Creative Galaxy!! Tonight’s the night of the big premiere.

So excited to hear what everyone thinks of Out of the Blue Enterprises latest show for Amazon Studios.

Much more to come!!

xo

Angela

PBS Kids Renews Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

I literally just sent a note to Nicole, a mother of two year old twins. In the message, I explained that there’s a lot of love poured into Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and while, like any other business, there are challenging times where it’s necessary to fight for what you believe in, knowing who our audience is and receiving such incredible feedback like hers helps so very much.

I honestly believe that we treat the characters as our own children and have the utmost of respect for yours..we hope that comes through in the show.

So thank you Nicole, Malina Saval @MalinaSaval (Variety – Assoc Editor) and everyone who’s ever had a kind word to say Fred Rogers’ baby, Daniel. After all, we do it to make this a happier world.

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you, 
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. 

So let’s make the most of this beautiful day, 
Since we’re together, we might as well say, 
Would you be mine? 
Could you be mine? 
Won’t you be my neighbor?

-Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Act like a man!

What does that even mean?

Especially today.

It means A LOT.

Especially since I have two daughters.

It definitely doesn’t mean what I thought it meant when I was making that mysterious transformation, into becoming a man. That’s certainly because most old fashioned attitudes teach our young men to stifle who they truly are and make life changing decisions for often absurd reasons and superficial rewards. That sounds like the opposite of manly to me.

I saw the poignant but powerful documentary from The Representation Project on goodmenproject.com. Hopefully it will aid young boys in their transformative years. To teach them what  “Act Like A Man” should mean.

And especially what it NEEDS to mean..for all of us

I like to call it the “quarter-life crisis”. Out of college & in the “real world” for a few years, and suddenly panicking about whether the job you have now – the one you worked so hard in high school and college to land – will lead to a fulfilling and gratifying life-long career.

Studying towards my Masters in Developmental Psych. at Teachers College, Columbia U., I was certain that my passion was to work with children in some capacity, but I found myself at a crossroads, with 2 outstanding career opportunities – a very fortunate “problem” to have! Children’s Media or Speech and Language Therapy? Although they seem like wildly different professions, they are actually quite intertwined.

Exposed to several Language Development & Speech Therapy courses in my program at Teachers College, I decided to explore the SLP profession in the actual field. I was privileged to meet with Speech & Language Therapist, Lauren Turk, M.S., CCC-SLP, who kindly allowed me to shadow a few of her therapy sessions in school settings.

Ranging in ages from 3-16 years, and with a variety of different speech & language disorders, her clients did have 1 important aspect in common: the comforting & motivating environment that Lauren carefully established. It was inspiring to see how a speech therapist can really make an impact on a child to live a better, more fulfilled life.

There has been a greater awareness about the importance of early identification of speech, language, swallowing & hearing disorders in young children, but people may not necessarily know who to approach, or how and when to get treatment. Luckily, Lauren Turk has devised a new website, TherapyfindR, which enables parents to search for qualified therapists by zip code. Search results display profiles of therapists with their personal description, credentials & specialty so the family can carefully select the therapist that is right for them. The site is a FREE service to help you find the right therapist for your child’s unique situation and needs.

As for me, I simply could not leave the children’s media world (Have you seen how cute that Daniel Tiger is??). My work as Associate Producer at Out of the Blue enables me to enrich children’s lives, & particularly their communication skills, in a slightly different way, but I feel that my (brief) exposure to the SLP career has shaped the way I view educational children’s television: While I feel I am able to reach and make an impact on many more kids at once, it is important to keep in mind that each and every child behind the screen has distinctive strengths & weaknesses and comes from a unique family & school environment.

Thanks again to Lauren Turk for opening my eyes to the significant field of SLP, and make sure to check out her new site at www.TherapyFindR.com!