Kids can spend hours a day consuming media, and whether the content is educational or not, they are absorbing information about what they see and hear. However, children’s media remains an overlooked facet of media. Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communications is one of just a few institutions to offer an undergraduate children’s media certificate.
Klein College is not only at the forefront of children’s media education but is also home to professors who double as groundbreaking industry professionals. Laura Zaylea, professor of instruction, created an original web series Stori Strong that has been accepted into numerous film festivals around the country—and around the world. From the Philadelphia Family Pride Annual Family Matters Conference to the 2025 SAFICXS International Lesbian Short Film Festival in Argentina—the first time the series was translated into Spanish—protagonist Stori Strong has made her mark in the children’s media space.
Zaylea loves experimenting with different media forms in her projects. In her class, MSP 4741: Emergent Media Production, she and her students explore new, innovative storytelling technologies. Before Stori Strong, Zaylea created an interactive documentary that explored LGBTQ+ parents’ family-making journeys. She adapted her findings into a series made for children.
Stori Strong is a five-episode web series that centers on the main character of the same name. She is nine–years-old, has two moms and is donor-conceived. Over the course of the series, Stori and the audience learn what it means to be donor-conceived and to be part of a LGBTQ+ family.
Zaylea wanted to offer more diverse family representation in the media, especially in a kid-focused sector. She believes it’s important for children to see their families represented. Zaylea’s favorite aspect of Stori’s character is her deep curiosity about her life. She wants to talk about her family’s experiences and ask questions about it.
“I think it’s really important to have conversations around donor conception and around creation stories for kids so that these topics can be discussed with excitement and creativity—and without any sort of taboo or any shame,” said Zaylea.
Sherri Hope Culver, the director of the children’s media certificate, director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy and professor of instruction, knows the impact of messaging in children’s media.
“Do [the characters] care about learning new things?” Culver explained. “Do they care about schoolwork? Do they care about their parents? How do they treat their parents? All those things are modeled in all the content that [children are] watching, whether they’re watching a YouTuber or TikToker or a 15-minute show on Nickelodeon. So being thoughtful about what we put in front of kids is critical.”
Culver shares the same sentiment as Zaylea about Stori Strong. The series opens doors for parents to have appropriate conversations with their children about different family dynamics.
“On one level, it’s a very creative approach to a topic that needs discussion. Then, at another level, that creative approach is something you can discuss with kids,” Culver said. “Kids can actually be aware of and understand something they could conceivably watch with a caring adult and have a really good conversation about what it means to be donor-conceived.”
Culver and Zaylea work very closely together, and both care deeply about children’s media. When Culver was creating an advisory group for the children’s media certificate, Zaylea was one of the first faculty members invited.
“Laura and I have discovered that we are probably the two most passionate people in children’s media,” Culver said. “We both love kids. We both feel strongly that kids deserve great content, whatever that might be.”
Culver believes that you can talk to kids about anything, as long as you communicate in an age-appropriate way. Kids need honesty, and they can comprehend topics like donor conception and family planning. Stori Strong perfectly embodies this belief.
“It’s teaching kids in a way that is very honest and authentic to them,” said Culver. “It’s being willing to have tough conversations because kids have questions and being willing to talk to them about the topics that they want to talk about in ways that are age-appropriate for them but are also honest.”
According to Culver, Stori Strong works so well because of Zaylea’s commitment to her work, her students and her audience—both adult and child.
“I think the reason that Stori Strong as a web series communicates the heart that it does is because of who Laura is as a type of person,” explained Culver. “Different kinds of filmmakers make different kinds of content. Not everybody could have taken that story and made the same thing. I think that’s part of what’s really special about it: it’s the heart that you feel when you watch these episodes. It’s really unique.”
Zaylea has become a model for her students, showing them that they can be just as successful as her.
“A critical importance is that she is showing her students that it’s possible, and that it’s important to do it,” Culver said. “To have a passion and have a point of view and story to tell, and that you can work at doing that.”
Watch the Stori Strong series here. Reach out to Culver to learn more about the children’s media certificate at Klein College.