1. risenmagazine.com 19
ay the names of Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa and most
young girls can tell you their story, and likely even sing you their songs. These are among the coveted list of fictional
female heroines known as Disney princesses. But ask those same girls about Hannah or Ruth or Deborah and a blank expres-
sion appears. So it was with that knowledge that Erin Weidemann set out to teach girls about real life women whose stories of
accomplishments and character are told in the Bible. The result is a newly-released book series called Bible Belles. But there is
a story within the story in the development of this promising series. Risen sat down with the author who shares about her own
struggles with cancer, self-image, and her relationship with God.
Interviewed exclusively for Risen Magazine in San Diego, California
Risen Magazine: Sports was a huge part of your life, you even played col-
lege softball, so what did that theme look like for you?
Erin Weidemann: If I were to say it in one word, I’d say that I was always
very driven from a very young age. Softball was my thing. I loved play-
ing and would play every single day. My dad, growing up, coached me for
many years from when I was really little to almost through high school. He
would ask me every so often, “Do you want to take a break and try something
else?” And the answer was always, “No.” He never pushed me. It was just
something that I found early that I could get, and be, really good at so I just
worked and worked. I thank God that I had an opportunity to find myself,
and find an identity, through athletics because it helped me develop a lot of
qualities I didn’t have when I first started and struggled to find.
RM: How did those qualities you developed through softball prepare you or
enhance the experiences you have now?
EW: I think as an athlete, especially in softball, you really had to work at
the fundamentals and the technique of it to be really good. A lot of kids can
be fast at running, or good at shooting hoops, but with softball sometimes
you only get a couple of opportunities in a game to perform so you have to
do it correctly over and over and over. The meticulous way you have to fine
tune your abilities,I really latched onto because I liked the repetition.I liked
knowing I was doing it well several times in a row. That way when I got to
moments when I had to perform, I could do it. I saw the value of putting in
the work ahead of time and then getting the results. And I was successful
because of the amount of work I put in.
RM: How does faith fit into those formative years of your journey?
EW: I grew up Lutheran; attending Lutheran school and church. My par-
ents, and my sister and I all went to the same small school in Orange, Cali-
fornia. My personal experience was that it was rigid and formal, and I didn’t
understand or find any connection with God. Plus as a family we didn’t
bring church home with us. We didn’t read the Bible at home, it wasn’t
something we talked about, and we didn’t pray as a family, so essentially I
compartmentalized who I was from the beginning. It was like I’m going to
go to church, and school and be this person and at home it was someone
totally different. As I got older and started to rebel, in the natural way some
kids rebel when they get to middle school and high school,I started meeting
different kinds of people who didn’t necessarily believe what I had grown
up thinking about and believing, I questioned [my faith]. Those years and
into college was a time that I just abandoned God and stopped pursuing
that part of my life.
RM: So that begs the question as to what it was that made you want to re-
engage the Lord in a relationship?
EW: I fell into that in a weird way. I graduated from Penn State in 2003
with a degree in Journalism and Spanish – because those were two things
I was passionate about, writing and language. So it made zero sense, but I
went into finance. I got a job working as a mortgage consultant for D.R.
Horton, because I thought, “I can make a lot of money working for a home
builder.” I was super successful making money in real estate and I was doing
great and I started living 100mph.
Writer: Kelli Gillespie
Photographer: Sean Capshaw
2015 Resolusean Photography
THE SOUND OF THESE BELLES
WILL BE HEARD
THE SOUND OF THESE BELLES
I was so freaked out and
became hysterically terri-
fied. It hurt so bad, and I
was so dizzy, I just
thought, “Oh my gosh, I
am going to die.” So I laid
down on the bathroom
floor and I started to pray.
I prayed for God’s help
because I was totally
broken in that moment.
We found out that no
very many of the littl
girls we knew were
aware that there were
any women in the Bib
but they could all nam
all the Disney princes
I personally view my
struggle with disease as
one of the most pre-
cious blessings in my
life. Honestly, besides
my baby and my hus-
band and my faith, me
getting sick was so be-
nevolently important
because I had to be
broken that way for
God to really get my
attention.
S

2. Risen Magazine18
THE SOUND OF THESE BELLES
WILL BE HEARD
I was so freaked out and
became hysterically terri-
fied. It hurt so bad, and I
was so dizzy, I just
thought, “Oh my gosh, I
am going to die.” So I laid
down on the bathroom
floor and I started to pray.
I prayed for God’s help
because I was totally
broken in that moment.
We found out that not
very many of the little
girls we knew were
aware that there were
any women in the Bible,
but they could all name
all the Disney princesses.

