're now able to jump on a phone call and, and still get a chemical abortion. So it is becoming easier and easier. And anybody who's been pregnant for the first time realizes that disconnect. Even if you're excited, it doesn't feel real till you see your baby on a screen, until you have that ultrasound. And I just wish that every person would be required to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion. It would be such an easy requirement. And 50% of those abortion minded people are going to walk out and not get that abortion.

Kylie Griswold (18:24)

Right.

Nevaeh Souza (18:25)

Well, and that's genuine knowledge that's genuinely educating women on what's going on in their bodies. If you want to go with this narrative of we want women to have a choice, at least allow them to make an educated decision.

Kylie Griswold (18:38)

Right.

Nevaeh Souza (18:38)

You keep them in the dark about what's going on within their body, what's going on with their baby and you just keep dismissing it all by saying it's a clump of cells, don't worry about it. Doing things virtually removing an actual safety consultation. In the process of that as well, you're completely disconnecting the mother from what's actually going on inside their body. And there's so many stories of women that did go through with a chemical abortion and they didn't know what their baby looked like. And once they saw the aftermath, they just felt so manipulated and lied to.

Kylie Griswold (19:11)

Yes, yes, the mental trauma and just the, the abortion regret that happens, we, that gets swept under the rug too much. And you bring up the safety component too. You know, women seeing their baby's heartbeat on a screen or seeing, you know, the actual humanity inside them is one huge component of it. But the other component is just the danger to women of not, not, not, sorry, seeing on an ultrasound confirming that the pregnancy is actually, that the baby is actually implanted in the uterus. Because with ectopic pregnancies, women take these abortion pills, they can rupture, hemorrhage. I mean the rate of these things is much higher than the, the FDA warning on the label. There was an Ethics and Public Policy center study that showed, I think it was 22 times more likely to have an adverse event. Don't quote me on that. But I think that was the number than what the FDA warning on the box says for these abortion pills. I mean, it's truly horrible for women. So, you know, even outside of just women's choice, also, women's health and safety just been thrown completely out the window in the name of autonomy and, you know, women's reproductive rights, whatever that means. So these are. These are super important issues. So you two are very passionate about this issue, but you don't just stop there talking about it. You have decided to write a pro life children's book together, which is so exciting. It's called Tiny Humans, which. I love that title. It's so cute. Can you give us a sneak peek? Tell us what exactly is in the book? What is it about?

Melissa Souza (20:47)

Yeah.

Nevaeh Souza (20:47)

So Tiny Human is the story of tiny human from the moment of conception, from the moment he is a burst of light, which we have found out that during conception there is a literal burst of light, which is such a beautiful symbolism for, you know, the start of this journey. And it follows him from the moment he's a little zygote in conception all the way to the moment of birth. It shows all the stages of development. There's also that faith aspect mixed in with, like a presence of God throughout the book. And the whole point is to show that this person, no matter who it is that he's going to become, has a purpose. And another very important element is to show children that, you know, this isn't just a clump of cells from even the time they're itty bitty. I mean, at five weeks old, they have a heartbeat. Five weeks old, they have a heartbeat already.

Kylie Griswold (21:49)

They're.

Nevaeh Souza (21:49)

They're living, they're moving. I think it's incredibly important to show that side of gestation because, you know, through public school education and the stuff being put out by the abortion industry, they don't know. And teen girls who have only ever been fed that information and what's coming out from Planned Parenthood and everything like that, they don't know. They don't know what a baby looks like at five weeks or 10 weeks.

Melissa Souza (22:17)

And this is not medical. This is not going to be a medical book. It's going to be told through a sweet story of tiny human conversating with his creator as he grows and develops in the womb. And so it's a really light hearted story. It doesn't mention abortion at all. Tiny Human was not destined for abortion, or at least we don't know if he was or not. It's just this tiny human being developing, speaking with his creator and being just excited about every new stage. And it shows the humanity of a baby from the moment of conception until birth that it's still the same person, it still has the same worth. The size doesn't matter, the stage of development doesn't matter. He is still destined for this journey and God still created him for this incredible purpose. And there's a moment in the book where he says it doesn't matter how small you are, you were special from the moment I made you. And him at birth and him at the Flash are the same person and the same value. And so our hope and our dream for the book is that children will embrace this sweet story of this baby developing. Whether it's a big Brother, big sister book or it's just a book that any child can love. Because all babies love babies and that they will remember Tiny Human if they ever end up in the situation that I found myself in. So maybe a decade from now a five year old little girl reading this story is going to find herself pregnant and scared and she's going to remember reading Tiny Human and remember that tiny little five week embryo with a little arm and leg buds with was so excited about its little arm and leg buds and was flopping around and being squishy in there and mattered that that tiny human had a purpose. And so does hers.

