We got to chat about all things Story Surprise on the fantastic podcast ‘Benny Asking People Questions’ hosted by an absolute legend of the Aussie children’s entertainment industry… Benny!
Thanks Fairfax Media!
We are stoked to see that The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald & WA Today have shared our song ‘Germs!’ on their websites! So cool!
Check it out via HERE!
Story Surprise interviewed by The Fame Reporter
We had the privilege of being interviewed by The Fame Reporter about all things Story Surprise! Thanks for inviting us along and asking some really fun questions TFR, we loved them! 😊
Check out the full interview HERE
Lauren interviewed on Kidspot podcast 'The Juggling Act'!
How cool is that!? VERY COOL! Lauren chats to Melissa Wilson on The Juggling Act podcast about her Vitiligo and how it inspired the direction of Story Surprise, and our focus on inclusion and not leaving any child feeling left out. Have a listen below!
My unique skin condition inspired my husband and I to create Story Surprise: Kid’s entertainment heralding inclusion
Being a kid can be tough, even when you have supportive friends and family. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to blend in. Standing out was not cool. Now, imagine navigating the trials of school life when one day, you wake up with a mysterious skin condition which has completely altered your appearance, quite literally overnight. That’s a lot for a kid to hack!
When I was a child, I woke up one morning looking completely different. Majority of pigmentation on my face and neck had disappeared overnight, leaving me mottled and patchy. It was terrifying. I was diagnosed with vitiligo. Vitiligo is a skin condition where the pigment producing cells stop working resulting in white patches. My spots destroyed my mental wellbeing. Suddenly, I went from blending right in to being called a ‘cow’ by kids across the school playground. People made jokes at my expense and told me I was strange. Kids were afraid to play with me, scared they might catch my spots!
Lauren’s Vitiligo as a child.
These days, people are more familiar with vitiligo thanks to public figures like Winnie Harlow. Fifteen years ago, people were quick to judge. I turned to makeup to camouflage and hide my uniqueness. For thirteen years I airbrushed on my camouflage every day. I became obsessed with hiding it and continued to cover my spots as an adult for my career in musical theatre and children’s entertainment.
There was one moment that changed my perspective and will stick with me forever. Back when I was still covering my vitiligo, I visited a primary school to perform an educational show. In the audience I spotted a child with white patches on their body, head to toe. All the kids sat up tall in rows, but no one sat next to this child. No one spoke to them, no one wanted to be near them. I could see the sadness in this child’s eyes that I knew all too well. They also had vitiligo, and there I stood with my vitiligo all covered up. I felt like a coward. Representation is important. If I had the courage to stand on stage rocking my spots, I could have shown them that they weren’t alone! At that moment I knew I had an opportunity to help kids by just being me.
My husband Anthony is also an actor. When Covid hit, we channelled our energy into creating ‘Story Surprise’. When I was a child, it was impossible to find resources and support to help me cope with my unique circumstances. I’ve now met hundreds of kids with unique stories who feel isolated and alone. I want to help change this narrative with Story Surprise. So many kids have something unique about them and that should be celebrated!
When we launched Story Surprise, I struggled to rock my spots. After covering my vitiligo for years, I was convinced no one would accept me in my own skin. This changed when Danielle Wheeler let us showcase her book ‘I’ve Got Spots – a story about vitiligo’. It gave me the push I needed to stand in front of the camera, share my story and rock my spots! The feedback was overwhelming! Parent’s as far away as India reached out to let us know that our episode made their child with vitiligo feel a little less alone. They shared our episode with their child’s class at school to help educate them about vitiligo and now, their child was feeling happier and more confident. Incredible! We’re helping kids love who they are, but equally, the experience has helped me to love myself!
Story Surprise live performance at The Clocktower for Moonee Valley City Council. 18 May 2021.
Anthony and I bring our own unique brand of silliness to Story Surprise podcast, along with music and plenty of jokes. Woven into the fun ten – twenty minute episodes are big themes for little people aged three – eight. Themes like inclusion, diversity, and uniqueness. We include stories by some favourite Aussie authors like Scott Stuart and Hazel Edwards and invite guests from different kinds of backgrounds to help us represent a range of big topics. Along with using stories like ‘Ive Got Spots’ as a vehicle to help all kids feel comfortable in their own skin, we’ve also addressed bullying, gender stereotypes and covered stories for non-binary children. Inclusion is at the heart of what we do! It’s our hope that Story Surprise leaves no child feeling left behind or left out.
The Finger Family Song!
It's a classic children's song - and we hope you like our very silly Story Surprise version!
Story Surprise Live Videos! Woo!
Because we won’t be performing Live any time soon due to lockdown restrictions, we’re reminiscing on our very first live performance earlier this year and how much fun we had with everyone! To celebrate the good times, we’ll be releasing some songs that were recorded on that day to keep those good vibes flowing! Here’s our silly version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm… Enjoy! 😊
Season 2, Ep 1 - 'My Shadow is Pink'
The first episode is here! Have a lil listen! 🎧 😊
Welcome to season two of Story Surprise.
This season, we are focused on impactful stories and inclusion!
To get things started, join Anthony & Lauren with guest reader Juan Gomez for ‘My Shadow is Pink’. This story is about daring to be different and being true to who you really are. Scott Stuart wrote this story when he was forced to confront his own thoughts on gender stereotypes when his three-year-old son developed a love for Elsa from Frozen.
