Kim Joy Headshot.Photo:Dark Horse Books
Dark Horse Books
Great British Baking ShowalumKim-Joy’s is known for herplayful baking creations, but her other passion is mental health care.
The 2018GBBScompetitor was known for her creative bakes on the show (also known asThe Great British Bake Offin the U.K.) and continued her reputation as a whimsical baker with her four cookbooks.Baking with Kim-Joy,Christmas with Kim-Joy,Celebrate with Kim-JoyandBake Me a Catare full of fun, oftentimes animal-inspired, recipes.
In 2023, the baker released her graphic novelTurtle Bread, a comic book all about baked goods and coming out of your shell (pun intended). The hundred-plus page comic book is about a socially anxious woman finding community in a baking club, and Kim-Joy tells PEOPLE that she sees a lot of herself in the story.
According to Kim-Joy, this story is unlike her cookbooks, which “can only go on the surface level” of mental health conversations. InTurtle Breadshe could go “into all the depth about how people act and how people behave.”
The cookbook author has been a mental health care worker for years. After getting an undergraduate degree in sociology and a masters in psychology, Kim-Joy worked as a support worker in an inpatient learning disability unit and a care home, a psychological wellbeing practitioner in National Health Service and an advisor to university students with mental health struggles.
Kim-Joy — who will also appear on a British children’s television show — is able to relate because of her own struggles.
“I always try new opportunities. Sometimes there’s a bit in my head that goes, ‘Oh, do you really want to do that acting role? You’re going to be terrible,’” she says.
Bake Me a Cat Recipes.Dark Horse Books
She knows that acting and applying to compete onGreat British Baking Show"as a socially anxious person" sounds “so strange.” But she finds it “quite easy to talk to people the first time” she meets them.
She says the concept is quite a common for people who suffer from social anxiety.
“My tips are just getting the right people around you and not being hard on yourself if you can’t be vulnerable in a situation,” she advises.
“Before Nabil, I didn’t really have much of a support base and I think I was a lot more fragile,” she adds.
Now, in addition to writing cookbooks and graphic novels, she combines her passion for baking and mental health with a charity calledthe Wren Bakery, a “really amazing community” that teaches women baking and barista skills and helps them with employment. The social media star continues to share her mental health knowledge online with fans, too.
“Mental health is my favorite thing to think about," she laughs, “I’m obsessed with it.”
source: people.com