Kylie Griswold (24:04)

I love it. It's like Horton. Here's a who, except with Imago Day, a person's a person no matter how small. Yes, I love it.

Melissa Souza (24:17)

We are facing the biggest energy security threat in history.

Kylie Griswold (24:21)

The Watchdog on Wall street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how

Melissa Souza (24:28)

it affects your wallet. Experts are saying we've lost 13 million

Kylie Griswold (24:32)

barrels of oil per day and the

Melissa Souza (24:34)

effects truly are not priced in yet.

Kylie Griswold (24:36)

If this extends much longer, then look

Melissa Souza (24:38)

out whether it's happening in D.C. or

Kylie Griswold (24:40)

down on Wall street, it's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchdog on Wall street podcast with Chris Murkowski on Apple, Spotify

Melissa Souza (24:46)

or wherever you get your podcast.

Kylie Griswold (24:53)

Well, and it's so important, and this is something I think that the left has understood very well, which is that the younger you can introduce concept to kids, they will adopt that that completely shapes their worldview. If you don't talk about human life and its inherent value or not with a child, somebody else will. And you know, if you walk down the, the children's book section at Target or any other store, you will be bombarded with books that are promoting not just cutesy little illustrations, not just, you know, hop on pop, but a very clear worldview and lacking in the industry is, is books that share truth, immutable truth about the importance of human development, about the humanity of the unborn. I mean, these are foundational things that children need to learn from the youngest possible age. And I love that you say, you know, it's not a book about abortion, it's abortion is never mentioned. You know, we're not like shoving this very gruesome concept into the face of young children, but teaching them from the earliest age and from an age where they can understand this is the same person from the moment of conception until they are born and beyond, like this is one life that's such an important thing for them to know and understand from the earliest age. Yeah, well, and in keeping with that. So like I said, the publishing industry is dominated by these far left narratives by, I mean, just absolute turning of the natural order, turning of truth on its head, Rainbow books, pride books. You know, I'm like books about instilling trans indoctrination in children. You know, they never use the word, but you know this.

Melissa Souza (26:33)

Yeah, but you can choose.

Kylie Griswold (26:35)

Yes, yes, exactly. You can wear a dress and do this thing, you know, gender bending and all of that. The industry is dominated by these kinds of books. And you are finding that as you try to find an illustrator for your book. So can you speak to either one of you, speak to some of the roadblocks that you've run into and where things are at with the production of your book in this horrific publishing landscape.

Nevaeh Souza (27:00)

Yeah, so we've been having quite a difficult time finding the perfect illustrator for this project because it is very important. We have a very specific art style in mind. We want tiny human to just be adorable. We want him to capture hearts. And the whole point is that the book isn't clinical and medical or scary. It's cute and soft and you know, it really humanizes this little developing baby. So we've been searching all over for an illustrator and we have gotten like 40 no's.

Melissa Souza (27:34)

So many no's.

Nevaeh Souza (27:36)

And a lot of people seem very interested in the project until we really kind of give them an idea on what the book is about and the mission of the book. And then all of a sudden, oh, I don't know if I really Want to put my name on that or my schedule's busy.

Melissa Souza (27:50)

A lot of. Oh, actually, we're really busy. So we'll get illustrators that we've contacted mostly through LinkedIn or Instagram, and we'll reach out to them because we're trying to find this unique vintage 1920s Kewpie doll meets Precious Moments vibe and something that would just remind me of the books that I read in the 80s, the Golden Books, that kind of look. And when we find these illustrators, they're very excited. Yeah, I can make these vintage babies. Absolutely. I'd love to illustrate a book. Thank you for reaching out. And then they want, what is this book about? As soon as I say a preborn baby, they're out. My schedule's busy. Oh, you know what? Actually, I don't know that I want to illustrate a book. I don't know that I would be a good fit for you. And it just total 180. And we have run into that time and time and time again. And I mean, the publisher was an easy one for us. So we. I wrote a book last year and I partnered with Brave Books and Brave Books does exactly what you said. They try to instill these Christian truth, liberty, freedom, bravery, morality in children at a very early age. And so I was. It was a no brainer to partner with them on the first book. And then I didn't know that they'd want to take this book on because it's a human instead of animals. They tend to work mostly with animals. But they were on board. They were like, absolutely, let's do this. This is going to be a challenge. And they told us and we thought, no, we'll find an illustrator. And they were so correct. Even reaching out to the illustrators that they have on their Rolodex, that ages me by saying, but they're running into the same thing. They're running into so many. Just not just crickets. No response. Or oh, our schedules are too busy. Or ooh. I had one lady said, maybe I'll do it anonymously. And she was a Christian artist.

