The Emotional Sponge: A Story for Kids Who Feel Other People's Feelings Too Deeply

💙 Does your child feel everything — and carry everyone else's feelings like they're their own?

The Emotional Sponge is a validating, empowering story for children who experience hyper-empathy — the intense, often exhausting ability to feel other people's emotions as if they were their own. Common in autism and ADHD, hyper-empathy is rarely named in children's resources, leaving kids feeling broken rather than gifted.

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🌊 Meet Riley

Riley can feel everything.

When her teacher has a bad day, Riley's chest gets heavy. When her friend is nervous, Riley's stomach twists. When Mom is stressed, Riley can't sleep — because her body has soaked up every drop of that stress like a sponge.

By the end of each day, Riley is completely drained. She's been carrying everyone's emotions all day long, and her own feelings are buried somewhere underneath.

"I think something is wrong with me," Riley tells her mom.

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✨ Then Riley learns the truth

She has hyper-empathy — her brain is wired to feel other people's emotions really, really strongly. She's an emotional sponge. It's real, it's common in autism and ADHD, and it's both a profound gift and genuinely exhausting.

With her mom's gentle guidance, Riley learns three life-changing tools:

• 🔍 The Feelings Check — "Was I feeling this before I saw them?"
• 🫧 Squeeze Out the Sponge — a visualization for releasing feelings that aren't hers
• 🌿 Reset Time — why alone time after absorbing emotions isn't antisocial — it's essential

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💙 What makes this story different

Hyper-empathy directly contradicts the harmful stereotype that autistic people lack empathy. Yet it is almost never discussed in children's books. Kids who experience it are emotionally exhausted, overwhelmed in groups, and blame themselves for "feeling too much." They need a name for it, validation that it's real, and practical strategies — not another message that they're too sensitive.

✅ Names hyper-empathy so kids finally have language for their experience ✅ Validates the exhaustion — absorbing emotions IS draining; it's not dramatic ✅ Practical strategies kids can use the same day they finish reading ✅ Explains energy drain after school, parties, and group settings ✅ Celebrates the gift — deep feeling = understanding people in profound ways ✅ Counters a harmful myth — autistic people don't lack empathy; many feel it intensely

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📚 Perfect for

• Autistic and ADHD children who absorb others' emotions
• Highly sensitive children who feel "too much"
• Children exhausted by being around people
• Kids who know when someone is upset even when they're hiding it
• Children who can't separate their feelings from others'
• Empathetic kids learning emotional boundaries

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💙 From the Understanding My Unique Brain series — books that help neurodivergent kids understand their beautiful, different brains. Not to fix them. To celebrate them.

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