From Orange Is the New Black to Writing Kids' Books: Curiosity Matters | Tanya Wright | Brain Talk

Hello and welcome to the Mind Body Space podcast. I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I'm a mom, NYU-trained medical doctor, and Harvard-trained educator. I started this podcast to help you go from stressed to focused and to boost your resilience. I created BrainTalk, which helps you understand what's happening in your brain and body so you can respond instead of react. Because when we understand our brain, we can be more focused, more connected, and reach our full potential. Our BrainBun plush dolls help kids learn BrainTalk in a simple and engaging way so they can build the skills and habits to manage stress and prevent overwhelm. Our Relax to Soar method planner helps teens and adults reduce stress, overcome procrastination, and build the mental and physical resilience needed to reach your highest potential. You can find out more at mindbodyspace.com. Now let's get into today's episode. Today's guest brings curiosity to life. I'm joined by Tanya Wright. You may know her from the popular series on Netflix called Orange Is the New Black, and she's the creator of Harriet of Harlem, a learning world designed to spark imagination and the love of reading. Curiosity keeps our brains open to new ideas, engaged, and flexible, which is exactly What kids need to learn to become resilient. In this episode, we talk about creativity, unconventional paths, and how curiosity helps kids become more adaptable, motivated, and resilient. So let's dive in. Hi, Tanya, how are you?

Hey, how are you?

Tanya, thank you so much for your time and for coming to speak with me today. And we're fellow, not exact at the same time, but classmates at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Right. In the same learning design innovation technology.

Yes, I think it tends to attract the types who want to do something on their own or create something, as you have done with Harriet of Harlem, or Harriet.

Harriet.

Yes. I want to know what you're doing with your teeth because they're beautiful. They're perfect. Oh my gosh, I love the color and your lipstick. Amazing. That smile.

This is a Black-owned company called The Lip Bar. They have great colors.

Are you eating a lot of oranges? Because oranges can make your teeth very white.

Oh, wow. I don't do that. Than a normal human being.

Citrus. Yeah. But, okay, great. Tell us about Harriet of Harlem. And I would love for you to tell our audience how you got this idea and your mission with it. And I just love the whole package.

Thank you. I appreciate that. So Harriet of Harlem— I have a visual for people so they know a little bit what we're talking about. This little girl right here, that's Harriet. In one incarnation.

I love it.

Harriet. In another incarnation.

Oh my gosh. I love it.

Harriet of Harlem is a 7-year-old girl with very galactic hair who goes on learning adventures with her friends, Charlie the Comb and Barbara the Barrette. And I got the idea for Harriet, actually it was sort of a confluence of things going on in the world and with me personally, I think. One, exhibit A, you could see this hair is big and curly and—

I love it.

Like Walton's own. And that has always been a point of opportunity, shall we say, in life. And I was, you know, just really— I'm the only person in my family with this sort of quaily, curly hair. And, you know, I don't think anyone really knew what to do with it. It was an interesting opportunity when I was a little girl trying to figure out how to do my hair. That another thing that happened, I was walking my dog Macarena. Macarena has since gone on to the Rainbow Bridge, but my dog Macarena and I walking one day and I just started really thinking about my hair. And sometimes I like loud if I have ideas, sometimes they come very fast and furious and I, mm, recorder with me. Sometimes they like fumes, they just shh. And you have to catch them when they present themselves. And just this word came out and I think because I, I think I'm hearing something.

Somebody's leaving my house through the garage.

Oh, I see.

We can meditate.

Okay.

So you were saying you came up with Harriet and that you're walking.

And I was walking my dog and I think because I have been an actor for most of my life. Harriet. Harriet. This concept came in the form of a character and came in the form of a person.

Mm-hmm.

Curious about this person, this girl named Harriet. And it was during the pandemic. There was sort of an implosion, you know, in terms of education.

Mm.

