Meet the Makers

Crafting New York Times bestselling stories about family life, hosting the PBS interview program Tell Me More, churning out triweekly episodes of her podcast — Kelly Corrigan’s love for sharing knowledge manifests in a variety of ventures centered around provoking insightful discussion. Her daughter, Claire Lichty, recently completed a double major in computer science and drama at the University of Virginia. Despite their differing areas of expertise, however, Corrigan and Lichty’s shared passion for making inspired a collaborative project — a children’s book titled Marianne the Maker.
Returning to their former hometown for their international book tour, the two spent a day reading to Piedmont elementary schoolers, mingling with community members, and hosting a talk on the book, which centers around a young girl named Marianne who feigns illness to escape soccer practice to focus on her true passion – inventing.
Ironically enough, the story’s creation itself was an act of the iterative process central to making, in which Lichty transformed a childhood story intended to warn her away from lying featuring ‘Marianne the Faker’ into an inspirational tale of engineering hijinks, the joys of creativity, and exploration of identity.
“[Marianne the Faker was] a pretty negative, harsh story that we had made up to try to steer our daughters away from lying, and then [Claire] took it and put this incredibly positive spin on it, which was to ask: what did Marianne want to do instead of soccer?” Corrigan said. “It was so cool to me that Claire turned this heavy scold of a story into this self-actualizing moment for this little girl.”
Corrigan and Lichty wanted to create a story accessible to and enjoyable by all ages through hidden cultural references for parents as well as more mature themes present beneath the book’s charmingly illustrated surface.
“I was really inspired by a lot of children’s films and TV shows, several of which now have an emphasis that maybe the parent isn’t on a pedestal… [they avoid] the typical Disneyfication where they’re these perfect people, and then it is about those more realistic relationships between adults and kids, where both people can have something to learn,” Lichty said.
Throughout their community presentation ‘The Case for Making’, the mother-daughter duo emphasized the neurological benefits of engaging in creative activities.
“Making and creativity often get mischaracterized as these optional, luxury, nice-to-have activities, and that’s not at all the case. To reap the benefits, you don’t have to be talented, and you don’t have to be proficient, and there’s so few things that you can say that about,” Corrigan said. “It’s not at all about the outcome, it’s really something that is in and of itself a value, and as I used to say to the kids in this very forward-facing community, ‘Today counts. Don’t forget, today counts.’”
More information and the option to pre-order the book can be found at mariannethemaker.com.