Laurens County author AnneDee Watkins, 20, shares her story of faith and purpose in “I’m Walking by Faith”

AnneDee Watkins had to pause her interview more than once at Squealin’ on the Square in downtown Laurens. Friends and community members eager to get their hands on her new book kept stopping by, and each one wanted a signature and a photo.

At 20, the Clemson University student is now a published author. That’s right, she wrote and published a book before finishing college. “I’m Walking by Faith,” written with Lindsay A.S. Felix and released Sept. 15, tells the story of growing up with Williams syndrome, earning a place in the Clemson LIFE program and learning to trust God along the way.

“I have a disability, but that does not define me,” Watkins said.

Watkins is the daughter of Jonathan and JoDee Watkins of JBW Farms in Gray Court. The family moved to Laurens County from Northern Virginia, where Jonathan served as a police officer and JoDee worked as a registered nurse. On the family’s land, Pet Commander Kennels has employed people with intellectual and developmental disabilities since it opened in 2017.

A book that started with a dream

Watkins said the idea for the book came to her in a dream.

“God gave me a dream about this book,” she said. “I want people to see that God can do anything. If you pray, he will do it. You just have to pray and believe.”

She called the book itself an answer to prayer that came in a way she never expected.

“I didn’t know I was going to write a book,” she said. “God just told me, write a book, go tell your mom about it.”

To bring the story to life, Watkins and Felix met on Zoom every week, often for about two hours at a time. Their conversations were recorded, and Felix shaped them into the chapters readers now hold.

Proving the doubters wrong

Watkins said her favorite chapters are the ones about her family and her sorority. The hardest to share was the story of someone who told her she would never get into Clemson.

“She just told me I couldn’t go. I wouldn’t get in,” Watkins said.

Today, she is a student in Clemson LIFE (Learning Is For Everyone), a program that helps students with intellectual disabilities build independent living and job skills. She still remembers the day she found out she was accepted. She walked up to the family kennel, sat down at the computer while her dad signed in, and read the word “congratulations.”

“My hands were shaking. My heart was racing,” she said. “I literally freaked out.”

The next day, her classmates at Laurens District 55 High School surprised her with a celebration. Looking back on the person who doubted her, Watkins said she feels “proud, very proud.”

At Clemson, she has found her place in more ways than one. She is in her third year as a manager for the Clemson volleyball team, and she also found a home in Kappa Delta.

“They are my sisters, even though they’re not blood related,” she said. “I can call anytime, and they will be right there.”

What she wants people to understand

Williams syndrome is a genetic condition caused by missing genetic material on one copy of chromosome 7. Watkins explained it simply: where Down syndrome involves an extra chromosome, Williams syndrome involves something missing. She said people with the condition may need a little more time to think things through.

The book describes the day she first noticed her classroom looked different from others.

“It didn’t feel like a regular classroom,” she said. “We only had a couple of students in the classroom, and we had two teachers.”

That realization led her to ask God some hard questions. The answer she found is at the heart of the book.

“He made me unique,” she said. “He didn’t make a mistake. He made me on purpose with a disability.”

She also hopes readers will stop being afraid to approach people like her. When she walks downtown, she said, some people look at her as if they are unsure how to start a conversation.

“Don’t be scared of a kid or a person with a disability. They just have something extra,” she said. “They want friends like everyone else, and I think they deserve friends.”

That is also why the book encourages readers to say hello to anyone sitting alone.

“I don’t want anyone sitting alone,” she said.

A message for parents and children

For parents raising a child who learns differently, Watkins offered simple advice.

“Just keep believing in your child, because your child can do anything they put their mind to,” she said, adding that her own parents pushed her to reach higher.

Her mother, JoDee Watkins, said watching AnneDee share her story has been one of the proudest moments of her life as a parent.

“From the time she was little, we told AnneDee that God made her on purpose and that her disability would never set her limits,” JoDee Watkins said. “Now she is telling the whole world the same thing. We could not be prouder of the young woman she has become.”

For a young child who has been told they are different, AnneDee’s message is just as direct: “You got this. Just keep believing in yourself, because you never know.”

She leans on her mother and on prayer when life gets confusing.

“Sometimes you do not understand what God is trying to tell you to do,” she said. “But I want people to know that God will do amazing things in your life.”

What comes next

Watkins is already planning more books. The last page of “I’m Walking by Faith” tells readers this will not be her only one.

“I’m going to write more, but I’ve got to enjoy this one first,” she said.

She also dreams of speaking on a big stage about her story, perhaps alongside author and speaker Sadie Robertson.

Watkins thanked Felix, her parents and her siblings, who she said heard plenty about the book long before it came out, along with her Kappa Delta sisters and the many friends and family members who believed in her.

“I’m an author,” she said. “It’s crazy to say.”

So far, she said, the reaction from readers has been “a lot of smiles.”

“I’m Walking by Faith” is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at Watkins’ book signings. Readers can follow her on Instagram and on Facebook at AnneDee Watkins, where she shares upcoming appearances as her story continues to reach new readers across Laurens County and beyond.