As a young child, Tina wrote and directed plays for the children of her neighborhood to star in. Tina’s oldest brother Ken owned a pair of bright red size 13 running shoes, which were the inspiration for the play from which she adapted this book. Growing up from sturdy Slovak and Ukrainian stock gave her distinctive features, including extremely large feet for a young girl. Krista-link-a-la and the Size 13 Shoes, shares how Tina chose to deal with her differences; rather than feel embarrassed, she chose to celebrate her uniqueness by shining a spotlight on what could be thought of as a negative trait, and now encourages all children to do the same.