Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayna Rose Penn.
Shayna Rose, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Our story began somewhere between 30 years, 13 years, and two years ago! My amazing, hardworking mom, Norma Roth, is my co-creator and co-author, and beginning this endeavor in 2020 while living with my parents during COVID was a tremendous bonding experience. Our real-life inspiration, Lovable Lucy, joined our family 13.5 years ago as a puppy. My siblings and I used to joke around our family table that Mom should write a book about Lucy’s adventures and ability to make friends. At the time, Mom had recently written a book.
Flashing forward several years, I transitioned out of a career in stage and production management to be more creative. As I began this huge life change, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and I moved into my parents’ apartment in Florida with them, leaving behind my entire post-college life in NYC. I was working remotely as a continuation of a project with Sesame Workshop. I’d previously worked on shows geared more towards children: The Lion King national tour, a Sesame Street collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and numerous musicals with children in the casts. I’d even worked as a child guardian on shows. I was steeped in how to think like a kid and screen content for what appeals to or may need editing for children. I finally felt comfortable partaking in a creative endeavor and not simply as a facilitator! After talking, honing our tone for the series, nailing an appropriate storytelling style and voice for Lucy and her family, and running our early manuscripts by a focus group of educators, mothers, and children in our target age range, Mom and I decided to pursue the series together.
I find myself constantly applying my creative and production background to the Lovable Lucy Series, especially now working in tv development. I understand timing individual projects to fit within a bigger pipeline, how to expand one item into a brand, which continually confirms a lot of the initial ideas and goals Mom and I shared, but initially wanted to proceed cautiously.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No long road is ever without detours or potholes. Our earliest challenge was the 8-month journey to find the perfect illustrator. We took turns being each others’ momentum boosters and digging in to do research to find new possible illustrators. Thankfully, after 8 or so months, we found the perfect collaborator in our brilliant illustrator, Adua Hernandez.
In some ways, that huge challenge set us up for other obstacles. We’re more patient with processes that require a learning curve. For example, navigating printing, shipping, and overall supply chain management during a global pandemic and a war impacting gasoline and supplies taught us a lot about how to streamline our own writing and illustration process before we even considered ways to streamline printing and shipping! The printing and shipping process from our first book to our second book was a night and day experience.
The other challenge, in more interpersonal terms, comes from the fact that my mom IS my mommy. I work a 40-hour week and she takes on a number of business elements that I am only partially privy to before we both sign off on things. I feel too often, I just enter with a red pen and muck up what she’s begun. We may use more colorful language than most creative pairs do, but knowing each other the way we do means she knows I’m not out having beach days blowing off tasks while she takes on the bulk of work, and vice versa when I have lots on my plate with the series.
Luckily we agree on very nearly everything creatively. We have since the beginning! Mom and I took a long time to perfect our vision for the series, so applying it to different mediums – through press interviews, on our website, as we develop new manuscripts and illustration concepts with Adua, etc. has been the smoothest part of launching the series.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am the kind of person who can turn anything into a metaphor and have spent a lifetime learning and working to improve my communication skills. This dates back to my stage management days when I learned the hard way how to be more of a chameleon and adapt, when appropriate, to the people I spoke to. That’s the exact key to the Lovable Lucy Series. We take situations and scenarios for young children and compare them with similar experiences for dogs, or sometimes vice versa. I utilize age-appropriate vocabulary to usually go in and tweak a story outline Mom will draft first.
My other writing projects reflect this, too. I have a deep love of looking around at the world and asking, “what if?” I’ve been working on a workplace comedy inspired by both my time on cruise ships and freelancing in theatre that asks, “The show must go on, but what if there is no show.”
Being creative is new to me, and my writing is ever-evolving. I’m continually proud of learning to take feedback and my desire to improve. I think the Lovable Lucy books show this, too. I’m most proud of how the Lovable Lucy Series has come to life with care and without too steep of a creative learning curve. It’s boosted my own confidence and given me pride in my mom for continuing to try new things in life.
I hope I’m remembered as someone who’s willing to bring joy and perspective to others. It’s so easy in this world to be wrapped up in what’s of the moment or what’s immediate to us. Joy and perspective work hand in hand, and they make the world better.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I had a very happy and normal childhood, which I’m grateful for every day. I do very distinctly remember a Scholastic Book Fair in elementary school, which seems relatable to this theme of reading and kiddos!
I come from a big reading family. Every year, my mom used to send us to the book fair with paper and pencils to write down our ‘wish lists’ and she’d go to the parent’s night and surprise us with books from our wish list, but many parents sent their kids with money to buy what they wanted. My friend and I looked alike, and one of the parent volunteers that day happened to see us next to each other. She asked us if we were buying anything that day, and he said yes, while I said no. She looked confused and asked us why our moms didn’t send us both to the book fair with money, at which point my wonderful friend Matt and I looked at each other and the lady realized we were not, in fact, twins! She thought we were twins the whole time! So, being mistaken for a twin at the Scholastic Book Fair and then always getting to go all the way through high school with a “twin” was a fun time. I always laugh at that. And yes, I still look more like my friend than my own siblings.
Contact Info:
- Website: lovablelucyseries.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovablelucyseries/
Image Credits
Personal Photo- Sylvia MacCalla
