About John Paul

Children’s Book Author

Teasing & Anti-Bullying

John Paul Padilla was born December 11, in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in several cities within the state, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and is currently residing in the Central Valley of California. He went to several schools throughout California and graduated from Turlock High School. Upon graduating, he continued his schooling at Cal State Stanislaus University with the intent of becoming an elementary school teacher to teach third graders.

As he was attending college, he began to work at Cunningham Elementary School, as a Bilingual paraprofessional, doing yard duty, working with the Spanish speaking students, and also assisting in teaching kids with an afterschool dance program called “ KID’S IN MOTION “ for the 4th through 6th graders. It was a program that was offered once a week free of charge to both boys and girls but his passion for the arts was greater, so he was forced to quit working for the school district and decided to audition for John Robert Powers, Modeling/ and Talent agency, where he graduated in 1992, after 6 months of training. In 1994, he started taking dance lessons at Backstage Dance Academy of Dance in Turlock. He was older than most students to start taking dancing lessons but his love for the arts and wanting to learn how to dance better was far greater and he didn’t care what people thought or said. He had natural rhythm in his soul since a child and his Latin roots helped him keep up with the younger dancers in learning new dance steps that would help him feel more secure while on stage. He danced with Backstage Dance Academy, for 14 years, where he performed in the Nutcracker Suite Ballet in different roles from Party Guest, Mouse King, Spanish Dancer, Russian Dancer, and Uncle Drosselmeyer for five years. He then stopped dancing in 2008, when he took the leading role of the Prince for the first time.

In 1992, John Paul began modeling for fashion shows in the San Joaquin and Stanislaus areas of the central valley of California, for about 4 years, off and on. He even did some photo shoots for local photographers in the agencies that needed male models. In 1993, he got chosen to do a local commercial for Unique Hair Design for Univision 19, for the Spanish station. Through his agency, John Paul got to do several fashion shows for Weinstocks, JC Penny, the Modesto Hispanic Leadership Club at the Red Lion, which is now called Double Tree Hotel and for the Vintage Fair Mall. In 1995, John Paul was selected to participate in the Northern California Manhattan Model Search, which was held in the Bay area. He was chosen at the first auditions held in Modesto, CA. He passed the first audition and was asked to attend the Northern Modeling Competition in the bay area. He got as far as the finals but unfortunately, he didn’t get a second call back to make the semi-finals, however according to him, “The experience was unforgettable and nothing could compare to being on stage in front of many beautiful people and in front of leading agents from the around the world and to be in their presence. That same year, a local Latino magazine, called “Que Onda” was having a contest for Latino guys to try out for their contest called “Muneco Del Mes”, which basically means, the Male Stud of the month. After all the final entries had been received, John Paul was chosen to be the “Male Stud” for the month of February in 1995.

Author | Activist

During his high school years all the way to his second year of college, John Paul wrote parodies, poems, and lyrics for songs because it was a form of therapy and a way to express himself, as he cried and laughed with the outside world around him. It was a positive outlet for him to be able to express himself, personally on a more emotional, sensitive level, in which he used his passion for words to release stress, and help him inspire others during his traumatic experiences, happy times, or sad moments for himself and others.

While John Paul was taking modeling classes, he was looking through fashion magazines in trying to find a perfect style and fashion trend suitable for him personally. So, one day, while flipping through some fashion magazines, he noticed, that there were some open contests for poets, lyric writers for possible contracts. John Paul’s ambition for higher learning and to be discovered gave him the idea to submit some of his work to these companies, why not, he had nothing to lose. He’d been writing poetry since his high school years but mainly as a hobby.

So, through some good advice from one of his college professors and friends, John Paul decided to try his luck. He then submitted several of his poems to the National Library of Poetry, Watermark Press, and also to different record companies for possible consideration. So, through the course of time, constant rejection, and ambitious determination, John Paul’s poems were finally selected to be published in several anthologies through the following years and in 2 cases were given an Editor’s Choice Award, where he had two of his poems chosen to be recited for a cassette tape, and a CD, along with musical accompaniment.

As far as songwriting, John Paul doesn’t write music, but he does write the lyrics with a melody in mind. John Paul admits, he was never really into the country music scene, but when Nashville recording artists got interested in his work, John Paul agreed to have country artists such as Keith Bradford record his song, “I Wasn’t Born to Love “, Tammy Ryan,” Thinking Back,” Jimmy Smith,” From the Heart,” and also had the fortune of having Lulu Roman of Hee-Haw and the Grand Ole Opry, sing his song,” God is Here “. He didn’t make many royalties since most of them were new recording artists but he did gain experience at a very young age to practice on how to write better lyrics. In 1998, John Paul had a photo shoot with Peter Robertson, which is a reputable known photographer from Fresno, Ca that does benefits to raise money for Aids and Cancer victims.