Globally, we're not being able to access their education in a fashion that they understood. And I was, for whatever reason, very concerned with that. It was like I couldn't unsee that. I couldn't turn from that problem. And I started to sketch out this device, this piece of technology that I thought could be helpful globally. And a friend was applying to Harvard Divinity School. She said, oh, Tonya, Harvard has this new program called Learning Design Innovation Technology. I I think that it would be good for you. I was like, going back to school at this point in my life? I mean, you know, I'm here on this track. But again, that idea just kept gnawing at me. I could not turn away from the concept of going back to school.

Interesting. And had you been teaching before?

I had been teaching. I had been a substitute teacher. You know, I've had a long stretch as an actor, right? And so in my beginning years, I was a substitute teacher for, I guess it was like kindergarten, first, second grade. And I remember being incredibly overwhelmed. Holy cow. If one of these kids run out of this classroom, I'm gonna have a problem. The focus and intentionality. Really applaud teachers who are working in the classroom, but it did give me some sense of children that age and, you know, life as a child that age. I was very creative and probably highly distractible. I needed something that was gonna sort of engage me, engage my focus. And so that's really what Harriet was about. So I went to school to develop Harriet, and now she's out in the world.

That's amazing. So you had that in mind when you went to Harvard?

Yeah, absolutely. And really I focused on, you know, sometimes going back to school can be just information. And so I was learning the information and I really had some place to put that information and it was Harriet. It was always about how, how will I really use this? How does it function in the world? How do people engage with it? Or how do I want— ultimately my goal is how do I motivate early learners? How do I captivate attention in the way that I wish that my attention had been captivated when I was 7 years old?

So now, did you write the books while you were at Harvard?

I wrote some of those books before Harvard. I wrote some of those books during Harvard and I'm still writing books. So they're about 30.

But you have two.

There are two that you know of that are out in the world. Okay. This is The Great Birthday Surprise.

Yes.

And Trouble at the Hair Salon. These two books are out in the world.

You do that during the year at Harvard?

I did those.

Or did you do it after?

Before then.

Before you went to Harvard. So take us on your journey. Like you were not an author before. Nope. You were not a children's book author.

I was always been a writer all my life, acting and writing.

Oh, okay. Mm-hmm. Did you pitch it to someone? On, or did you self-publish?

No.

What did you do?

I went to a retailer first. Mm-hmm. Talked to that retailer and they bought the books. And so then I backed up into a publisher and that's—

interesting.

So yeah, the books are now where all books are sold.

That's amazing. Congratulations. Let's track back to when you had this idea, you approached a retailer about your idea. And then after they were interested in it, then you went back and got a publisher. Is that correct?

Yes.

That's amazing. That's so creative. Is that something that you learned to do or do you just thought of doing that?

I don't do anything in an orthodox way, for better or for worse. Right.

It's helped. I love it.

In this case, it has. In other cases, people are like, oh, that's a great idea, but I don't know what to do with it. And so, you know, you just, you just go in the way that works for you in the world. And everyone has their own path and their own way of doing things. And that's so much of what Harriet is about. She's an imaginative girl. That is her superpower. And I'm suggesting that we all have imagination, which is our own superpower. We all have this capacity. Ability to solve problems is as individual and specific as the human being from whom the idea is coming from. So, you know, while I'm always happy to share sort of macro concept advice. At the end of the day, everyone's journey is very different and should be individual. And so, yeah.

That's brilliant. Now with your publisher, are you going to write more books with them or do you have to like get another book deal to get more books published? Or are you going to do it independently? And so, which is why, meaning I'm not operating on the conventional track, right?

Do I, ask someone to publish more books? No. What I do, I do is I, you know, I create my own imprint.

It's called Hair Book.

Yeah. And so I listen to my customer, my people who are the children and the families and the educators who read this book. I connect with them and they are my tribe.

You actually go out into the community, you read the books to the community. What else do you do? To get the pulse of— you go into schools?

I go into schools. I actually interview children and educators and parents who have actually read the book. I do all kinds of things. I make puppet musicals. I bring the puppets into the schools, which is generally a real crowd pleaser.

You're an actress. I can see like the expressions on your face. I mean, it's just so much more exciting.

