Story Poster

Inspiration and what it does

Parenting is hard. Sometimes my child comes home carrying something that happened at school, and I don't have the answer either.

I wanted a way for my kids and me to come back to one hard moment when we were calm. Something we could read together with faces they know and ideas drawn from research.

This started with the stories I made for my own family.

For example, after something upset my daughter, we would read the story together and repeat, Name it to tame it. For us, that meant say what you feel so we can understand it together. She remembered it the next time. She looks forward to reading with me, and she keeps the stories in her folder.

For this demo, imagine classmates praising another child's drawing. My daughter hides hers and says, Everyone draws better than me.

I share the moment in the app, add our photos, and choose the drawing style. It makes a five-page story kit for us to read together.

For this topic, our reminder is, Not their race. Grow at your pace. The idea is to notice her own progress and find one small thing she wants to try.

But first, I need to listen.

The stories and the pictures change with each moment, but the reminder for the topic stays the same.

Building this taught me to plan first. Let the AI ask questions until the idea is clear. Then work on only one or two things at a time without losing the reason you started.

For me, that reason is making time to listen and to learn together.

One moment. One skill. One rhyme.

Challenges

The hardest problem was losing focus on the original idea while polishing the app. I got through it by working on one refinement at a time and making sure the AI agents showed me the plan before implementation.

What I am proud of

I am most proud of the research-based skills, the rhyming words, and the familiar faces, as they kept my kids and me engaged and were easy to follow and remember.

What I learned

It taught me that I had to be patient when making changes. If I follow the plan and let the AI interview me, I get a product with fewer errors than when I get anxious and want to make changes right away. I want to make sure I slow down and make changes one at a time.

Individual reviewer access

Judges who would like to try Story Poster with their own family photos can request individual access at https://story-poster-production.up.railway.app/ using their own email address. I will approve the request and send an invitation by email. Please use a separate account for personal photos, not the shared reviewer login. Separate accounts keep your family setup and stories apart from other members.