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Behind the Scenes of “Kelsey the Author”

From co-creator, Ben Levin:

“I feel so proud of this episode. It says so many things in 11 minutes. It’s about the power of DIY, the joy of making stuff, expressing yourself, and also about the risk of putting yourself out there and imposter syndrome.

The episode also stays true to one of my main hopes with the show: inspiring kids to be creative and imaginative by portraying (somewhat) grounded adventures.

Kelsey publishing her book was a story we’d kicked around a lot, but took a while to refine it. There were so many versions. For example, there was one where Kelsey was selling her books at the Trading Tree, but the concept of art as a commodity didn’t feel relatable. That’s not why we all had started making drawings and writing stories as kids. We did it because we just wanted to share these weird stories in our brains.

So we came up with this version where the plan was just to give them out at the library, and it unfolded from there.”

From Head Writer, Jeff Trammell:

“One of the things I was really excited about for “Kelsey the Author” was the chance to further explore the relationship with Kelsey and Stacks. They’re really good friends and a lot of people are fans of their dynamic, going all the way back to “Final Book”. This was our third episode really getting to explore their friendship, so it was great getting the opportunity to show Stacks, who clearly values the opinion of Kelsey, become inspired by her. Especially considering Stacks’ reaction to Kelsey’s story is what pushes Kelsey to create copies of her book to share with other kids.”

From Supervising Character Designer, Danny Hynes:

“The coolest thing (to me) about Kelsey the Author, is that in order to make an episode about creating your own DIY publishing operation, we basically had to create the drawn version of our own DIY publishing operation. Everything you would need to make a book got a design. We have stacks of paper, binder clips, glue, scored cardboard. If Kelsey needed it to make a book, we needed to make a model for it. Going through the prop folder is really satisfying for that reason. Our prop designer, Maaike, did an amazing job creating all of those miniature tools and supplies.“

From Lead Background Designer, Cory Fuller:

“When I was doing the concept drawings for Kelsey’s room, I wanted to show her personality coming through over top of some more “traditional” little girl elements. Things that were bought for her when she was younger that she would be expected to grow into, like her bed frame and end tables. I also wanted to chart her passion for reading by adding a variety of bookshelves. One from early childhood, followed by a regular bookshelf when when she out grew that, and additional wall shelves her dad had to put up. There’s also a pile of books on the floor that there is currently no space for.

BG designer Katie Wells did the final designs for the episode and really brought the space to life by flushing out the designs and adding her own personal touches. She came up with really fun and creative ideas for the posters on Kelsey’s wall and the titles to all her books. She created the goofy titles by spoofing her favorite fantasy books using names of her friends’ DND characters.”