Yeah.

Than the usual storyteller.

I hope so. So, you know, it's as much fun for children as it is for me personally.

Mm-hmm. And what age group is this for?

6 to 11.

Awesome. Tell us more about what's behind Harriet's value system or what you're trying to empower the kids with. I know curiosity, imagination, resilience, right?

Right. And motivation. If children are not reading grade level by the 3rd grade, they're 4 times more likely to drop out of school. So— Wow. Annie Casey's study. And so that is my guiding force. Course is really inspiring and intrinsically motivating children to read and be at least proficient, if not great, enthusiastic, motivated, highly curious readers by the third grade. And I think that there are ways to do that. You know, I think that we are very focused on achievement, and I think that one way that achievement can be satisfied is by really engaging and motivating people, in this case, children.

Amazing. So what's next for Harriet?

Oh, so many things.

You had a little cartoon, right?

There are about 30 Harriet books.

Nice.

Rolled out via my Big Hair Books imprint.

Amazing.

There is a puppet musical called When Nana Was Seven. It also has a book and a reading curriculum. There will be something called Harriet University where all the learning for Harriet. What I've realized is that, you know, I mean, I come— lived and worked predominantly in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, for most of my life. And what I have realized is that it's not a place inherently focused and committed to learning and children. I thought, and I believe, that we can be better stewards of the media that we put out in the world, connect that media, connect those stories to actual learning. Experiences that can really have an impact on children's lives. So that's really what I'm setting out to do. And I'm doing that in a myriad of ways. Yes, through books. I have a patent-pending technology. There'll be media related to Harriet, something called Harriet University, another series of books called Magic Nation Academy, where we'll focus on STEAM— science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. She is my guiding force. I wake up and I work on— with Harriet every single day. She has her own life. She's part of my life, but she has her own life too.

It's amazing. I love this mission. And I think it's amazing that you came up with it one day and then it just grew into this whole path for you. So when you had those challenges you were talking about when you were little in school, what do you think helped you? To become more resilient and to find your own path?

I think what helped me to find my own path is being on my own path. And sometimes being on your own path is lonely. It's not, you know, it seems like not the main path, right?

No.

So I think being quiet—

You feel like you're always going across the grains, right?

Yeah. And as a young person, that doesn't feel so good. As an older person, I know that it's my superpower. So I've come on the other side of that. So yeah, and I think at the end of the day, when it feels uncomfortable listening to my inner voice, we all have an inner voice. It's whether we choose to listen and do what it says is really up to us and our choice. But I know what to do. I do have a tribe of people who I bounce ideas off of. People who I think—

That's wonderful.

People who don't like much of anything. I like those the best. Give it to me straight. I like it straight. It's been difficult. It's been joyful. But you know, I think if you just continue to hone in on that voice, that still small voice that we all have, even though sometimes it may feel uncomfortable, even though it may be a little lonely, you know, when you're listening to that voice. And some of it is courage too.

Yeah. I feel uncomfortable all the time.

Yeah.

Oh, you said courage. Yeah, I love that. Courage. So you and I are older students who went back to school and what, how did you feel when you were there? I wasn't hanging out at parties or anything. I was really there to reset my brain. I'm a former neuroscientist, I'm a physician, and I'm specializing in wellness, and I knew that I needed to reset my brain after being a clinician and raising my kids. There was so many years that just kind of went by and I woke up one day and I was like, wait, where I'm— and I knew that if I could cram as much information into my brain now, that it could actually protect me in the future from mental decline. So that was one of the reasons I went. I've been teaching a curriculum called The Science of Resilience for 10 years now, um, at the Juilliard School and many other schools. And I wanted to develop characters, so I did end up making a plush doll while I was there.

Well, great.

Yeah. And The characters are called Zen Cloud and Brain Bun.

Mm-hmm.

So these are what I'm developing now, and I'm tying it into fables and stories and turning it into a neuroscience lesson for kids.

Yeah.

Oh, so again, the same, like developing resilience because they will know about their brain and understand the physiology of their brain.

