Get to Know Anna Skates, Local Children’s Author and Advocate in Franklin, Tennessee
Franklin’s Anna Skates does it all. She’s an author, illustrator, performer, and, above all else, an advocate for children and families. With a vibrant approach to education and entertainment, Skates furthers her mission to amplify the voices of kids, giving them the space and agency to grow towards their futures with confidence and wisdom.
A true catalyst for good, Skates has championed several programs that tangibly support and uplift kids, starting right here in Middle Tennessee. These programs include her first NFT campaign Every Little Step, the brand Otterly, Kid3: a technology-based kid’s conference, a podcast, a children’s book, a Story Booth Pop-up experience, and an upcoming camp for young creatives.
Anna’s Mission
What does it look like to advocate for children? It began, for Skates, by working with kids. She has a background as both a children’s librarian and a children’s pastor. Interacting with, and learning from children, she began to notice the inequities they face in public settings. So much in the world, she realized, is built with only adults in mind.
“Although not intentional, a thing that’s so ingrained in us is that childhood is something that isn’t worth our time now. We’re always thinking about the future for children, as opposed to considering that their present experience matters. And so we don’t build spaces that accommodate them or create thoughtful experiences for them,” Skates shared.
Anna describes herself as a “Mister Rogers Wannabe,” an inspiration that developed after she watched the popular 2018 documentary celebrating the legacy of beloved television personality and author, Fred Rogers. She was so inspired by his story, in fact, that she followed her inspiration all the way to Pittsburg to meet up with people behind the documentary, some who had close connections to the late Mister Rogers himself.
“It was really significant. I came back from the trip and filled an entire notebook with all the things I wanted to do. What deeply resonates with me about Mister Rogers is that he took his work so seriously. He took childhood very seriously, and not in a ‘we have to be serious way,’ but in the sense that it matters. Childhood matters.”
Childhood matters: that’s the driving force behind all of Skates’ projects. By increasing awareness of and accessibility for children in public settings, she hopes to decrease adult passivity toward the way children are expected to navigate the world, from entertainment and educational tools to common public spaces.
“What if we just set them up to succeed?” poses Skates. “Because they’re still too little to necessarily advocate for themselves, and that’s not their job. Their job is to play, become, explore, and learn. It’s our job to facilitate that as adults in the world.”
Every Little Step Campaign
Skates’ first NFT project, Every Little Step, was launched in 2022, and encourages kid-friendly accessibility in public restrooms, providing local companies with illustrated step stools to put under their sinks, so that kids don’t have to be hoisted up to wash their hands.
“I realized nobody is thinking about kids when they’re building public spaces. It started for me, for whatever reason, with public bathrooms. Once you start seeing inequity in one avenue, you start to see how it’s embedded everywhere.”
As adults, she explained, we often forget how difficult it can be for kids to navigate common public spaces. Despite children being a significant part of the population, much of the world isn’t built with them in mind. The Every Little Step campaign was a tangible answer to this reality, and laid the foundation for Skates’ overarching mission. The step stools provided through this project launched the larger conversation of accessibility. All 100 pieces of the collection, “Genesis,” sold out to local businesses in Nashville and Williamson County.
Little Sparks & the “Together with Miss Anna” Podcast
Skate’s book Little Sparks is a compilation of stories celebrating the wisdom and creativity of children. The stories were submitted via Instagram, where people—parents, educators, or otherwise—shared quotes or ideas from the kids in their life that left them awestruck. The book also features Anna’s creative interpretations of the stories through digital collage, and her own reflections on the shared pieces, as someone who works in the child advocacy space. Little Sparks showcases the triumph of the imagination, alongside the resilience and power of kids and their stories.
“It was really fun, collaborative work and another way to express to the world that kid’s perspectives are really important and hold a lot more wisdom than we give them credit for a lot of the time.”
You can order Little Sparks via the link on Skate’s website.
You can also lean into the wisdom of kids through Skate’s podcast, “Together with Miss Anna,” available on Spotify. Hosted by Anna, the podcast revolves around free-flowing conversations with kids, further amplifying their voices and ideas.
Skates shared that this experience solidified her belief that what kids have to say is invaluable to our world, as they talked with her about big ideas and silly thoughts, all the while adding fresh, uplifting, and powerful perspective:
“The goal is just to carry on conversations with kids, which is not something that we do in our world outside of school, especially in a public facing format. I let them lead the conversation. A lot of the time I would just ask a question at the beginning and the end, and that was it.”
Otterly & Kid3 Conference
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Skates began to share parenting content on her platforms. Realizing she needed to differentiate the facets of her brand, she launched Otterly, an online platform with resources for families, educational products for kids, and merchandise centered around positivity and empowerment.
The Kid3 Conference was a one-day, all-day conference held in Nashville in October of 2023. The event focused on technological developments in both commerce and art, including kids in the conversation of burgeoning technology trends, equipping them to use new tools to impact the world in a positive way.
“It was a blast and a really fun exploration of tech and where things are headed. We explored commerce based in cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and digitized art. I wanted to put on the conference because I know a bunch of kids who have created art and sold it digitally and became entrepreneurs in their digital space. I wanted to open that world up for other kids and families too,” shared Skates.
The Kid3 conference hasn’t been hosted since 2023; however, as her platform grows, Skates hopes to continue similarly focused programs by partnering with industry professionals and others passionate about giving kids the tools to succeed in their fields of interest.
