Women who choose to have children often cannot understand those of us who have chosen not to. Kid Me Not, a collection of essays by everyday women, was written with the hope that all women, regardless of their inclinations, will be encouraged to listen to the voice within, and follow it, wherever it leads. With luck, our stories will sow seeds of respect between women who choose paths exclusive of children and those who have chosen the daunting task of being mothers

Aralyn Hughes fancies herself as an entrepreneur or a visionary and a "chrone" with wisdom. For over 33 years, Aralyn has been an Austin icon helping to keep the city as bright, colorful, and unique as she is. You may have seen her driving her bright pink pig-themed art car around town with her pet pot bellied pig in tow or witnessed in giant letters, "Keep Austin Weird," on the side of her house. She has appeared on numerous television shows on the local and national level as an ambassador of what makes Austin such a great place to live.

After being a successful businesswoman, a lobbyist at the Texas State Capital, and a member of "every board and commission in Austin Texas, not to mention a "party animal," Hughes also performed in her spare time with local theatre productions like the critically acclaimed "In the West." One of the longest running shows in Austin, Texas, "In the West" premiered an original piece written by Hughes for Academy Award-nominated John Hawkes.

Aralyn became a performance artist, storyteller, and non-fiction monologist in her sixties. She performed eight original pieces in her series "Aralyn's Home Economics" and was then accepted to perform her newest show in NYC at the International Solo Theater Festival in Nov 2013.

Aralyn recently completed her first book, an anthology about childfree women who came of age in the 1960s. Kid Me Not features stories of women who made the decision to not have children. They were the first generation of women to have truly had a choice, due to the advent of the birth control pill.