Beyond the Books
I've spent 20 years writing stories for kids that live on the page—and sometimes off it. From American Girl to Scholastic to Disney Princess, I develop narrative content for brands that families love and trust, working within the constraints of IP, brand guidelines, budgets, and tight deadlines to create stories and experiences that actually land with young audiences.
American Girl
Retail Birthday Party Program
Developed and launched a themed guest experience program for American Girl retail locations nationwide, including concept development, show flow design, activity scripting, facilitator training materials, and consumer testing with target audience. Created documentation to ensure consistent story quality and guest experience standards across all locations.
American Girl
Café Games + In-Store Events
Developed in-environment narrative content including guest-facing games, conversation prompts, and in-store craft events designed to engage families organically within the retail experience and extend the brand story beyond the page.
American Girl
Photo Shoot Production
10 years of experience translating editorial concepts into visual storytelling for photo shoots for books and magazines. Served as on-set creative producer across studio and location shoots: directing talent, making real-time creative decisions, and personally overseeing hair, makeup, wardrobe, prop styling, and food styling to ensure every image served the story. Collaborated with photographers, art directors, and editors to execute covers, features, and book content for American Girl. Regularly transformed blank studio and location spaces into fully realized themed environments—from winter wonderlands to themed party scenes—ensuring every environmental detail served the story and created a sense of total immersion for the camera and the reader.
Goldieblox
Interactive Content
Collaborated on a virtual branded immersive experience called GoldieBlox Curiosity Camp including guest journey design, educational content development, video scripting, and downloadable activity creation. Developed 21 distinct experience modules with original research, photography, and video, consulting women in STEM as subject matter experts to ensure scientific accuracy. Designed for progressive guest engagement with a badging/achievement system.
mycotoo
Charrette
Contributed to creative development charrette for international family entertainment center concepts. Collaborated in blue-sky ideation and iterative story refinement, solving creative and narrative challenges within brand and audience constraints.
Chicago Foodseum
Pop-Up Events
Contributed to creative development and community storytelling for Chicago's first food museum pop-up, including content strategy, audience engagement, and brand partnership outreach with local chefs and food influencers.
Disney
Writing for I.P.
Collaborated with Disney editors to develop original narrative content for established Disney franchises, working within character and brand guidelines, in-universe timelines, and campaign story goals, including the Ultimate Princess Celebration, where my Cinderella story was featured as a read-aloud on YouTube. Demonstrated ability to write Disney characters authentically under significant constraints, including working from pre-release materials like working scripts and concept art before source films Zootopia 2 or A Wrinkle in Time were released.
Scholastic + The Dodo
YouTube Novelizations
Partnered with Scholastic and the Dodo to develop a series of narrative nonfiction novels by transforming minimal source material (short YouTube videos from The Dodo) into fully realized story worlds by conducting original research, expert interviews, and applying structured story development including multi-POV narrative design to create emotionally resonant, audience-appropriate experiences. Developed repeatable story format applied across multiple titles in the series and featured prominently in the Scholastic Book Fair program.
The Look Up Series
Brand Creation and Launch
Founded an independent children's press and conceived, wrote, published, and marketed an award-winning biography series celebrating diverse women in STEAM in ridiculously fun careers (think ice cream scientist, theme park designer, toy engineer, and more!) called The Look Up Series. Demonstrated full creative ownership from concept to market, including advertising, PR, and event appearances like the LA Times Festival of Books, American Library Association conference, City of STEM, and the National Science Teachers Association conference.
WisconsinEye
Scriptwriting
Wrote age-differentiated educational scripts for four audience tiers (K–12), translating complex civic subject matter into engaging, age-appropriate content for each developmental stage.