June 2003 – named Distinguished Member
by The International Library of Poetry.

In June 2003, John Paul was named a Distinguished Member by The International Library of Poetry. November 2003, his First book, “Wings to Cross an Ocean” was released out in the market. This was a book filled with words to lift your spirits, food for thought, and motivation to change for the better. It’s an inspirational, poetry, and essay book that both motivates and encourages people self-love, to respect others and especially themselves, while at the same time to try to change negative things in our own lives, and help people appreciate their loved ones and other people before judging or pointing the finger. It was a tough time for John Paul during this time because soon after his book came out, a few months later, his publisher went out of business, filing bankruptcy and so without knowing what to do and feeling helpless, John Paul had no way to promote his book on his own, or money to market his book so he stopped promoting it all together.

In 2007, his poem, Time for Myself was chosen to be Editor’s Choice Award, along with being chosen along 33 other poets to be recorded in “The Sound of Poetry “, a CD collection of favorite poems chosen by the International Library of Poetry and Poetry.com. John Paul currently works as a full time, office administrator and continues to promote his work.

And most recently in August 2009, his first children’s book, “Johnny Big Ears, The Feel Good Friend” for children ages 4 through 10, was released. The book was inspired by his childhood experiences growing up and being teased in school. As an adult, while he worked for the school district, and seeing how teasing and bullying was affecting many kids, John Paul was motivated to write a book to help others deal with the big social issue and put his creativity to work. John Paul is currently going around schools, local farmers markets, child events, charity events, relay for life events, PTA events, Mom’s Clubs, Book fairs, day cares for kids, health and safety fairs, church events, and even adults with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy centers. With the help of his mascot, Johnny Big-Ears and John Paul, together they are spreading the message of saying, “No, to Teasing and Bullying “. Now as of April 2012, his second children’s book, “Johnny Big-Ears, Meets his New Neighbor Suzy “was out in the market for sale. As of April, 2012 both of John Paul’s books are now exclusively owned and officially self-published under his own publishing company name, Padilla Goldworks.

“Our success doesn’t depend on others but on letting go of our own fears and insecurities and simply going for it without worries.” – John Paul Padilla

It may be hard to believe it now, but in John Paul’s school years elementary through high school, he was a shy individual and a big-time loner. He was not only teased for his ears but for not be interested in playing sports like the rest of the boys. He was more interested in the arts and was even one of the few boys in his high school choir who sang for his graduating class. John Paul simply didn’t let anything stop him in following his heart and loving to perform even when he was teased and bullied because performing was the only thing special in his life. John Paul does admit, growing up he felt so insecure about his looks and himself, that he never had any interest to go out to any sports games in high school, his senior prom, or out to go party because he was so shy and quiet. John Paul was never the popular kid and didn’t have any friends to hang out in school or after school. John Paul truly did feel like an outsider at times, that he felt he didn’t belong anywhere. So he used his writing skills during those secluded years to entertain himself. Not until his early twenties, when he auditioned for John Robert Powers, Talent and Modeling Agency and got selected to take courses in self-motivational classes and modeling did he finally gain the confidence and determination to become more aggressive and outgoing around others.

John Paul says, “After what I went through during my secluded years, I felt the need to inspire anyone, not to be afraid to stand up for themselves in order to be heard. At any early age, I knew what I liked and didn’t care what people thought. They said, I was weird and I was proud to say, that “Yes, I was weird but for a good reason. To me, being weird was having the nerve to be who I wanted to be and doing what I loved to do, no matter what people said or thought. Being normal is being told what to do by everyone else and going with the flow of the world, forgetting about our own hopes and dreams.” That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to put together a few of my personal words. First an inspirational book, “Wings To Cross an Ocean.” And then a children’s book, “Johnny Big-Ears, The Feel Good Friend.” to help kids feel more secure in school and how to deal with teasing and bullying. “I wanted to make a difference with my words, for all those shy people, kids, adults, who feel like they are alone, perhaps even unwanted. I wanted to be the voice that is never usually heard.” John Paul admits that’s his current main objective is to be able to touch people through his book of poetry and his children’s books. Kids need to know at a young age that it’s ok to be themselves and that no matter how they look on the outside it’s ok to look different because that’s what makes everyone special! “Once we accept ourselves as we are, with flaws and all, we will all be truly more successful and happier people.