Kristin Billerbeck is a fourth-generation Californian and has a BA in Journalism & Mass Communications from San Jose State University. She has been on the CBA bestseller's list, is a two-time winner of the ACFW Lit of the year, and is currently nominated for a Christy for The Trophy Wives Club. Kristin has appeared on the "Today Show" and appeared in World Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and USA Today. She lives in her beloved Silicon Valley and has four children with her engineer husband.

Ask Ashley

I, Kristin Billerbeck, the creator of fashion-conscious, slightly vain Ashley Stockingdale, have an incredible memory for all things ridiculous. If there’s no point in remembering something, it’s stored away in my brain. I guess that’s why all the numbers had to get lost —unless they were phone numbers of cute boys from my past. Those are still there. But if it involves math, nope . . . gone.

So anyway, in my years as a fiction writer, I have come to discover that the human condition is a fascinating subject. And people really don’t try to understand one another, but they do like to discuss what’s wrong with others. Buy too many shoes? You don’t love Jesus enough. Wear expensive jeans? You’re not spending enough time in the Word.

While I’m sure some of those things may be true, people are created by God. In the womb. I have watched my four children grow up, displaying some of the same perks they had as babies. Yes, we must guide them, but ultimately, if a girl is going to be a car chick? She is a car chick at birth. Why are we always apologizing for it? If we’re tithing, giving, and living within our means, must we explain ourselves to someone who isn’t remotely tempted by a pair of shoes?

I read a money book that asked you to go back to your first childhood memory of money. My husband’s was his grandmother giving him a dollar, then his running down the hallway to hide it from everyone. (He’s a saver, and really, truth be told, he’s kind of cheap, too.) My first memory is my grandfather buying me a special leather Indian purse in which I put coins. I also remember my grandfather bribing me with ten dollars to stop sucking my fingers. To this day, I am obsessed with handbags, and I love getting a paycheck at the end of a project. So I can buy shoes. And handbags, and continue to get facials so I will not look old before my time—because I, dear ones, am a princess by birth.

So... "Ask Ashley" is a column about life and what makes people tick. Let’s stick to truths here. Not how we’d like to see ourselves, but how life is. Got a question about life? Romance? Fashion? Ask away and I will don my Ashley hat to offer the best advice to living God’s life well and laughing while we do it! Life is too short to wear pickle faces, people! Not to mention doing so will result in the early need for Botox, and really, does one need to stick botulism into their heads? Vanity does have a price, but that one is huge! So let’s play. Let’s figure out why people are so weird and how we can love them despite their freakiness, because that is what makes the world go around. Seriously, where would reality TV be with normal people?