Kylie Griswold (29:48)

Wow.

Melissa Souza (29:49)

And even Christian artists are afraid to touch it because she said, I think it could hurt me moving forward if this book gains any kind of traction and my name's on that cover. I don't know that people will work with me in the future. And so out of fear of repercussion, even Christians don't want to sign on to the project.

Nevaeh Souza (30:07)

Shows the level of stigma there is surrounding any amount of representation for those who can't represent themselves or trying to speak up for the unborn. It's even people that do agree with what you're trying to do might not want to be a part of it. They're like, that's great. But I want to stay far away from it just because of the level of, you know, lash back and attacks you can receive.

Kylie Griswold (30:31)

Yeah, that is awful. And it really speaks to, yeah, the, the professional cost of living out your faith and living out your conservative values publicly. And how much, how much Cancel Culture is still hanging on by a thread. I mean, that's, that's a rough landscape. If we happen to have any illustrators who are listening who would love to illustrate a book like this, where can they reach you? Or Brave Books to say, hey, I raised my hand. This is exactly my art style and I would love to illustrate a book like this.

Melissa Souza (31:04)

Yes. Well, I would assume Zach or McKenzie over at Brave Books would be the best people to contact. And we can get you their direct emails or even just info at Brave Books could probably get you in the right place.

Kylie Griswold (31:18)

Okay, great. We'll put a, we'll put a Brave Books contact in the show notes so that if anybody has, has somebody, maybe, maybe this is how you'll find your, your illustrator.

Nevaeh Souza (31:27)

God would be great.

Melissa Souza (31:27)

Mysterious ways.

Kylie Griswold (31:28)

That's right. That's right. I also do love the art style because there is such a need for that too. I mean, you know, more Mr. Rogers, less Ms. Rachel. You know what I'm saying? Let's go back to wholesome, quiet, you know, calm, not chaotic, not overwhelming, not overstimulating books. We need some good, good wholesome, throwback art. So I love that that's what you're looking for for this book.

Melissa Souza (31:51)

Yes. And I mean, I was a kindergarten teacher. I was a reading specialist. I have five children that I homeschool. My kids gravitate towards the vintage. They love the older, longer stories instead of these fast little. We call them book order books where it's just, they're so generic. And ours like the classics, they like to sit down and snuggle. They will pick the longest book they can find with the most simple drawings because they just want that time with you. And that's something else that we're really missing in this culture is people aren't reading to their children anymore. My generation and her generation, which is now starting to have children, are saying that, you know, only like 35% are reading to their children on a regular basis. And it's like, well, kids don't like books anymore. Kids do they love books? They still want that time with you. They. They desire it. So instead of looking at your phone and being screened down and giving them a screen, put all of that away, get a book out and your child's going to love it and they're going to want that routine.

Kylie Griswold (32:52)

Yes. So important. I recently had a baby shower and I was blown away. I received so many books and I received so many beautiful books that had old stories and old illustrations that are just timeless. And those are the ones that I'm most excited to read to my child. I mean, I had like this anthology of Little House on the Prairie and the illustrations in it are just beautiful and like a stack of Peter Rabbit books that have just these gorgeous, vintage, woodsy illustrations and other. Other books like that that I'm just, I'm so excited. Make way for duckling. It's like these beautiful illustrated ducks in Boston. Like, I'm so thrilled. And not that there's not value in other books too, but it's. It's refreshing to see hopefully a book coming with a newer, old art style that would be very fun. So if you're an illustrator and you're listening now, this is your sign to, to get on your email and volunteer to illustrate this book because we need to get it off the ground. This is really important stuff. So. So let's talk a little bit about changing gears away from this topic. Let's just talk about your work with Good Simple Living. This is like totally separate, but you, your family has quite a following on YouTube and other social media platforms because of this homesteading and tiny home and the move that you did and all these things. So how did the channel start and what kind of content do you create?

