Media kit

Elyse Messing

Mother of four, entrepreneur, and author of Shattered by Strep, a memoir about the year her twelve-year-old daughter changed almost overnight, and the word that finally explained it: PANDAS.

The book

Title

Shattered by Strep

Subtitle

A medical mystery of sudden illness, a child changed beyond recognition, and the search for why

Author

Elyse Messing

Genre

Memoir

Release

December 3, 2027

Identical twins. Same camp. Same cabin. One came home as herself. The other came home as a stranger. Everyone saw an eating disorder. Her mother saw a child who had changed almost overnight, and she kept asking why. The search led to PANS and PANDAS, little-known conditions in which an immune response to a common infection, including strep, can set off sudden psychiatric and neurological symptoms in a child.

Short bio

Elyse Messing is a mother of four, an Ivy League graduate, and an entrepreneur who co-founded a successful business more than two decades ago. Shattered by Strep is her first book.

Longer bio

Elyse Messing is a mother of four, an Ivy League graduate, and an entrepreneur who co-founded a successful business more than two decades ago. None of that prepared her for the summer one of her twin daughters came home from camp a different child. Elyse spent the months that followed tracking every symptom in a spreadsheet and asking questions the people around her had stopped asking. Shattered by Strep is her first book. She wrote it so other parents hear the words PANS and PANDAS sooner than she did, and she speaks to podcasts, parent groups, and book clubs about the signs every family should know.

Images

Talk topics

• When the diagnosis doesn’t fit: trusting your gut as a parent when every professional agrees with each other.
• What every parent should know about PANS and PANDAS: the signs, the questions to ask, and why so few families have heard the words.
• One page, the whole picture: how to advocate for your child inside the medical system without burning bridges.
• The other twin: what siblings carry during a family crisis, and how to notice it.

Sample interview questions

1. What did you see at camp pickup that told you something was wrong?
2. What is PANDAS, in plain language?
3. Why have so few parents heard of it?
4. What would you tell a parent whose child has changed almost overnight?
5. How do you question a diagnosis without dismissing the people trying to help?
6. You write about screaming back at your daughter. Why include that?
7. How did your other daughters live through that year?
8. What is the SHATTER checklist, and where did it come from?
9. What can a grandparent, teacher, or friend do with this story?
10. Why the word “shattered”?

Contact

For interviews, podcasts, and events, use the booking form or email shatteredbystrep@gmail.com.