3. Risen Magazine20
I was going out and doing a lot of things I shouldn’t have been doing
in a lot of places I shouldn’t have been. This went on from around 2004
to 2006. I wasn’t really aligning myself with what my true talents were or
pursuing my passion, I was just making a lot of money. And then I bought
a house in December of 2006 and then a month or two after I moved in, in
March of 2007, I found out I had cancer. I got sick and moved right back
out and into my parent’s house for months after I had two different surger-
ies and physical therapy and it was a time where I just couldn’t take care of
myself. But the moment when I found my way back to God was in June of
2007 when I was in the middle of a 72-hour quarantine.
The type of cancer I had was an aggressive variant papillary carcinoma.
It starts in your thyroid and if it doesn’t get dealt with, it metastasizes and
mine was super bad. It went all the way up my brain stem and into my chest
on both sides. So when they took it out, they took my thyroid and most of
the lymph nodes that were cancerous in my head and neck and chest.While
I was doing this radiation treatment I had to be quarantined for 72-hours.
I could’ve done it at the hospital, but my mom suggested I just do it at the
house. So they moved out of their bedroom and had me stay there with a
cooler and we also had to plastic wrap the entire room because anything I
would touch would become radioactive and I spent three days in that room
and ten days total away from human contact so that I wouldn’t injure any-
body because once you swallow the radiation pill it starts to radiate and kill
all the cancer throughout your whole body, but it becomes a danger to other
people in close proximity to you.
I took the pill on the way home and laid down in the back of my
mom’s Suburban wrapped in a radiation blanket so I wouldn’t hurt her, and
then I waited outside on the curb and I started to feel sick. I got inside the
room and about twelve hours in, the pain of it, and the physical bad feeling,
started to escalate. I hit this hour twelve panic. I was so freaked out and be-
came hysterically terrified. It hurt so bad, and I was so dizzy, I just thought,
“Oh my gosh, I am going to die.” So I laid down on the bathroom floor and I
started to pray. I prayed for God’s help because I was totally broken in that
moment. I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t help myself, and it wasn’t going away.
I sat up a few minutes after that and I definitely felt calmer. It was the
little push I needed to think, “Okay things are going to be okay and you are go-
ing to get through this.” And then after I got out of there and thought about
it for a little bit I thought, “I should probably revisit this because if I don’t think
God exists, then who was I talking to?”
RM: Was that an immediate dialogue that you had with God or did it take
a longer stretch before you explored those thoughts?
EW: So, all of that happened, and then I rehabbed myself and felt differ-
ently about my life, but I wouldn’t say I started going to church and every-
thing was great and I had my faith turn and immediately started walking
with God. But I definitely woke up and my heart was softer because of
what had happened. I started thinking a lot about, “What am I supposed to be
doing if I don’t have a lot of time?” That was one thing the doctor said in his
report and I would read. I would read his op report over and over and I just
couldn’t come to terms with it because it said over and over, this woman is
very diseased, like twelve times in a nine-page report. Very diseased – it just
stuck with me. So if I’m super sick, even when I start to feel better, I need
to do something with the time I have here, which doesn’t seem like a lot of
time, so what should I do? So I went back to school and I became a teacher.
Diagnosed in 2007, and 2008 became the year of realigning my life
with my passion and doing what I felt God put me here on this earth to do.
I had always had a connection with kids, interacted with them and there is
something special between me and children and there had been for a very
long time. So I quit my job, went back to school and then I met Brent when
I was living at home and student teaching.
RM: Speaking of Brent, who is now your husband, were you open to the
idea of a relationship with everything going on your life at the time you
met?
EW: Nooooo! No. No. No. We definitely had the whole conversation, “Oh
that’s adorable you want to date but I’m dying. No I’m not going to date. Why
would we date? That’s stupid.” And he just did not listen to me. But I didn’t
THE SOUND OF THESE BELLES
WILL BE HEARD
I was so freaked out and
became hysterically terri-
fied. It hurt so bad, and I
was so dizzy, I just
thought, “Oh my gosh, I
am going to die.” So I laid
down on the bathroom
floor and I started to pray.
I prayed for God’s help
because I was totally
broken in that moment.
We found out that n
very many of the lit
girls we knew were
aware that there we
any women in the B
but they could all na
all the Disney princ
Erin with her husband Brent and their daughter Rooney.

