About – Advocacy Visibility, and Protection for Children’s Authors

About the Children’s Author Alliance

A professional advocacy organization built for the authors who give children their stories.

Why the Alliance Exists

Independent children’s authors are some of the most passionate, dedicated voices in literature. They write stories that shape how children see themselves and the world around them. And yet — they are also among the least supported. Without the backing of major publishers, they navigate visibility, advocacy, and credibility largely on their own.

The Children’s Author Alliance was founded to change that. We exist to offer alliance — to build credibility for children’s authors. Not as a coaching program. Not as a social club. But as a real, professional organization with systems, structure, and collective power.

Our Mission

To advocate for, protect, and elevate children’s authors through visibility, education, and collective power.

Our Vision

A future where children’s authors are recognized as vital cultural contributors, diverse stories are safeguarded, and independent authors thrive with long-term sustainability.

Who the Alliance Is For

Advocacy over passivity. Structure over chaos. Community over competition. Long-term careers over short-term wins.

You Belong Here If...

You are an independent or self-published children's author
You are a hybrid or debut author
You are an educator turned author
You are an established author seeking advocacy and professional community
You are an established author seeking advocacy and professional community
You write for children ages 0–15

If you write for children — you belong here.

Advocacy & Protection

Shared language, education, and collective visibility so authors are not isolated when their work is challenged.

Visibility & Opportunity

Platforms that elevate authors beyond algorithms — connecting books to schools, libraries, and communities.

Professional Development

Workshops and resources focused on sustainability, not burnout.

Strategic Partnerships

Relationships with organizations that value children’s stories and the people who write them.

Carylee Carrington

Executive Director & Founder

Carylee Carrington is the Founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Author Alliance (CAA), a national professional membership organization dedicated to building credibility, visibility, and collective power for independent and self-published children’s authors.

A TEDx speaker, award-winning children’s author, and nationally recognized literacy advocate, Carylee has spent years sounding the alarm on what she calls the quiet crisis shaping young minds: when children don’t see themselves — or others — in the pages of their books, we risk losing something far greater than a good story. Her TEDx talk, Building the Future Through Stories, delivered at TEDxNokesville Women, challenges audiences to rewrite the narrative and take practical action to protect diverse stories and the futures they help create.

Her books — Everyone, Just Like Me, Pretty Hair, and Maya Sings Country — have earned national recognition, including a PopSugar top 20 listing for diversifying children’s bookshelves. In 2019, she founded Read With Carylee, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and literary platform that introduces children to diverse authors reading their own books aloud. R.E.A.D. stands for what has always guided her work: Reimagine, Educate, Advocate, and Dream. The organization is a two-time Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Year Award recipient, with partnerships including the Washington Commanders Read program and the Washington Wizards.

A regular presence on Good Morning Washington and Living Local DMV, Carylee serves on the board of Reading Is Fundamental Northern Virginia and conducts author visits nationwide. The Children’s Author Alliance is the next evolution of that work — a serious, professional home for the authors who are shaping what children read, think, and believe about themselves and each other. Her mother, the late Dr. Norma McPherson, was a literacy coach and lifelong educator. Carylee is carrying that legacy forward — one author, one book, one child at a time.