Jeannie Cahalane
Naria is reimagining children’s storytelling with AI-powered tools that help families create fully personalized, interactive stories. Founded by media veterans and parents, the platform bridges creativity and representation, making it easier for every child to see themselves in the stories they love.
1. What inspired Naria, and what storytelling challenges were you determined to solve?
Parker Reed: We noticed media was changing—people were craving more interactive and personal experiences. There are millions of children’s stories told every year, but how many actually feature you or your family? None.
We created Naria because we believe everyone deserves to see themselves represented and have the tools to share their own stories. But storytelling—especially crafting characters, writing compelling narratives, and creating engaging illustrations—is really hard. With Naria, we use AI as a creative partner to bridge those gaps. It doesn’t replace your creativity; instead, it enhances and supports your ideas, making storytelling accessible, personal, and genuinely fun.
Josh Anderson: Naria was inspired by a problem we had as parents. One of our co-founders was searching for stories to inspire their daughter, who has both Cuban and Iranian heritage. Despite there being over 100 million children’s books sold last year, we couldn’t find a single one that represented their daughter and her mixed-culture family.
That inspiration, coupled with our combined 30+ years working at the world’s top media companies, led us to form Naria.
Almost everything we do, as humans, involves storytelling. We tell stories when we come home from school, when we interview for a job, when we see something that sparks an emotion… it’s near-constant. Most successful people are terrific storytellers – in fact, human history has been written by storytellers…
But telling stories well is really hard. Especially today as we expect high production values for all media – text, video, audio, gaming.
Naria empowers everyone, not just a few giant corporations, to tell their stories “masterfully”.
2. What gaps in traditional children’s media and screen time experiences made AI-driven storytelling essential?
Parker: Most children’s media today is passive and created more for mass appeal. It often misses the mark on reflecting the real diversity and unique interests of families today. On top of that, parents constantly deal with the guilt that comes from their kids spending too much time staring at screens, wishing that time could be more meaningful.
That’s exactly why storytelling with Naria makes sense. It transforms screen time into a chance for active creativity, letting families get involved, express themselves, and see themselves represented in stories. It’s not just watching or reading—it’s about creating stories that truly feel like yours.
Josh: We don’t believe that AI-driven storytelling is essential. We believe AI is capable of bridging the gap from our imagination to a quality media product.
Media today is optimized to grab your attention and quickly pass along a story. It’s tough for an illustrated book to compete with Disney+, Youtube, and games like Toca Boca, for a child’s attention. Anecdotally, the “traditional children’s media” that we still see thriving today is toy-based play. And what is toy-based play? Storytelling!
Naria turns stories into engaging, playful experiences. Our stories let you move the characters, dress them up, choose their voice, and go on adventures together with them.
3. How does Naria differentiate itself from other digital storytelling or reading platforms
Parker: Most storytelling platforms are limited—you’re usually able to customize a story idea, tweaking a few small details, maybe add a character and then something generic gets generated for you. Naria is totally different. It’s built around deep personalization and genuine interactivity, meaning you don’t just read or watch stories—you actively co-create them, and they keep evolving right alongside you.
We offer a detailed character creator, where you can personalize everything from hair color and style to outfits. Our interactive drag-and-drop canvas lets young creators freely edit text, change backgrounds, add characters, or even adjust character poses! Everything is editable.
Even the reading experience itself is designed differently. We keep young readers immersed and engaged with simple yet captivating simple animations that bring each story to life, and its only the start.
Josh: First and foremost we’re blurring the line between creator and consumer. In fact, we think of all of our users as ‘participants’. Traditional stories are unidirectional, static, and passively consumed. Naria stories are emotionally resonant, deeply personal, ever-evolving, collaborative, and open.
Other AI-based storytelling apps feel like “magic buttons”, where you type in a sentence or two and get back a completed story with disconnected imagery (if any).
Naria helps you tell your stories. Storytelling with Naria is an iterative process – it’s a back-and-forth between you, your collaborators, and our AI. This can be done in real-time, or by taking turns.
Even when Naria “writes the story for you”, you have full creative control over each scene – move the characters around, change their pose, change the background – it’s all there for you to personalize if desired.
4. What are the biggest misconceptions about AI-generated stories, and how do you address them?
Parker: One misconception people have about AI-generated stories is that they completely replace human creativity, resulting in stories that feel generic or impersonal. And honestly, we’ve found that’s often true when you let AI handle everything on its own.
But at Naria, we’re all about collaboration. Even providing just a little bit of your own input helps create stories that feel deeply personal, emotionally connected, and genuinely interesting. We use AI as a creative partner—not a replacement. The platform is built specifically to amplify your imagination, giving families control over their stories, while AI handles tricky parts like keeping the narrative cohesive or ensuring illustrations stay consistent.
Bottom line: AI shouldn’t do everything. It should support your creativity, helping your ideas come to life as you build something truly yours.
Josh: Parker covered what I consider one of the key misconceptions, and how Naria focuses on helping our users develop their own creativity.
I’d like to focus on the misconception that AI will replace creatives – e.g., authors, illustrators, and voice actors. Key technological advancements have changed the way people work and create.