4. risenmagazine.com 21
not
ttle
re
Bible,
ame
esses.
I personally view my
struggle with disease as
one of the most pre-
cious blessings in my
life. Honestly, besides
my baby and my hus-
band and my faith, me
getting sick was so be-
nevolently important
because I had to be
broken that way for
God to really get my
attention.
S

5. Risen Magazine22
I was
becam
fied. I
was s
thoug
am go
down
floor
I pray
becau
broke

6. risenmagazine.com 23
think I was going to be around very long so I didn’t want to hurt him. But
he convinced me to date him and we got married in 2010. Brent’s faith
journey is an interesting one too. He was a lot more mature in his faith and
I am grateful for his ability to steer me on that path, when I was not so lost
anymore, but still in need of that push toward God. Yes, I had made a turn
in my life but I still felt a lot of guilt around, “How could I go back to God after
the way I had treated Him?”
RM: Interesting. I’m sure that feeling of being disqualified from God’s love
because of prior behavior is something many people can resonate with, so
what was it that helped you understand God loves you no matter what?
EW: It took me a long time and I would even say that it is a recent feeling.
For several years of me finding my way back to Him I did not feel worthy.
But I am looking at the way that God has blessed me and He is clearly not
hung up on the way I had treated Him. [Laughter] He gave me this amaz-
ing husband,and I never thought I would be a mom – ever.I should be dead.
And it’s not like the cancer came one time and went away. I’ve had it again,
and again, and again, and again. And God continues to deliver me through
all of that and now I have a family.
RM: Let’s talk for a moment again about your cancer because it’s daunting
and extremely difficult for anyone who has to battle the disease, but then to
have cancer come back multiple times,and in consecutive years,that is obvi-
ously physically challenging. How did that affect you mentally?
EW: I kind of look at it as a comparison. The first time I was diagnosed
in 2007 God was not a part of it until treatment when I had my moment.
But ever since then when the cancer came back, my heart was softer. So my
mindset was, “Okay we are just going to deal with it,” because it wasn’t as bad
as the first time and I had God now. It was more like, “When is the surgery?”
And I have had six surgeries.I can’t remember them all,but that is the point.
I only remember the first one and how horrific it was because God was not
with me – well He was there, but in my brain I had pushed Him out – so
I wasn’t with Him, which is why I think it was so hard. But since then it
really just feels more like a second job. But fortunately now I have been
cancer-free for the past two years and it is interesting to see how that was
one season, and now we are focused on this season and Bible Belles. But even
if the cancer does come back then God will teach me something through it.
RM: Bible Belles is the book series you just launched for young girls, and I
understand the idea actually was born out of the search for a birthday pres-
ent for your niece.Tell me the story.
EW: Exactly. We were driving home from church and it was going to be
my niece Hannah’s fifth birthday and we didn’t want to just get her another
toy and we thought, “There is a Hannah in the Bible, wouldn’t it be cool if we
gave her the story?” Brent is really talented in art so he could illustrate it and
then I would rewrite the story so that she could understand it better since
she is only going to be five. We’d package it up and give her this book that
we made.
So we did that and she was really excited, but also confused because
she had no idea that there was a Hannah in the Bible. We thought that was
surprising so we explored that a little bit and asked around and found out
that not very many of the little girls we knew were aware that there were
any women in the Bible. They knew a couple, but not one that they cared
about, but they could all name all the Disney princesses. Not that Disney is
not great; but we thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if the names and stories of these
Bible women were in the hearts and minds of these girls in a way that they would
look up to them and they would be their heroes?” That’s where Bible Belles came
from. It was born out of this gift that morphed into the realization that girls
need heroes.
RM: Your mindset shifted from, “Yea that is a great idea, someone should do it
for girls,” to “I think I am the one called to bring this to the marketplace.” When
did that occur?
EW: We decided to launch it as a company when I was eight months preg-
nant. We kind of kept that quiet and worked on it together as a husband-
wife team. We did a lot of research and tried to align ourselves with experts
and people who could help. We really prayed about it and wanted to make
sure it was something God wanted us to do.
RM: How did you decipher that is what God wanted you to do and the plan
which He wanted you to execute?
EW: I think in the way that choices were laid out for us and the way we
felt God working us through challenges. I’ll give you an example.We strug-
gled with the idea of how do we marry the creative entertaining part that
kids need with the truth and Bible accuracy that parents are looking for.
We knew we were going to introduce this fictional character to encounter
THE SOUND OF THESE BELLES
WILL BE HEARD
so freaked out and
me hysterically terri-
t hurt so bad, and I
o dizzy, I just
ht, “Oh my gosh, I
oing to die.” So I laid
on the bathroom
and I started to pray.
ed for God’s help
se I was totally
n in that moment.
We found out that not
very many of the little
girls we knew were
aware that there were
any women in the Bible,
but they could all name
all the Disney princesses.

