Join Jami and Jessica, who has been published under the pen name Paula Jean Ferri, as they chat about how embracing Jessica’s Tourette Syndrome has taken on a personality of its own, which is where she derived her pen name. Jessica’s enthusiasm is palpable as she talks about her experiences in college, and how her thesis led her to writing a fictional book based on the first documented case of Tourette Syndrome, fabulously titled Madamn.
Paula Jean Ferri is one of the most awkward people you will ever meet. She often screams and makes animal noises in public, sometimes even during work meetings and church services. Having been in multiple awkward situations, she has become a master at the weird and uncomfortable. While always an oddball, the uncontrollable noises started her senior year of high school. At age 24, she was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.
Growing up in a small town called Logandale, it wasn’t always easy to stick out so much. So upon graduating from high school, she went from small town… to small town, attending Snow College in Ephraim, Utah before transferring to Laie, Hawaii to finish her undergrad in International Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Communications at Brigham Young University- Hawaii.
She currently resides in Wyoming with her husband, where she not only writes but sings, dances, hikes, watches old movies, and dreams of the day she can go back to Hawaii and travel the world. Paula Jean is actively involved with her church, attending not only Sunday meetings, but serving in the temple, and leading the choir in her congregation. She also loves her visits home to hang out with her family and the three coolest nephews in the world.
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