Melissa Souza (34:15)

Well, it's definitely lifestyle content. Originally we were kind of a DIY build channel because we had to build everything. But that's never what our intent was. We always just wanted to be a lifestyle channel. It started not out of desperation, but kind of by accident. I was trying to learn how to produce food and grow food and do all these things that we needed to know when we moved to Idaho. So we tried these skills in Washington first, baking bread and raising rabbits and raising chickens and gardening and canning. And so I just started putting these little videos out and a few of them kind of started taking off. And we bought this land out in Idaho as a retirement property. And we didn't know how. I mean, is literally in the middle of nowhere. We are 60 miles round trip from a stoplight or anything like that. And so I Thought, what are we going to do out there? We can't move out there till we retire. But then I wanted to raise my children this way. And so I would just pray to God every day, like, show me the path. There has to be a path. There has to be something. Just show it to me. And then very quickly, I had a video hit a million views about processing meat rabbits, of all things. It's a weird way to start. And then people started calling me the Rabbit Queen on YouTube. And I started this whole rabbit stuff series. And I never wanted to be the rabbit Queen, but that was like God showing me, hey, there's an. There's a niche out there. There's a need for this, and this is what you're going to go do. And I was kind of like. Like, I don't think that's a good idea, God. I was like, jonah and the whale. But I didn't want it to end like Jonah. So I thought, well, I better listen. When God tells you to do something, you listen. So that's when I called my husband at work and I said, we have to go. And he's like, the. At that time, the most I'd ever made on YouTube was $600 a month. And he was like, you're insane. I'm like, well, we're not gonna die if we go out there. We won't die. We're employable people. Like, we have. We have degrees. We can go work at Home Depot. Like, we can do something, you know, Right. I'll do whatever. We're not gonna die. Let's just go. God's telling us to go, and he's not gonna call us onto the water and let us sink. And so we came out here and we just got to work. We just. We started building a tiny home. We started getting power and water and all of these things and just filming it and putting it out there and showing what are the kids doing. And that was a hard thing because we're very private, introverted people. And there's a lot of stigma about showing children online and these family channels and these. Making your kids recite lines and interrupting their lives and their privacy. And so we tried to find a balance where we would show them and that we were a family. But people are always wondering, why aren't your kids building? Why aren't they a bigger part of the channel? And it's because we don't ever want it to disrupt their lives. And so I think we made some mistakes in the beginning, and we've gotten better as Time has gone on and reeled that back a little bit. But we're just a family living and we don't shy away from our faith anymore. We used to. And I started feeling like God gave us this platform and this opportunity and we need to glorify him in it. And we took a hit. The very first thing we did is we went out to Nashville. We got invited to go on the Daily Wire. We went out there and we showed it on the family blog. And we dropped so many subscribers and our views tanked. And then we thought, you know what, let's start a podcast, really lean into this. Let's double down. Let's spend an hour talking about our faith and our politics and our family and why policy matters and why politics matter. Because a lot of people are like, oh, you're Christian, Stay out of politics. Don't muddy yourselves. And it's like, no, these things matter, These policies matter because they, they, as in, you know, leftist, radical leftists, rely on the nice, polite Christians to get. Keep their mouth shut. And we as parents aren't going to do that because this is a world that our parent, that our children need to grow up in. And so I was scared to talk about pro life issues even when we started the podcast. I. I went off for about 15 minutes one time and I told my husband to take it out. I said, no, we're trying to build this. That is such a divisive issue. Take it out. And that whole night, I couldn't even sleep. I felt so ashamed of, I'm not honoring God. I'm being a coward. These children matter and somebody needs to speak up. And not that there's not other people. There is, but it's one thing when it's these vloggers you've been watching for five years, all of a sudden you start seeing, okay, I like these people and this is what they stand on. So for us, it's been a hit. It's been, it's been kind of brutal. On good simple living. It's been brute. We've been dropped by quite a few brands saying that we're too controversial. And it's just not about that. It doesn't matter. I will burn it down. To speak truth. At this point, I feel like this. God has given us this platform. It's his platform. So we don't get to shy away from what he is calling us to talk about.