7. Risen Magazine24
I was so freaked out and
became hysterically terri-
fied. It hurt so bad, and I
was so dizzy, I just
thought, “Oh my gosh, I
am going to die.” So I laid
down on the bathroom
floor and I started to pray.
I prayed for God’s help
because I was totally
broken in that moment.
We fo
very
girls w
aware
any w
but th
all th

8. risenmagazine.com 25
women of the Bible, but which women do we include? Initially we thought
maybe we would do each woman from the Bible and give them their own
book and there would be around 20-30 books in the series.
The more I wrote about that,and thought about that,and prayed about
that, I just said to God, “Which women am I supposed to use?” We are talk-
ing about young kids so I can’t use all of them because some of the themes
are not appropriate and the lessons are more suited for junior high or high
school. Is it Old Testament? Is it New Testament? What does it look like?
I started to research and read books about the women of the Bible. I then
settled on five. I didn’t find out until later, but it was a total God-reason for
these specific five. I picked, not in any order, Hannah, Esther and Ruth.
And I was stuck on those three for awhile. Then I added Abigail and lastly,
Deborah.
I am looking at these women’s names on a piece of paper and I like
words and writing so I took their first initials and together – Hannah, Es-
ther, Abigail, Ruth and Deborah – spells out the word HEARD. And that
resonated with me because as a mean, loud, brash, put-on-a-front, kind-of-
a-girl that I spent a lot of my early life being,the type of girl the world seems
to celebrate, the acronym H.E.A.R.D. becomes a symbol for the difference
between the world’s voice which tells you to make a certain kind of noise,
and the kind of voice God wants you to make–in understanding how much
He loves you and finding out what your purpose is – that is the noise that
needs to be heard. And when you meet people who understand God’s love
and what they are put on this earth to do, they do make a different kind of
noise; a noise that is very different than the world’s noise. I felt like through
that word, heard, God showed me exactly which women I was supposed to
use. And to take it a step further, they are not in that order just because of
their initials. They are in that order because together, in order, they teach
something about understanding God’s love and how to find purpose.
RM: So then the lesson from each woman builds and supports the next
woman’s lesson as your fictitious girl Rooney, named after your real-life
daughter, encounters each of these women in each book?
EW: Yes. Hannah is the belle of Prayer. Esther is Patience, Abigail is Brav-
ery, Ruth is Loyalty, and Deborah is Leadership.
RM: The importance of investing in girls deepened as you had a baby girl
in 2014. Why did you decide to name the central character in your books,
Rooney, after her?
EW: I am looking for a way for my daughter to get connected to the Bible
early and in a way that will mean something to her. And it already means
something to me because as a mom, I want to teach values to her that come
from the Bible that are the values that God wants us to learn. But for her,
the Bible is her manual. That book is what is going to get her through life;
it’s the only book with all the answers.I want her to have a way to experience
the stories in it in a way that she can connect with each woman, understand
how the stories are relatable to her life, and because she is little, hopefully it
will give her the desire to learn more about the Bible.
RM: In the process of writing the book, being a mom, and working in the
classroom, what are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to raising
girls?
EW: I see a lot of things that I felt as a kid – feelings of worthlessness,
feelings of judgment of other girls, and feelings of self-judgment, thinking,
“How do I measure up against everything I am seeing?” Now as an adult,I want
to battle against those things.The idea of beauty in the world is so different
than when I grew up,but it is so detrimental to a girl nowadays that we have
to do something about it.
RM: Lastly, all of us are going to have hardships in our lives, some will be
health-related, maybe others it’s financial or relational. What encourage-
ment or advice would you give to someone to help them persevere through
the struggle?
EW: I personally view my struggle with disease as one of the most precious
blessings in my life. Honestly, besides my baby and my husband and my
faith, me getting sick was so benevolently important because I had to be
broken that way for God to really get my attention. He tried to get my at-
tention a lot of times and I was just hard-nosed and stubborn and I refused
to listen to Him so He got my attention and it worked.I felt my background
in sports physically prepared me for what I went through. I learned through
it that you need to lean on God, talk to people about what is going on and
not try to do it alone.
To learn more or get free resources go to:
www.BibleBelles.com
ound out that not
many of the little
we knew were
e that there were
women in the Bible,
hey could all name
e Disney princesses.
I personally view my
struggle with disease as
one of the most pre-
cious blessings in my
life. Honestly, besides
my baby and my hus-
band and my faith, me
getting sick was so be-
nevolently important
because I had to be
broken that way for
God to really get my
attention.