Yeah.

I have to admit that I did feel a little bit older. I definitely did. I didn't realize how much younger the people, and I met some amazing people, but definitely I, I had some ups and downs. How about you? What was your biggest challenge going back to school as an older individual?

My biggest challenge, what was in my own mind about going back to school as an older individual— obviously, it was one of the best decisions I made in my life for many reasons. Personally, I grew, you know, obviously professionally. But I looked back because of Harriet, and I felt like I had more to do in my life. I've been afforded incredible opportunities in media, and I kind of wanted to harness that and use it as a vehicle or instrument for something that could be really helpful and interesting in education. And, you know, specifically literacy. Right now I'm very focused on literacy and children reading by the 3rd grade. And going back to school at this point, listen, I think that graduate school should be reserved for people who are a little bit older. Because, you know, I know a lot about who I am than I was when I was 35, even 40. And so since the program was very fast-paced, I think that if you didn't go in with some sort of sense about what you wanted to get out, it would've just gonna be over. And then you're gonna go on and sort of scramble for a job and you just sort of get in this loop. But if you go in with an intention, What is it that you want to do here? What is it you want to get out of it? What is it that you want to give? And that kind of wisdom generally happens a little bit later in one's life. You get a lot more specific about things, specific about your time, specific about what you're doing and how you want to do it, and also thinking about what you want to leave behind, you know, after we have left the planet. My goal is to have Harriet live on way long after I'm in the ground or wherever I end up. And so that's the goal.

I wish that for you too. And for my characters too. I love it. I love that we both went having something in mind and developing something. And that definitely gave me an anchor, especially when you're trying to choose courses, because I think that was the most challenging. I really feel for my kids now.

Yeah.

I used to say— my son went to Harvard College, and I used to say to him, like, why aren't you picking classes that you think is interesting? It's just so hard, that catalog of classes and like having to figure out what it really is about. It was more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

Yeah. It is. And I think ultimately you get into the class that you're supposed to get into, right? So for example—

Right.

I was not focused on literacy, you know, reading when I went in to—

uh-huh.

—with Harriet. I was focused on numeracy. I was focused on financial literacy. Oh, wow. And I sort of almost by accident, because I didn't get into the class that I wanted to get into, lottery of it all. I was like, well, I'm gonna take a class. Let me take this early literacy class. And that early literacy class completely changed the scope and focus of my work. So, oh, wow. You know, it's, I think it all It's the way it's supposed to. Who was the professor? Meredith Rowe. Oh, I wish I had taken that now. Yes. Yeah, you can only do—

I ended up a lot at MIT Sloan with a lot of cross-registration with AI classes over there and entrepreneurship classes there. You have such a wonderful charisma and air about you. I love talking to you today. I have no doubt that Herion is going to make an impact in 6 to 11-year-old. And it looks like a wonderful book and series and your imprint. I mean, that's so exciting. Good luck with all of it. And anything I can do to support, I would love to do that. And yeah, maybe you could come to some of the libraries and schools in our area. How can somebody find you or invite you? What is the best way to reach out to you?

Where can they find you? Well, you can always email Sandra, S-A-N-D-R-A, @harriet, H-A-I-R-E-T, I-E-T-T-E dot com. Sandra at Harriet dot com. Social media, Instagram, Tonya is Hair. Hair, H-A-I-R, right? I'm on LinkedIn. Yeah, I'm pretty easy to connect with. Fabulous.

Thank you again for your time. I'm so excited for you and all the kids who get to grow up with Harriet. Thank you.

I appreciate it. And I'm excited for you too. And good luck with your plushies.

Yes. Thank you so much. Okay. That was such an awesome conversation. Thank you so much for listening. And if you want to bring these tools into your home, BrainBun Plush Doll and Relax2Store system are designed to help your family go from stress to focus, healthy, wealthy, and wise. You can find everything at mindbodyspace.com. If you found this helpful, please share it with somebody else who can use more calm, focus, and resilience in their home. Until next time, wishing you and your loved ones wellness.