Kylie Griswold (39:31)

Yes, I love that boldness and that's such an important message because what is the point of a platform is not to grow a Platform, it's to use it to say what's true and good and beautiful. And so I just love that. And I also just think, you know, there are, there are so many influence out. Influencers out there who exist to show the beautiful, glowing parts of things and to, you know, just like, I think a ballerina farm. And like, there's a lot of people who, who have like, great values or beautiful families or, you know, they're like doing a lot of good, traditional things. But I just love that so much of your content is just, it's just raw, it's unfiltered, it's, it's, you know, it's just basic stuff and you get to see the realness of it. And so then especially when you talk about issues that are important and bring your faith into it, it's just, it's fun, it's fun to follow your content without just feeling like, oh, man, this makes me feel bad about myself. It's more like, no, this is me learning how to do something that I want to do. Because as we talked about with COVID there's a real hunger for getting out in nature, touching grass, learning how to, how to have a slice of self sufficiency for yourself at whatever scale that is, whether that's moving to the middle of nowhere, Idaho and building a tiny home, or whether it's starting a garden patch in your backyard. It's important stuff. And so I love that you guys are working on that. So, okay, so what, what's next then? So the book is the book what's next or what's the next chapter? For good simple living and for your fight in the Pro life space.

Melissa Souza (41:02)

Yeah, well, for good simple living, I would say God's gonna be in charge of that and he's gonna direct that and wherever he needs us to be. At this point, my prayer is just show me where you need me. And it's less about what we wanna build and more about what he needs us to do. And so we're leaning into our podcast a lot because that's where we can speak freely, we can have guests, we can have. You know, we've gotten to interview just the most incredible people. Dr. Ben Carson and Kirk Cameron and Matt Walsh. I mean, we've just got to talk to so many amazing people and share their messages and just everyday normal people too, that have testimonies to tell. And so we're just gonna, we're just gonna ride this ride till the wheels fall off until God says that's enough.

Kylie Griswold (41:47)

And.

Melissa Souza (41:47)

And it seems like Every five years he pivots us. And so we're kind of at that point right now. And I mean, I'm just following God's lead on this and wherever he takes it, he takes it and we're along for the ride. I know you're. She's kind of. Now it's like our children are starting to take off and we're starting this whole family network. So Nevaeh's doing some pretty fun things over on her side also.

Nevaeh Souza (42:12)

Yeah, I originally I got into, you know, making content on YouTube and kind of doing the lifestyle thing like my parents were doing and following in that, that footsteps. I've always been very, very into political topics, culture wars, things like that. Faith, faith based culture wars too, especially just focusing on all of the good versus evil and things that are normalized in our society. And I started to feel like, you know, kind of the same thing of if I have a platform, I should, if as a Christian, that should be for a reason. Don't let, don't let the online clout and desire to be so liked by everyone and to, you know, take off and have everyone, everyone subscribe to you and everyone know you cloud my judgment when it comes to what it is I want to do with my platforms. So that's when I started trying to just attend all of these, you know, events that were doing, doing the Lord's work, in my opinion, you know, speaking up for the unborn, evangelizing. I started attending a lot of like daily Wire turning Point type events and then I started a second channel right side up to do more Christian content. And that has been, I just got into that and that's already been such a huge blessing. It's such a fulfilling thing because, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of lash back and a lot of censorship. I've been banned on TikTok like three times already. She has.

Melissa Souza (43:38)

I've never seen someone get banned so quickly on TikTok.

Nevaeh Souza (43:40)

TikTok hates me. So does Twitter. Twitter also banned me.

Melissa Souza (43:44)

Yeah,

Kylie Griswold (43:47)

the big tech giants tend to hate people who believe the things that we believe.

Nevaeh Souza (43:50)

So, yes, especially when it comes to topics like the pro life movement. If you speak about that on YouTube, they hide it from everyone. It is so difficult. And that can be, you know, something that clouds your judgment as well. It's like, well, I want to speak about this, but it's going to hurt me. Subscribers may never come back. YouTube might hide me. And so I, I want to make sure that I never have my judgment Cloud by, clouded by things that are so worldly like that. And I want to do what I can in the same way my parents are trying to do, to go where I'm being called to go and to speak on things that actually can make a positive influence.

Kylie Griswold (44:29)

That's great.

