Boosting Youngsters’ Emotional IQs

As a working mom, Abbie Schiller relied on 30 minutes of television in the morning and the evening to keep her toddler occupied. There was plenty of programming that taught kids to count and spell, but the Los Angeles resident saw a void when it came to social and emotional learning. So Schiller, who was head of public relations for ABC Daytime, improvised. “My daughter was really into the Disney princess franchise,” she says. “I would put my own spin on these stories—the stepmother would be misguided instead of wicked. I would use those stories as an opportunity to develop empathy and kindness instead of making judgments.”

Schiller left ABC in 2007 to focus full time on creating videos and books that help kids cope with strong emotions, like jealousy and anger, and sticky situations, like getting lost. She and her husband, Marc Gordonson, a digital advertising executive, sold their house and moved in with her parents. She reached out to a former classmate, filmmaker Samantha Kurtzman-Counter, also a mom, for advice on how to produce her own videos. Kurtzman-Counter agreed to do the pilot.