Did Macromedia’s Flash (I’m old) replace animators? Did the iPhone replace photographers? I don’t believe so. Those technologies expanded the audience for each, as well as making animation and photography far more accessible and open professions.
This is how we see AI becoming a part of the creative process.
Will AI replace the creativity, flair, and skill of studio artists? We don’t think so. But the artists who embrace AI will be able to do more, faster. Instead of manually creating each angle for a character design, have the AI do most of the work. Want to test multiple compositions of a piece? Ask AI to do it, then take what you like most and incorporate it into your art.
How many custom commissions can you do for customers per week? If it’s less than 100, perhaps AI could help you grow your audience and business.
At Naria, we’re excited to partner with artists, writers, actors, and all other creatives to help grow their audience, influence, and reach the levels of success they aspire to.
5. Naria allows families to create fully customized, AI-powered stories. How does this enhance creativity and engagement?
Parker: Naria really boosts creativity by tackling common barriers like the dreaded “blank page syndrome” and the technical complexities of creating a story. Our approach is simple: you provide just a few basic details, and the platform instantly turns them into richly detailed, fully editable stories—stories that you helped shape.
This collaborative, iterative approach encourages families to dive in and explore endless creative possibilities together. Because you’re involved from the start, there’s a genuine emotional connection to the stories you create. Plus, the fun doesn’t stop there. You can keep customizing and refining your stories, making the experience even more creative and enjoyable.
Josh: Parker nailed it, so I’ll add an anecdote.
When we were prototyping early versions of Naria, we’d hand the app to someone and ask them to make a story. These wonderful people wanted to help, but they didn’t have a story concept ready. So instead, we asked something far simpler: What’s the name of the main character?
Once we had a name, we’d ask another question based on their answer, e.g. What is Lucky’s favorite treat? By the third question, our users were hooked. “It’s like a fun quiz, but every answer is correct!”. Without realizing it, our testers’ imaginations became fully engaged and wanted to answer more and more questions.
We see this phenomenon everywhere. Brainstorming sessions, roleplaying games, lunchtime schoolyard antics – humans naturally riff on each others’ ideas to create something incredible. Naria leans into that, and our early results are exciting.
6. What role does AI play in personalizing storytelling experiences and making reading more interactive?
Parker: AI plays a huge role in making storytelling experiences personal, interactive, and genuinely fun. It dynamically adapts your stories based on your input, preferences, and even your feedback along the way. Our AI helps create characters and scenes that stay consistent throughout the story, making everything feel immersive and cohesive. It even creates consistent poses of your characters!
The fun really kicks in with features like customizable scenarios and multi-format outputs, turning reading from a passive experience into an active adventure. You can even “remix” favorite stories from the community, instantly placing your own characters into new adventures—making it possible for anyone to see themselves represented in countless narratives.
Our current web app lets you take these digital creations and print them into real, physical books shipped straight to your door. We just launched our native iOS app, and it’ll soon offer the same awesome capability. It’s about literally bringing your imagination into reality.
Josh: I’m a simple person, so I like simple analogies. I also like to misuse words, so buckle up!
I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid. These stories were non-linear, and I had some agency in deciding from a list of options for what happens next. It still felt more “fun” than a linear narrative, even though every outcome was predetermined.
Naria turns any story into a digital playground. Let’s take Alice in Wonderland as an example. With Naria, I can replace Alice with myself, or someone who looks more like me. I can also change any character – the Cheshire Cat is now a Clinically Insane Billy Goat pyromaniac. And maybe I’m sick of Wonderland… what if, instead, our version of Alice in Wonderland took place in a Fallout-style dystopian future? I call it “Through the Blast Window”.
At it’s core, the story is still Alice in Wonderland – climb in a hole, weird stuff happens, etc. – but now it’s something I’m really excited to read. Where Naria really kicks off is when other folk start remixing “Through the Blast Window”…
7. How does Naria integrate educational principles, such as literacy development and critical thinking, into its storytelling model?
Parker: We weave educational principles directly into Naria’s storytelling experiences by giving kids meaningful opportunities for critical thinking, reading practice, and self-expression. As they interact with stories, users make choices that actually shape how the story unfolds. This naturally strengthens their decision-making skills, boosts reading comprehension, and encourages thoughtful reflection.
Features like our “talk-to-text” option help younger kids or emerging readers actively participate, enhancing their language development and self-confidence. Collaborative storytelling also adds a layer of creativity and teamwork, making learning feel fun and engaging—not forced. Ultimately, Naria is designed so that education and self-expression happen seamlessly, just by interacting and playing with stories.
Josh: We’re inspired by the work of educators around the world. As Parker mentioned, there are many principals that are implicit based on the way Naria stories are told and created. We have plans for explicit moments of educational value. If we do it right, 99% of our users won’t even realize it’s there.
8. Which age groups or family dynamics have seen the biggest impact from Naria’s technology?
Parker: We’ve seen the biggest impact with families that have kids aged around 7–11. They’re at this perfect stage where they can fully enjoy Naria independently—they’re reading, writing, and creating without needing constant help from parents. Our new iOS app gives these young creators a safe space to explore storytelling and self-expression entirely on their own terms.