Melissa Souza (44:29)

Yeah. I feel like her generation speaking, especially female influencers is so important because we have all these young women that really need good influence. And when you are speaking up for the. The pre born, then you can really alienate a lot of the women. That's like the one issue that they. They're not always on board with. But it's such a proud moment for me as a mom to see my surprise panicked, aligned on a pregnancy test, now speaking up for the preborn and using her life to glorify God and fearlessly. I mean, she's more fearless than I am. And I think that we need these young people to rise up. And that was such a loss in Charlie Kirk because he was really, really rallying the youth and everyone was on fire for it. And they were brave because he was there to guide and protect. And when crazy would start to show, he would hammer it down. It was like whack a mole. Like he was always there to just bring sensibility to it. And so now I think we see a lot of young people kind of floundering. They don't know where to go right now. And there's a lot of noise and there's a lot of division on the right. And so we need young people to speak truth and to be fearless about it and to remember what the message is and stop all this infighting. And so I think that. I think that's so important. I love seeing young people rise up.

Kylie Griswold (45:53)

Yeah, we need them to. Well, that's a good segue to where I would love to close this out, just to bring it back full circle to your story of becoming pregnant with Nevaeh. What would you say to your younger self now if there's maybe somebody listening who's finding themselves in the exact same situation? They're young, they're. They are in debt. They, you know, are surprised and maybe are feeling shame or like, feel like they can't tell their, their parents, their family, the situation that they're in. Like, what would you say to them? What do you wish you could have told yourself back then?

Melissa Souza (46:29)

Yeah, I would. I would tell myself that your life is starting now. This is when it gets good. This is the beautiful chapter in life. Everything before it doesn't really matter. That's when you were living for yourself. Because I always say that I was a Christian, I was raised a Christian, but I didn't understand the love of God until Nevaeh was laid in my arms. Because when somebody gives you a human being that you love more than yourself, that is when you understand the love of God. Why he was willing to die for us, why he was willing to put up with all the shenanigans that he puts up with with mankind, because there's unconditional love there. And I had never experienced that before. And when you experience this unconditional love, that's when not only the most beautiful chapter in your life begins, but that's when you decide to really start living for something that matters. For me, I have five children now. And with the birth of each child, child, my life has gotten better because I've tried harder. I'm like, no, I have to do this for them. And so life didn't get harder and more difficult. Life got meaningful and better with the birth of even an unplanned child at a young age with all this debt. We got out of debt fast. We went and got better jobs. We went and bought a house. Like, we dug in and we did everything because now we had something worth living for. That wasn't yourself. There wasn't. It wasn't self serving right. And will improve if you embrace motherhood or parenthood or fatherhood, it will improve who you are tenfold. You will become a better person, you will become a happier person. You will have so much purpose and it's not about you anymore. And that's a beautiful thing, that's a good thing that will inspire you every day to put your feet on the floor and do better. And so I would just tell my younger self, like, the fun is starting now. Now's the fun part. And man, soak it in because it goes so fast.

Kylie Griswold (48:32)

I love that. That's such powerful stuff. And I love the faith element of that. I mean, we get a few beautiful pictures of the gospel, but not many are more profound and just beautiful as, like Christ in the church, but then also mother and child. And just, you know, I'm thinking a lot about that right now that, like, the reality of this is my body given for you. And like the way that mothers do that for their children, that fathers do that for their children, just like Christ did that for the church, just did. Just like God did that to. To sacrifice his son. And just what a beautiful picture. And the way that we get to be part of that and just like, taste that in a tangible way, when we embrace the call to parenthood, it's such an important and beautiful, beautiful thing. So, Nevaeh and Melissa, thank you so much for being on the Kylie cast today. It was such a pleasure having you and I, all of my listeners, go follow good simple living, go find Nevaeh on YouTube, follow their stuff and stay tuned because there is a wonderful book that will be coming out as soon as we find an illustrator.

Melissa Souza (49:33)

Yes, we just seen an illustrator.

Nevaeh Souza (49:34)

Just an illustrator.

Kylie Griswold (49:36)

Yes. Thank you both so much. I hope to have you back again soon.

Melissa Souza (49:39)

Well, thank you so much for having us and congratulations on your upcoming birth.

Kylie Griswold (49:43)

We're very happy for you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Kylie Cast. If you haven't done so already, please like and subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a five star review. It's one of the easiest and best ways you can help out the show. What is stopping you? As always, I will be back next week with more. So until then, just remember the truth hurts, but it won't kill you. Sa.