My interest in fairy tales may have started in an eighth-grade English class in which I read Cinderella’s stepsisters chopping up their feet. Or maybe it was the podcast from which I learned that the Brothers Grimm got their stories from women. Somewhere in there, I started dreaming up stories inspired by fairy tale characters. Then, I started reading large volumes from folklore scholars like Marina Warner and Jack Zipes. My goal was to learn enough to create video essays about fairy tale films and fairy tale tellers and write my own fairy tale retellings.
In 2021, I created the Instagram account Tales with Tish to begin a project I called Tiny Tales: original tales short enough to fit in an Instagram caption inspired by a photo. One of my Tiny Tales was published in The Fairy Tale Magazine. I began creating video essays exploring fairy tale film adaptations with the goal of exploring what both the tales and films can tell us about ourselves and our culture while introducing media criticism and film theory. I started making short-form fairy tale video content. One video, “Five Things You Didn’t Know About Snow White,” blew up on TikTok, gathering 1.6 million views and hundreds of comments from viewers shocked to find out she was only seven years old.
In addition to my copious reading and research, I’ve taken several courses from The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, including their Carterhaugh Writer’s Society, which helped me finish writing my first book of fairy tale retellings.
Ebony, Blood, and Snow: New Stories from Old Tales is informed by my knowledge of fairy tales, their origins, other retellings, and my understanding of the themes and interpretations of the tales. It begins with the first fairy tale story idea I had: how Snow White’s mother became so vain she would want to kill her daughter.
I continue my self-taught fairy tale and folklore education through books, films, videos, podcasts, and classes. I somehow balance writing stories, video essays, and short-form content, though I wouldn’t say no to an amenable fairy assistant.