Maybe you don't need heaven, maybe you just need to find yourself.

My father tells it because he made it up.  A little bedtime story of my origin. They are not really my parents, the people who I call Mum and Dad. Those are not my siblings, the kids who I know as my brother and sisters. 

I am not really human. 

I am an alien from another planet in a far distant constellation. 

Jessica Knight grew up on a dairy farm in rural Victoria, her crib next door to where all the cows were milked. It’s a loving Mormon household, a god-fearing home. While they don’t have very much, it’s their values and good humour that allows them to laugh at what scares them. 

All young Jessica wants is to be good and make her parents and her Heavenly Father happy. She cleans the house and helps out with her siblings; all the while being subjected to intensive medical tests and major surgeries. Doctors consider her a puzzle and a medical mystery. 

But what if you decide you want to be open about your fears?

This is the story of how one young woman learned to move on from the life she was expected to have, embraced what she was scared of, and looked to her future with an open heart and mind.

About the Author

Jessica Knight is a writer, performer and zine maker based in Melbourne. She has participated in the National Young Writers Festival, The Emerging Writers Festival, Red Dirt Poetry Festival. She performed a one woman show entitled Mormon Girl in 2019 at The Melbourne Fringe Festival. Jessica has written poetry and personal essay zines created with artist friend Miranda Costa aka McDrawn. Jessica has been published in a variety of outlets including Archer Magazine, Scum Mag and Meanjin. Jessica received an Arts Access Creative Accelerate grant in 2021 that helped make the writing of Strange Little Girl possible.