The Story Booth Pop-up
Anna hosted The Story Booth Pop-up on Friday, April 18th, 2025 at the Factory at Franklin. The Story Booth, which Skates created, was a fun project to promote the upcoming Big Little Stories Camp, though due to public interest, it’s likely there will be future appearances in the community. Anna built the cardboard booth, complete with red velvet curtains to serve as “a fun little portal,” and big, cardboard dice decorated on each side with different icons. To participate, kids got the chance to roll the dice and build a story based on the icons they landed on.
Accompanying this, the kind of old-fashioned style phone typically used for recorded guest books at weddings, was found inside the booth. The kids used the phone to record the story—in a few sentences—that they came up with based on the dice. The idea for The Story Booth came when Anna noticed that interactive exhibits and activities for kids are often passive, put in social settings to occupy and distract children rather than to engage with them. This creative booth is another way to encourage and interact with kids in a thoughtful, active way, celebrating their natural curiosity with a touch of creative whimsy.
Book Clubs for Kids
Ms. Skates’ book club, which takes a brief hiatus in the summer but will start back up come next school year, encourages community and literacy outside of school hours, gathering kids and parents together to bond over stories. She hosts a club for 1st,2nd, and 3rd graders and 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Book clubs typically meet on Sundays at The Coffee House at Second and Bridge in downtown Franklin. Among creating a safe and inviting space for kids to learn, a big proponent of the club in recent years has been sharing the love of reading with current 4th, 5th, and 6th-grade students whose formative education, especially regarding reading and writing, was affected by the pandemic.
“The years where kids are really learning to love reading—often because they are in classrooms with books in hand and their teacher—were affected by COVID. This age group sort of got lost in time because of the pandemic, and there were skills and tools that they didn’t develop at the typical time. That’s why things like Book Club and The Story Booth, I feel so passionately about for that age group in particular. I just feel they need a little extra support. They’re totally capable of it, they just need a little help catching up.”
Encouraging a love of reading, writing, and gathering together is an active way we can build kids up, giving them the space to explore other’s stories and eventually tell their own.
Big Little Stories Camp
Big Little Stories Camp is a creative storytelling camp for rising 2nd through 6th graders that will be held July 25-26th at the Entrepreneur & Innovation Center in Franklin, Tennessee. An incredible opportunity for young creatives, this camp gives kids the chance to develop their original stories, learn about plot lines and characterization, and design a book of their very own. The 2-day camp, held between 9 a.m. and noon on both days, is $99 per camper.
On Day 1, the campers will learn from writers and illustrators about story structure, plot, characters, and working in creative industries. Then campers will have the chance to start building their own stories.
On Day 2, campers will get to create the physical manifestation of their story, typing and writing out their ideas, illustrating, and creating a physical book cover. Through this, they’re able to finalize the story they’ve come up with, seeing it come to life in the format of a real book they get to take home.
Skates shared that this idea was sparked from the stories she wrote as a kid, and how special it was to see the work she created at school or camps come to fruition, even if that just meant laminated computer paper and a clip on spine. Inspired to dive deeper into writing, on Sunday afternoons she’d spend the day at her grandparent’s house, writing stories with her cousin.
“I just remember being so deeply drawn to stories when I was a kid and loving that outlet. I think camp is a great way for kids to reconnect with that experience—to know that their stories matter and that someone takes them seriously.”
Big Little Stories Camp will emphasize the joy found in the process of creating, rather than focusing solely on a finished product. Young creatives will have the chance to explore their ideas and take pride in their creative work.
The Next Dream: The Department of Curious Things
Skates’ next hope is to create a physical place where kids can gather and explore their creativity. Dubbed “The Department of Curious Things,” the multi-use, multi-disciplinary creative hub for kids will have studio spaces, interactive play spaces, an art gallery curated with kids’ art, and more.
“I would love for it to be a place where kids can come that feels very curious, whimsical, silly, and fun—A place where they can come and explore all kinds of creative mediums, whether it’s film, creative writing, painting, digital art, or otherwise. I want it to be a space that has multiple studios where they can come in for workshops and lessons on all these disciplines in one space. Nothing is off limits.”
Logistically, the innovative, inclusive space will be built with kids in mind, with door handles that are low enough to be reached, a reception desk that is low enough to see over, kid-sized toilets and sinks in the bathroom. When kids visit The Department of Curious Things, it will be clear that it is a space created with them in mind.
If you’re interested in sponsoring or working with The Department of Curious Things, there is an online interest form.
How to Join the Cause
“So much growth in Franklin is young families, yet you look around and spaces are not being created with kids in mind. We’re forgetting that a huge chunk of the demographic is kids,” said Skates over a cup of coffee at Frothy Monkey in Downtown Franklin. In the restaurant’s bathroom, one of the Genesis stepstools is tucked under the sink, evidence of Skate’s increasing impact on the community. In the name of advocacy, she shared, it’s important to take note of places and things that do exist to serve kids, like step stools in bathrooms or opportunities for play—free coloring books, play stations, etcetera—in public settings: “It’s important to notice where it’s missing, but also where it exists. Both are equally important. Once you see it in one place you start to see it everywhere. And once you’re aware, bring other people into that awareness with you.”
Changes start locally, in our homes and the places that we frequent. Skates encourages adults to take initiative in championing for kids in big and small ways, from encouraging places of business to put stepstools in their bathrooms to taking an interest in policies, locally or on a larger-scale, that directly impact children.
On a personal level, actively playing with and showing an interest in the kids in your life is a wonderful way to participate in the good. Franklin is a great place for kids, but we can make it even better. Anna Skates has a clear, beautiful vision of what that can look like. Through inspiration and entrepreneurship, the resounding truth remains: people matter, at every stage of life. Visit Anna’s website to keep up with the work she’s doing here in Franklin, Tennessee.
