The café that grew into a children’s book on feelings

In the middle of the pandemic, Sherina AlSowaidi noticed how few safe places there were to think about mental health, and how much stigma surrounded saying so. She opened Ritual Cafe and Studio in Abu Dhabi’s Reem Central Park in 2021, mixing coffee and food with workshops and meditative art such as watercolour therapy.

The business expanded into catering and a second venture, Bento Bowls, but she felt the original mission had slipped. It returned with a drawing. One afternoon she sat with one of her three sons and made a wheel of emotions with simple things to try when a feeling got big: read, drink water, wash your face, take a walk. People who saw it online asked for more, and it became My Feelings, a book that helps parents and children talk about emotions.

She published it with support from the UAE’s Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood and wants an international publisher to widen its reach. A double major in social research and public policy and in visual arts in the Class of 2017, she credits NYU Abu Dhabi with teaching her to look at familiar streets with fresh eyes. She now mentors students and is building a consultancy for early-stage entrepreneurs.