When Rebecca Cunningham hires a new writer to reinvent fairy tales for the Girl Tales podcast, she tells them this: write the story that you needed to hear as a kid, but never did. It’s a simple premise, a podcast featuring reimagined folktales, fables, and myths, where girls get to be heroes. Yet its impact on young audiences, and the adults who care for them, is profound.

“Caregivers are really excited to hear stories where their kids are at the center of the narrative, because they don't necessarily see that everywhere else,” Cunningham says about the show’s growing listener base.

After working as a theater director and nanny in New York City, Cunningham admits to dreaming of a children’s podcast years before she made it a reality. It wasn’t until the 2016 Presidential election results were finalized that she knew it was time. Watching Hillary Clinton give her concession speech, Cunningham remembers holding a little girl in her arms at the time, thinking about what the future holds for girls who dare to dream.

“That was it. I'm going to adapt fairy tales so that girls are the heroes. Done. I'm going to hire the people I work with in theater or the people who I've always dreamed of working with. And that's where Girl Tales began,” Cunningham recounted for Diggit Magazine earlier this year.

Cunningham worked with her friend Chad, who first introduced her to podcasting, and raised $5,000 to launch Girl Tales. Four years – and four podcast seasons – later the Girl Tales Podcast team has grown to include women, non-binary and trans playwrights, a production crew, and voice actors.

Caregivers searching for diverse narratives will certainly find that here, as intersectionality is core to Girl Tales’ storytelling. Beyond Western classics, listeners will also hear stories from Dominican mythology, fables from the Jewish tradition, folktales set in Korea, and twists on Akan tales from West Africa.

Thinking of the year ahead, Cunningham looks forward to sharing the fantastical magic of Girl Tales with even more children. “I want to provide content that other podcast networks just don’t cover. I know there are kids, non-binary children for instance, who need to hear themselves at the center of these stories.”