Girls Shine Bright

Inspiring confidence, connection, and leadership through creative arts

Help Girls Shine Bright: Support Our Book Project!

A joyful, girl-powered publishing adventure (with a very opinionated dog).

United States

$771 raised of $5,000 goal
8 donations
50 days left

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Fiscally Sponsored by Fractured Atlas

Thank you for checking out our project! We’ve been creating a whimsical, humorous story told through the eyes of Kayla, a spirited dog with big opinions and an even bigger personality. Her story celebrates imagination, joy, and the magic of seeing the world in your own way.

Through Kayla’s adventures, she encourages readers to:

stay determined
remember the value of humor
write their own story

This project is part of Girls Shine Bright, our fiscally sponsored creative learning initiative where girls collaborate, lead, and shine. Together, they learned how to create, design, and self-publish a real book.

Your support builds confidence, creativity, and leadership, while bringing a joyful, lighthearted story into the world.

📖 About the Book

During the pandemic, Nicole spent a lot more time at home with Kayla (...and her barking). To find comedic relief, she wrote a book from Kayla’s perspective: I Don’t Like Trucks, inspired by Kayla’s fierce disdain for trucks and her non-stop commentary.

When she shared the draft, it brought smiles to everyone who read it. So she gathered a team of girls to bring Kayla’s stories to life.

This playful book is for dogs, kids, teens, and human adults alike. It brings whimsy, humor, and plenty of personality to brighten your day.

These books make wonderful gifts and are perfect for coffee tables, waiting rooms, or anyone who could use a little unexpected delight. And for extra fun, there are bones hidden throughout the book to find! We’ve heard from both kids and adults that it consistently brings smiles and laughs.

Kayla’s Backstory

Hailing from Silicon Valley, Kayla is a naturally entrepreneurial dog. One day, while chewing a bone, she realized:
there are books for human children, but none for puppies.
Not once had her human read a book aloud to her! So she quickly penned—or rather pawed—these stories.

Meet Our Multi-Age, Multi-Species Team

This project is rooted in the belief that every person (and animal!) has a unique brilliance to share– and that brilliance shines through when given the opportunity.

Each girl stepped into a role that aligned with her gifts.

Illustrator: Cate – an artist in her sophomore year of high school whose playful, expressive illustrations made the story sparkle.
Imaginative Production Lead: Lila Kate – a wordsmith at heart and avid reader who helped make this book truly a book.
Design Editor: Anusha – an artist and design editor for her college newspaper whose eye for detail helped everything align and look just right.
Writers: Kayla the dog – the playful inspiration whose personality sparked the story; and Nicole – the founder of Girls Shine Bright and dedicated typing assistant who brought Kayla’s voice to life.

Take a look at what we’ve been up to!

🌈 Your Support Makes a Difference

Girls flourish when they’re given meaningful opportunities to create, collaborate, and lead. This project is one of those opportunities– a real-world publishing adventure where girls learned to create, edit, design, and bring a book to life.

Your contribution builds confidence, creativity, and a sense of possibility.

It also allows us to continue offering girl-led creative experiences into the future.

Our donation tiers are listed on the right side of the page, with options for digital copies, printed books, or sponsored “random acts of kindness” copies if you’d like to share the joy with others. We will distribute sponsored copies on your behalf as random acts of kindness in our community.

💛 How You Can Help

Share our campaign with friends, neighbors, or community spaces
Support the project—every contribution truly helps
Gift a sponsored copy to a community space
Connect us with people who care about creativity, confidence, and leadership for girls

We’ve taken this project as far as we can on our own, and now we’re inviting our community to help us finish strong.

Your donation is tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas.

🌱 Where Your Support Goes

Your contribution helps build a community where girls’ creativity and leadership are valued.

Funds will support:

Book production and marketing
Support services (eBook formatting, Amazon optimization, etc.)
Stipends for the girls contributing their time and talent
Project management and administrative costs

Any remaining funds support future Girls Shine Bright projects (including our upcoming Learning Leadership Program for 15–18 year olds) and scholarships.

🎁 Want to share our book as a gift for the holidays? (thank you!)

If you support our project by December 8 and choose a printed book, we’ll include your copy in our first print order. We anticipate that it will arrive by 12/25/2025, but we can’t guarantee delivery due to printing and shipping timelines.

After December 8, your book will go into the next batch. Holiday arrival may still be possible, but it will depend on production and shipping schedules.

We’ll also send you a cute PDF note from Kayla that you can print and gift as a placeholder if your book is still on its way.

✨ About Girls Shine Bright

Girls Shine Bright is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Through leadership programs and real-world creative experiences (like this one!), girls turn imagination into action and ideas into impact. With supportive mentorship and multi-age collaboration, they share their gifts, work through challenges, and discover what they’re capable of.

Every project helps girls shine in their authenticity, joy, and strengths– and that light brightens the world for all of us.

Girls Shine Bright is led by Nicole Connell, an educational therapist and mentor with over 20 years of experience supporting kids and teens. Learn more at www.girlsshinebright.com.

Questions? Please reach out at nicole@nicoleconnell.com.

Rewards

Glimmer ✨

Donate $8.00 or more

Amount over $1.00 is tax-deductible.

Receive a Kayla sticker.

Expected delivery: January / February

Spark 🩷

Donate $20.00 or more

Amount over $5.00 is tax-deductible.

Digital (PDF) copy of I Don’t Like Trucks.

Delivered within one week of your donation

Shimmer 💖

Donate $25.00 or more

Amount over $2.00 is tax-deductible.

Receive a paw-written thank you note from Kayla in the mail. Plus 3 Kayla stickers.

Expected delivery: January / February.

Glow 🌟

Donate $35.00 or more

Amount over $15.00 is tax-deductible.

Digital (PDF) copy + 1 physical copy

Have your copy mailed to you or let us know if you’d like us to donate a copy on your behalf as a Random Act of Kindness. We’ll contact you by email to coordinate. Shipping included in the US and Canada.