I left a career as a civil rights trial attorney to chase the idea of building a creativity challenge community that empowers youth through storytelling.
Not because I had a polished five-year business plan. Not because I had a marketing team, a funding pipeline, or a “sure thing.”
I had an idea.
What if kids didn’t just read books—what if they helped create them?
What if storytelling became something shared—interactive storytelling built by a community of readers, writers, and illustrators, connecting with each other through stories?
I called it Participatory Publishing. It felt right in my gut. It’s heavy and clunky and breaks all the clickbait rules of something that might ‘go viral’—but I couldn’t think of better words. So, I just went with them.
But let’s be honest—when I left my job, even my own teenagers raised an eyebrow like, “Okay, Mom… but are you sure?” This week, something happened that reminded reminded me exactly why, in my gut, I couldn’t say no to this leap.
The Sketch-Off: A Spark Becomes a Blaze
After a double-overtime extended voting round in our Book Six “Theme Team” Creativity Challenge, Women’s Suffrage emerged as the winning topic. As I noted then, a very timely choice for Women’s History Month. But, to be honest, when I started this, writing historical fiction books for 10-year-olds wasn’t on my radar at all.
But that’s the whole point, right? Its “participatory”—I’m not driving the train, these kids are, this community is.
So, with our “Women’s Suffrage” theme, we rolled into The Sketch-Off challenge—deepening the creativity challenge community we were building.
The prompt was: Submit a drawing of anything that reminds you of the women’s suffrage movement.
It could be a protest sign.
A suffragette hat.
A bicycle.
Did you know that Susan B. Anthony once said the bicycle had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.”
We’d completed one round of Creativity Challenges before and, with each round, got only a handful of entries. This time, though, an inbox explosion.
Twenty-one sketches. From a single studio in a school that does things a little bit differently. Each one thoughtful. Bold. Bursting with creativity and opportunity.
The Heroes of Joy build their own Creativity Challenge Community
The magic came from Mrs. Erin-Beth Carter, Co-founder & Head of School at Joy, an Acton Academy in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
A friend mentioned our project to her. She didn’t just say, “Sounds cool.” She turned around, handed the whole challenge to her class, and said: “This is yours now.”
At Joy, students are called heroes—and wow, did they live up to the name. They didn’t hold back. They didn’t wait for permission. They took the sketchbook and ran.
What Mrs. Carter and these heroes at Joy did is exactly how we set out to empower youth with interactive storytelling. This is Participatory Publishing in real life. A teen in Idaho submits a theme. A school in Louisiana brings it to life. A book starts to take shape—not as a top-down project, but as a story co-authored by kids from the inside out.
Why This Matters (Now More Than Ever)
We’re living in a moment when creative programs are under threat. Books are being challenged. Teachers are stretched thin.
And yet—here are these kids, showing up. Creating. Here are these educators, saying yes to something new. Showing kids the power of their voices.
That’s the heartbeat of this work. We can’t control the systems breaking down. But we can build something better in their place. We can trust kids with the mic, the pen, the brush—and watch them shape the world we all live in.
This class reminded me that agency starts early. That creativity is power. That stories aren’t just told—they’re lived, shared, and rewritten through interactive storytelling experiences that start with kids.
So What Happens Now?
Book 6 is underway.
Illustrations from Joy’s Discovery heroes will be part of the creative foundation.
More sketch-offs, writing challenges, and kid-powered ideas are coming—with the Book Six Word Weaver Creativity Challenge coming up next.
Because when young people see the voices of people they know reflected on the page, something shifts.
They stop waiting to be invited into the story—they realize they’ve had the power to shape it all along. That’s how we empower youth.
And that’s exactly the kind of world I want to help build.
UPDATE: The Discovery Heroes at Joy Lake Charles Just Keep Showing Up
They’ve done it again! The heroes at Joy Lake Charles didn’t just show up once—they came back swinging.
The winners of BOTH our Book 6 Sketch-Off and Word Weaver challenge came from this powerhouse creativity challenge community. That’s not a coincidence. That’s what happens when a school leans into interactive storytelling and trusts kids to lead the creative charge.
After a very close, intense round of voting, nine-year-old Charleigh L. took the spotlight in our Sketch-Off with a bold, symbolic drawing of women and bugs—a visual metaphor for perseverance, unseen power, and the quiet strength that moves history forward. Her sketch didn’t just earn votes—it became the visual anchor for an entire book.
Then came the Word Weaver Challenge, and Bray W., age ten, dropped a line of verse that stopped voters in their tracks:
“Rise women, love your place. Always find your saving grace.”
Simple. Poetic. Powerful. This is what it looks like when we empower youth to use their voices and shape stories that matter.
These weren’t adult-led lessons. They were student-driven ideas—rooted in real thought, real emotion, and real agency.
And here’s the kicker: both winners came from the same class. The same teacher. The same belief in kids. That’s not just participation. That’s a movement in action.
This is the kind of momentum that fuels our vision for participatory publishing. It’s not theoretical. It’s happening. Right now. One challenge, one classroom, one powerful voice at a time.
Book Six will be released on August 1st. If you haven’t already, make sure to mark your calendars!
