About Kathleen Buckstaff

As a little girl, Kathleen drew stick-figures to express how she was feeling… under a leaf sad; hiding behind a petal lonely; joyfully swinging from a flower in the wind. In 2008, Kathleen was diagnosed with PTSD. With love from her family and pets, therapy, acupuncture, mindfulness training, journaling and faith work, Kathleen was able to recover.

During shelter-in-place, Kathleen started sharing stick-figure drawings on Facebook to help people struggling with depression, isolation and anxiety to hold onto humor and light. This is how MissyAnnComics was born ~ a miniature poet who, despite Big Shoes stepping on her, or hard feeling of being lonely or sad, seeks to re-connect to beauty, faith & flowers. MissyAnn continues to star in comics & short videos and can be seen regularly on Facebook & YouTube.

Kathleen began her career as a journalist writing humor & inspirational columns for the Los Angeles Times and has published over 100 columns in The Huffington Post, The Arizona Republic and The San Francisco Chronicle.

In 2010, Kathleen created a one-woman play “The Tiffany Box, a love remembered” about the last two years of her mother’s life and performed the play in San Francisco, Phoenix and NYC. She expanded the play into The Tiffany Box, a memoir (2013), an Award-Winning Finalist, INTERNATIONAL BEST BOOK AWARDS .

In her second book, Mother Advice To Take With You To College: Humor, Inspiration and Wisdom To Go (2014), Kathleen shares over 65 illustrations she created to talk with her son about recovering from setbacks and finding purpose. 

Kathleen’s third book Get Savvy: Letters to a Teenage Girl about Sex and Love (2017) was an Award-Winning Finalist for BEST NEW NON-FICTION, INTERNATIONAL BEST BOOK AWARDS.  A true-story based on Kathleen’s experience with PTSD, a New England prep school, a best friend who took her own life and Kathleen's search to understand what really happened.

Kathleen lives in Arizona with Dan, her dearest friend and husband; Lily, an ever-hopeful dog; and Arwen, an affectionate cat. Every day, Kathleen is thankful for MissyAnn who always finds a way to return to prayer and the shade of a beautiful flower.