Mariela Dabbah

Mariela Dabbah has been writing stories since she was nine years old.

It all started with a birthday gift: a book from her beloved Oma. And then another, and another—for every birthday that followed. From Anne of Green Gables to The Chronicles of Narnia and Heidi, Mariela devoured novels and soon felt inspired to write her own.

At nine, not yet able to use a typewriter, she handwrote her first series of novels on large, unlined orange sheets of paper her father—an orthopedic surgeon—brought home from the hospital. These sheets, meant to separate X-ray films, became the canvas for her diagonally written stories, complete with illustrations, stitched binding, and handmade covers crafted from the backs of her coloring books.

Her passion for storytelling only grew. Early fiction led to poetry and short stories, and after emigrating from Argentina to the U.S., she began writing non-fiction to help Latinos navigate the path to success. Her books, published by Sourcebooks and Penguin Random House, became bestsellers and garnered awards, earning her national media attention on topics ranging from education and job search to career development and leadership.

Her book Find Your Inner Red Shoes sparked the launch of the Red Shoe Movement, a leadership development company and global community focused on mutual support for career success.

In recent years, Mariela returned to her first love—fiction—writing novels and short stories in Spanish. In 2025, she published The Postcard, her first novel originally written in English. It was inspired by a secret she read on PostSecret. com that haunted her for years: “Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I’m dead.” That single line became the seed for a gripping novel about loss, identity, and reinvention.

She still hopes the person who submitted that secret reaches out—and shares the real story.