In the story, the child has a secret. The child isn’t like the dad. The Dad has a blue shadow. And the child, has a pink shadow.
Juan, our guest has experienced having a shadow of many shades and colours. We are very excited they have joined us to help us share this important story with your family!
Parent’s and Carers, if you’d like to learn a little more about Juan and why Anthony and Lauren felt Juan would be best to represent the themes of breaking gender stereotypes in this episode, check out our interview with Juan in our new video series.
It’s called ‘Sit Down Sessions with Story Surprise’: https://youtu.be/7rwHdCsnrbo
Mick’s Mates: A brand new segment in season 2 where Mick the Story Surprise teddy sits down with a listener and finds out what important lesson they took away from the story. First up, we have Mick’s Mate, Nate!
And of course, we couldn’t leave you without a song!
Drum roll please, on your knees…. It’s time for season two!
Story: ‘My Shadow is Pink’ by Scott Stuart https://scottstuart.co/
Song: ‘Who Could You Be!’ By Anthony & Lauren
Guest Reader: Juan Gomez
Mick’s Mate: Nate Belleville
Introductions: Pippa and Baxter Riley
This podcast is proudly presented by The Moonee Valley City Council Clocktower for the podcast studio residency program, in conjunction with Little Rockers Radio.
Our Links @storysurpriseau
Website: www.storysurprise.com.au
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/storysurpriseau
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storysurpriseau
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storysurpriseau
Tik Tok: www.tiktok.com/@storysurpriseau
Season 2 of the Story Surprise Podcast is here!
Watch the video! It says it all! 🎉
New song 'Take a Deep Breath' has been released!
We're havin' a boogie today because we've just released our third Story Surprise song 'Take a Deep Breath' out to the world! Yahooooo! 🎉 🎈 😁
We wanted to say a huge thank you! This has only been possible with your ongoing support that keeps us pushing onwards and upwards!
The song is all about mindfulness… and not just for kids, for everyone! It’s a bop!
How can you get around the new release!?
🔹Like the song on Spotify
🔸Follow Story Surprise on Spotify
🔹And most helpful… add our song to your kids music playlist
We hope you enjoy our new tune 😎❤️
'Take a Deep Breath' is produced by Paxus Productions
Written by Anthony & Lauren
Instrumentation by Dominic Woodhead, Troy Downward & Nicholas Woodhead
Cover art by @gavinswoodyard (Instagram)
UPCOMING STORY SURPRISE PERFORMANCES
We are so excited! Thanks to the Moonee Valley City Council, there will be FOUR Story Surprise live shows in the month of May! Here are the details:
UPCOMING PERFORMANCE DATES:
(Tickets are FREE, bookings are necessary)
6/05/21: NIDDRIE LIBRARY, 10AM - BOOK HERE
14/05/21: AVONDALE HEIGHTS LIBRARY, 10:30AM - BOOK HERE
18/05/21: SAM MERRIFIELD LIBRARY, 1PM - BOOK HERE
18/05/21: CLOCKTOWER CENTRE CHILDREN’S SPACE, 3PM - BOOK HERE
We cannot WAIT to see you at one of our shows for some dancing, singing, and story telling! Yahoooo!
This is a performing arts recovery project as part of the Moonee Valley City Council’s Recast 2021, supported by the Victorian Government through the Working for Victoria program.
What a fantastic experience!
Thank you to all who attended our very first Story Surprise Live show at the Clocktower Centre in Moonee Ponds! The whole process of workshopping the show over the past two weeks, and then being able to perform it in front of our Story Surprise community was such a beneficial and exciting experience!
An ENORMOUS thank you to Moonee Valley City Council and the Clocktower Centre for bringing us on board as residents. We cannot thank you enough for your support of Story Surprise!
Now that we’ve got a live show, get ready to see a lot more of us in person at family events in and around Melbourne in the near future! 😊😊😊
Story Surprise Live! Tickets now on sale!
Here's the link to get tickets to the workshop viewing of our Story Surprise Live show at 10:30am on the 7th of Feb. We recently applied for a residency position with the Moonee Ponds City Council. They saw what we have been creating online and picked us! This has given the opportunity to use their space and resources for two weeks to turn Story Surprise into a live show! We will be doing one performance only in in the Moonee Ponds Clocktower Studio space.
As it is just a workshop viewing, and due to covid restrictions, there are only 30 tickets available. We would absolutely love to have as many kids as possible there so we're able to get live feedback for the very first time!
If you miss out on a ticket or aren't available to attend, never fear! There will be more shows in the near future. 😊
Story Surprise is nearly one year old! Until this point our only option was to reach out to our small community with an online presence but now... for the very first time, we are so excited at the prospect of getting to meet you live in person! We love our video series and podcast but we truly are live performers so we are excited to dive back into theatre and bring Story Surprise to life!
We’d love to see you at the show! Tickets are just $15 each, and are available -HERE- .
Story Surprise! We're going LIVE ON STAGE!
Very, very, very exciting news! We’ve been lucky enough to have gained a two week residency with the Moonee Valley City Council at the Clocktower! They’ve generously provided us with a studio space to play in so that we can develop, rehearse, and perform (Covid permitting) a 40 minute Story Surprise Live show, featuring our songs, a live band, dancing, storytelling, and of course plenty of ridiculousness thrown in for good luck! This is starting very soon, so we will send out ticket details ASAP.
More details and dates to follow shortly, but we just couldn’t hold the good news in any longer! YAHOOOO! Thanks Moonee Valley City Council! ❤️
