The Evolution of Li’l Stories

In 2013, Li’l Stories started as cards for storytelling with the goal of making storytelling easy and fun for parents. 97 Kickstarter backers helped us launch the project.

Since then, Li’l Stories has expanded into an educational framework that uses spoken, written and visual storytelling to help young children master skills in the Language Arts. The project is inspired by Anke Stohlmann’s (Li’l Stories founder) daughter Luna and her love for stories, and created as part of her master thesis project in Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).

Li’l Stories is based on the idea that storytelling reinforces learning. Stories have amazing power: They grab hold of children’s imaginations and help them start putting together words and images. When children create stories around content they’ve experienced in class or at home, they are naturally strengthening and building upon what they have learned. They are making the concepts and ideas their own.

Li’l Stories was developed in collaboration with teachers and students at P.S. 3, a public elementary school in New York City, and at the Children’s Museum of the Arts. 140 Kickstarter backers brought this second iteration of Li’l Stories to live in October 2015. You can learn more about Li’l Stories on our site or read Anke’s medium post “Prototyping Stories” on her experience prototyping with children and developing Li’l Stories.