Looking ahead, we’re introducing audio generation and “read-along” features, which will open up Naria to even younger kids. These features will help them engage with stories before they’re fully confident readers, expanding our impact and bringing the fun of storytelling to even more families.
Josh: We interviewed a lot of adults with children in their lives and found that most say they want a zero-effort, guilt-free, positive experience for their kids. As parents ourselves, we can relate.
What’s been so heartwarming for us is that most of these folk who used Naria did it alongside their kids – guiding and co-creating in real-time on a single device. We heard so many stories of fun bonding experiences, and the characters and situations that came out of it.
These stories heavily influenced our design around sharing stories, offering kudos to others, and how we can best support our micro-communities.
9. What have been the biggest challenges in scaling Naria, and how did you overcome them?
Parker: One of our biggest early challenges was helping people understand what an AI-driven storytelling experience actually looks like, especially kids or users who aren’t tech-savvy. AI can be tricky; small details can totally make or break the experience.
To tackle this, we’ve put a lot of effort into simplifying the user experience through lots of iterative testing. We’ve prioritized clearly showing the value of Naria—why it’s fun, meaningful, and safe for kids and families. Keeping the experience intuitive and transparent has made a huge difference in helping users feel comfortable and feeling the magic of what we offer.
Josh: In less than 6 months, our test audience generated over 550,000 visual story assets. Not all of these get used by the creator. Our virtual “editing room floor” is full of incredible character designs, amazing scenes, and uncharted story paths. When we took a look at unused content, the team started adopting characters and scenes for use in their own stories.
In the very near future, we’re looking to make the best unused content available to Naria users – either directly, or to inspire their own creations. If this proves popular and effective, we plan to expand what our users can do – both subscribers and free users.
10. AI-powered content creation comes with ethical considerations. How do you ensure stories remain inclusive, safe, and age-appropriate?
Parker: Making sure stories stay inclusive, safe, and age-appropriate is something we take seriously at Naria. We have a custom workflow in place specifically for moderation of both text and images to ensure all content stays kid-friendly.
We also strongly believe in transparency and having safety-first policies that empower our users. The extensive customization tools we offer mean families have complete control over their stories and characters—so they can truly reflect their values and preferences. Plus, when you create a story, you can set the exact age range it’s intended for, adding another layer of comfort and control for parents.
Josh: We’ve built a number of control measures to prevent inappropriate content being generated or shown to our users.
We’re not ready to talk about all of our micro-community features yet, but limiting user accounts to only feature content approved by someone you trust is a key feature coming soon.
Any stories shown on our Public Feed have been vetted by actual humans as meeting our standards, ensuring safe, age-appropriate content.
We also have simple ways to report any content as inappropriate, and it will be reviewed within 24 hours.
In addition, our parental control features will provide many ways to manage what content is available to a given account.
11. What does success look like for you and Naria in the next 5–10 years?
Parker: Success for us means creating the next generation of storytellers and something families everywhere can enjoy—no matter where they live. Imagine a world where Naria stories come alive, with kids and families able to create, collaborate, and build adventures together like never before.
We picture a future where a single Naria creation can instantly become a digital book, an audiobook, or even a full-on animation. And we’re excited about bringing Naria creations into the real world, too—imagine your characters printed as stickers, plushies, or featured on T-shirts and backpacks. Who knows, maybe someday you’ll even see your favorite Naria character as a skin in Minecraft!
Josh: Well said Parker! For me personally, success will be measured by the positive impact we have on individuals, communities, and maybe the whole world.
Our mission is to help everyone in the world tell their stories. I wholeheartedly believe that if we understood one another better, we’d see that our similarities vastly outweigh our differences.
I want Naria to inspire hope in people. I want everyone to feel like they belong in/with Naria. I want Naria to show that through collaboration and imagination, we can overcome any challenge.
12. What does a typical day look like for Naria as founders, and how do you stay motivated?
Parker: Our days blend strategic planning, user research, iterative design, and collaboration across marketing, technical, and operational teams. Regular user interactions provide constant motivation, especially when families share how Naria positively impacts their lives. Seeing users’ creativity flourish and knowing we’re facilitating meaningful family connections keep our passion and motivation consistently high. We are a team of 3, and every day is different. It is both equally hard and empowering. We want to create the next generation of storytellers and give each and every kid out there what we always wanted, a way to turn your imagination into a reality.
Josh: Our team is extremely collaborative and we trust one another completely. That extends to our phenomenal group of advisors – both official and unofficial. We’re a mission and vision-driven group, which helps us align on what’s important when we disagree on the details. I’m grateful to have the support of so many wonderful human beings.
Coupled with a fast, iterative, learning-based development cycle, this allows us to experiment – even if we disagree – and bring the learnings back for the next version.
The mission, the team, and our users keep us motivated when everything else turns bleak. We’ve all proven to one another that we want to be right here, right now.
Editor’s Note
Founders Parker Reed and Josh Anderson bring heart and vision to a complex space. This interview reveals how Naria blends thoughtful design with powerful AI to transform screen time into meaningful, collaborative storytelling for the next generation.
