Today we’d like to introduce you to Aryn Youngless.
Hi Aryn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Spring Heeled Jack Media is an independent publisher founded in Los Angeles by a neurodivergent creative duo – Aryn and Xander Youngless – a Gen X mom and her Gen Z son. United by a shared passion for storytelling, this mother-son team launched their publishing house to give voice to their imaginative spirit. With an intergenerational vision, they cultivate a platform where their distinctive perspectives can flourish.
We decided to start small and have been creating and publishing interactive journals and workbooks highlighting our interests, including drawing, paranormal research, genealogy, and family legacy. We plan to start releasing short story anthologies highlighting the voices of other neurodivergent writers and creatives, and we are currently working to raise funds to tackle the project.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our passion is strong, but it has sometimes been challenging. With Xander, a full-time High School student, and my working schedule as a genealogist and a writing coach, finding enough time to dedicate to Spring Heeled Jack Media can be demanding. Plus, money. We have been applying for grant funding but have yet to be fortunate enough to win one. Still, we will keep trying!
Still, we live by the motto that any step forward, no matter how small, is still the right direction. So, we work on our plans for the anthologies, create new content for our Etsy shop, and continue forward.
As you know, we’re big fans of Spring Heeled Jack Media. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Spring Heeled Jack Media is an independent publishing company created by a mother/son team to help bring content diversity to the world around us. We publish notebooks and journals designed to help people trace their family history, create memory books for their family, design their own “O.C.s” (original characters), and even investigate paranormal hot spots. We plan to move over to short story anthologies highlighting other neurodivergent artists and creators who may otherwise not find a platform to lift their voices.
We specialize in publishing and media.
What sets us apart is that we are a mother/son neurodivergent (ADHD & ASD) focused on imagination and diversity.
I’m proud that we’re working to promote our voice and create the content we want to read and cannot find anywhere else.
I want your readers to know that Spring Heeled Jack Media is about family, inclusion, creativity, and authenticity; we offer journals and notebooks designed to bring people together through art, memories, history, and passion projects.
How do you think about luck?
I have never felt that business and luck go hand in hand. It’s more about opportunity and hard work. Sometimes, opportunities come to you, and sometimes, you work hard to get to the right opportunities. So, we keep plucking away at our goals, working with the opportunities we have and using them to expand towards our goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: springheeledjackmedia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springheeledjackmedia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpringHeeledJackMedia
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SpringHeeledJackM
