BURLINGTON - Entrepreneur Lance Slack has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Storyay, a personalized reading experience for children that puts them right into the stories.
Slack came up with the idea that would eventually become Storyay, then called Pirate Stories, when he saw the joy that his son felt at receiving a simple piece of mail.
“It came to me around 15 years ago when someone sent him a piece of mail with his name on it,” Slack said. “It was a birthday card, and when he opened it he lost his mind. I could see that it made him feel special and I realized then that kids really like getting things with their name on it in the mail.”
Pirate Stories was originally planned to be a simple, 12-part story told through letters a child would receive once per month, with every story including a puzzle piece that would form a map.
Slack eventually began working as a project manager creating custom programming, which led him to combine his original idea of Pirate Stories with his talents for creating scripts and an engine to allow for the addition of customized, personal elements into the stories without the use of AI, and Storyay was born.
“I want kids to feel special and happy and proud and represented in these stories that are coming to them,” Slack said. “The ultimate goal is to have every kid around their world, in their own language and culture, to feel accepted and special. They don’t have to be unique, they don’t have to be a rockstar, they just want to feel ok as they are. Kids in a wheelchair or kids with learning trouble or autism, I want them to be in the stories.”
A child who signs up for Storyay can choose from three stories to be a part of. With their parent’s help, they can fill in a form of things they enjoy or that are unique to them, like what their favourite food is, their friend’s names and what subjects they like at school, and the information will be reflected in the story.
A child will receive eight letters over the course of their subscription that will tell a complete story, along with a box for storing the letters in that also contains pins, stickers, activities, a pencil case and more.
Slack co-founded Storyay alongside Chris Noon, who has more than two decades of experience in illustration and storytelling, and Sara Furlong, an Oakville-based children’s author who created the Every Brain is Beautiful series that focuses on kids with autism and ADHD.
Storyay has already gone through a testing phase where children got to experience what the startup has to offer, and the early reception from the kids has been positive.
“We started getting videos of the kids reading the stories that had been mailed to them and they couldn’t believe it,” Slack said. “That day when I first saw that reaction, I said ‘I don’t care if I never sell one of these, it’s already successful because a few kids have loved it and their days have gotten better.’”
Storyay is currently meant for children who are 7 to 12 years old, but, if the project is funded, the team is looking to eventually expand the experience to both younger and older children as well as kids around the world.
The Kickstarter has raised nearly $4,000 of its $15,000 goal since it was launched on Saturday, Feb. 4, and the campaign will wrap on on Thursday, March 6.
