Collaboration, Reimagined: Co-Creating a Story for Families, Together
I’ve always believed that the stories we grow up with shape who we become. My love for storytelling began before I could even read. My brother’s patience, reading to me from birth, planted the seed for curiosity that’s guided me ever since.
Those memories lingered for years, tucked quietly in the corners of my mind, until they began to take shape as Tech It Out Adventures. I wanted to capture the same sense of wonder my brother gave me and pass it on to a new generation.
As I drafted the first story, I thought about the books that shaped our childhood: Three Billy Goats Gruff, Not Now, Said the Cow, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I began to imagine how my own early adventures might look in the age of AI, and what kind of story I could leave behind to inspire the creators of tomorrow.
In fact, the first images of the Tech It Out universe were generated using AI. Simple prompts captured curiosity, collaboration, and the spirit of discovery. What started as a creative experiment soon became a way to visualize the world I wanted to build for kids like me. I envisioned a future where technology felt imaginative, inclusive, and deeply human.
Using tools that once felt distant or impersonal, I found new ways to make creativity feel personal again. Casually, I shared those early images with my parents, not realizing that I was extending an invitation to one of the most meaningful collaborations of my life.
Working together became an adventure in its own right. We found ourselves reminiscing about childhood memories, favorite family traditions, and old sayings I’d heard a thousand times but never imagined I’d one day publish. Each conversation pulled us deeper into our own story. And somewhere along the way, it stopped being just a story for kids. It was more like art in motion.
Rediscovering home became part of the process. We took daily excursions to local farms, community gardens, and libraries for research. Road trips upstate for apple picking, a quick visit to Niagara Falls, and stops at bookstores in small towns everywhere in between. In every conversation, draft, and sketch, I saw how much love, laughter, and learning had shaped my journey — from those first family road trips to Disney World to exploring local treasures now.
What began as a creative project became something much deeper — a time capsule reminding me that creation isn’t only about innovation, but about remembering where we began. Becoming an aunt made that lesson resonate even more. My brother, once the storyteller of my childhood, now reads to his own child with the same patience and pride that shaped me. And my parents, now joyful grandparents, embody how family continuously evolves — familiar, yet always becoming.
Legacy, I realized, isn’t abstract. It’s right in front of you — in your laugh, your eyes, your spirit.
When we decided to share, we chose the pen name: Milli Loren, for the parents of my parents, after whom I was named. The adventures are fiction, but the characters are real — inspired by the people and places that made us who we are.
So yes, this project is a children’s book. But it’s also something more: a love letter to family, to storytelling, and to the kind of creativity that connects generations.
Sometimes, the most beautiful stories we tell are the ones that bring us home. ❤️
