We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Summer McKenna a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Summer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Being a children’s YouTube storyteller has been one of the most rewarding and incredible jobs I’ve ever had the pleasure of having. Different from so many other creative jobs, creating my YouTube channel and establishing a close-knit network of parents, guardians, educators, and so many others has meant the world to me. When an author reaches out asking for a story time read-aloud of their book, I always get the same giddy feeling of butterflies every time. When I started my YouTube channel in December of 2021, I had no clue what I was doing. I had no specific trajectory or game plan as to where I wanted my channel to go in, but I knew one thing. I wanted to share my love for picture books with as many kids as I could possible. That was always the main driving force behind my mission and why I started my YouTube channel in the first place. Never did I think that two years down the line, my channel would reach so many kids and their families from all across the world, bringing a newfound level of gratitude towards my work in editing story time videos. Slowly, my mission began to evolve into not only spreading fun and educational picture book read-alouds, but to also promote literacy and a deep love of literature with others. Recording these goofy, fun, educational picture books suddenly became this deeply impactful and rewarding experience I never even thought possible. Now, I had teachers and parents from other countries reaching out to tell me how beneficial my videos had become for their Pre-K classes and high school students learning English in Japan. Knowing that my videos have become somebody’s favorite go-to bedtime story or source of comfort on difficult days has been the most rewarding part of it all and is why I do what I do. If you’re ever fortunate enough to find something you love that can bring about happiness and change in the world—do it.

Summer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi my name is Summer McKenna and I’m a passionate children’s YouTube storyteller, content creator, and social media book promoter and reviewer. In December of 2021, I started my YouTube channel with a goal to help spread my love for picture books and literacy with others, and is why I love what I do. When I first started out, I would record my favorite picture books I loved as a kid and create simplistic read-aloud videos, void of any sound effects. It wasn’t until a few months later when I had my first ever author, James Hugh Stevenson (A Slide, Some Swings, and Otter Things) reach out to me, asking if I could read his debut picture book on my YouTube channel. I remember being shocked that somebody was even interested in having me read their story on my channel, but excitedly accepted. After that video was when everything changed. Suddenly, I was receiving DM’s, emails, and Facebook messages from authors I didn’t even know, asking to have their stories considered to be read on my YouTube channel. Small independent publishers and marketing publicists from large publishers alike were somehow learning who I was and becoming interested in my services. At first, it was a little overwhelming, until I realized how many authors and illustrators were genuinely interested in my videos and were willing to pay me for my services. It was at that moment that I made the decision to invest in my YouTube channel. I purchased professional recording equipment, music/sound effect services, and upped my social media content design skills. Now, I was promoting both my YouTube channel and my “Summer Storytime Package”. With the purchase of my package came a story time video complete with fun, engaging sound effects, background music, and a clear read-aloud. While this option guaranteed an author’s own personalized story time video to use/share at their own disposal, I also created a special YouTube feature package. With this package came all the same things as the original, but with additional perks that included being featured in my YouTube video lineup, and full social media promotion of the author/illustrator. Since I launched both of these packages, I’ve worked with so many incredible authors who I’ve learned so much from. My story time services set me apart from the rest of the crowd in the way that I treat every book like a fun little movie, complete with engaging sound effects, background music, and eye-catching marketing thumbnails. Treating each and every picture book like a small short film makes the editing experience so much more fun for me and always ends up feeling so rewarding in the end. While I’ve always been interested in film editing, I found that through the creating of my story time videos, I can live out my dream while challenging myself every time and continually learning nonstop. From my YouTube channel, I’ve been the most proud of the connections I’ve made with authors, illustrators, and publishers from around the world and is something I’ll always be so grateful for. I’ve even had clients tell me they still currently use my story time videos to use whenever they visit schools and libraries as well! When working with a client, I always want them to feel a sense of comfort and ease, knowing that their book will be transformed into a magical read-aloud. Every picture book I take on, I always give one-hundred percent towards and is something I strive to achieve for both older and newer clients alike. I know how much a picture book can mean to an author, illustrator, or reader which is why I set my work ethic so high in order to achieve only the best possible outcome. To any potential clients out there who have been looking for a fun and fresh way to market your new picture book, check out my YouTube channel to see what type of videos I produce. I’m always eager to find the next AMAZING picture book with outstanding video potential and creativity bursting from the pages.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Through my entire experience of being a content creator and producing kids YouTube read-alouds, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative has been being able to see the impact my work has had on others. Before starting my channel, I didn’t even know there were communities of authors, illustrators and creatives alike who were interested in having read-alouds of their books brought to life. After joining this INCREDIBLE community however, I’ve made so many creator friends and love hearing their stories of how my videos have helped boost their business, platform, and career. As a creative person, you always want to strive to put out the best content possible that’ll bring about happiness, diversity, inclusivity, and hopefully enact change in the world. This YouTube channel has helped me reach all of those goals and no matter the content I promote or how controversial it may be—everyone deserves to see themselves in a book. I love hearing from parents that my videos helped their child feel seen because THAT is the reason why I do this every week. If I can bring a smile to a child’s face or help somebody who’s always felt underrepresented feel heard, I will continue to search for the picture books that achieve these goals. Teachers telling me they use my videos as a part of their Kindergarten lesson plans or a part of an authors book launch never fails to make me cry. Giving back to people and being able to help other creatives who just need a little exposure makes my job that much more rewarding and will never stop feeling amazing.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building my audience on social media has in all honesty been an uphill battle and is something I still work on every day. I remember in the very beginning of my journey having five Instagram followers, one Facebook follower, and three YouTube subscribers. I couldn’t stop thinking, “This isn’t going to go anywhere! How am I supposed to even grow an audience from this?”. But eventually, people found out, connections were slowly made, and I lost the fear I’d initially had to scream from the rooftops about my YouTube channel. I felt bad telling people to continually subscribe to my YouTube channel and felt like I was being intrusive…but I wasn’t. I was just learning how to push my marketing to be the best it could. When starting a new project or beginning your first ever business, launching a social media platform CAN feel daunting, but the important thing is to keep working at it and never give up. Even though the number of followers or subscribers you have might impact your attitude towards your business, don’t let it be the determining factor towards why you gave up. Remember that social media is just social media. It’s a way for us creators and entrepreneurs to be SOCIAL, to make connections with others, to grow our brand. It doesn’t define your business or who you are as a person. It’s just a way to help spread the word about whatever you’re trying to achieve and let others know about. It’s really that simple. If you want something bad enough, you keep working at it until your dream becomes a reality. Every creator, art director, author, illustrator, screenwriter, actor, athlete, chef have worked hard to get where they wanted to be in life. So push yourself if you want something bad enough and keep at it. You’ll get there one day, but it may just be in a way you never thought possible.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: storytimewithsummer
• Facebook: Storytime W Summer
• Youtube: Storytime with Summer