Who We Are

Sneak

Sneak is a sneaker-wearing, story-loving caterpillar with a HUGE imagination and a fondness for giant chickens. He is in first grade at Hickory Tussock Elementary School where he loves reading stories about unlikely heroes, playing the bongo drums as loudly as possible in music class, and seeing how many sweet potato fries he can stuff in his mouth at once during lunchtime. He wants to be either a superhero, an astronaut, or a librarian when he grows up. His favorite book is Super Turbo! His pet peeve is when kids are mean to each other for no reason. He is afraid of cows. Not sure why. They just really freak him out.

Bean

Bean is an extremely smart, low-key butterfly with a passion for cool hats. And smartphones. She’s in 6th grade at Painted Lady Middle School where she loves Japanese, Math, and Music, but isn’t really into Gym or the school pizza. She loves comic books, particularly ones involving misfits with superpowers and intergalactic space battles. She spends her free time following her favorite comic book creators on BugBook and InsectaGram, designing tricked out cyborg space ships, figuring out how things work, and helping her mom fix things around the house. She hates being the center of attention, and her biggest fear is that one day she’ll wake up bald.

Meg Bio

Meg
Creator, Writer, Illustrator, Producer

Meg Lewis is a writer, illustrator, and podcaster that lives in New York City with her awesome husband and two ridiculously funny and smart children. She’s a proud former NYC public schools teacher, and loves talking to, laughing with, and learning from kids. She loves languages (Bean’s currently helping her with Japanese), drawing, running, cooking, martial arts, and trying not to kill things in the garden. Her favorite thing in the whole world (besides her family) are BOOKS! Her favorite books growing up were Troubling a Star and Little House in the Big Woods, and her current favorites to read with her kids are El Deafo and the Piggie and Gerald books. Her pet peeve is when people judge someone before getting to know them, and her biggest fear is getting stuck in a giant jar of peanut butter.

Mackenzie Allison
Illustrator

Mackenzie Allison is a freelance illustrator who lives in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City. Creating the podcast art for Storypillar episodes has been an absolute blast! When she isn't drawing, she loves spending time with her husband and two kids, baking, running, hiking, buying too many art supplies, and making crafts of all kinds. You can find her on Instagram @mkallisonart or at her website, mkallisonart.com.

Megan Cahill-Assenza
Writer

Megan Cahill-Assenza has loved to write stories from a very young age. She holds two graduate certificates in Children's Literature and Audio Podcasting from Stony Brook University. In addition to being a writer for Storypillar, she is a content curator for children's literature website KidLit TV. You can learn more about Megan through visiting her website, www.megancahillassenza.com and connecting with her on Instagram: @m.cahillassenza.

Niamh McAuliffe
Audio Editor

Niamh McAuliffe is a podcast editor and copy-editor who has worked on multiple shows and books since graduating cum laude from Hunter College in New York City. She has a background in journalism and in the summer of 2022, she received a Campus Consortium Reporting Fellowship from the Pulitzer Center. She reported on the role biogas plays in the brewing and distilling industries in Ireland. She is passionate about telling stories through audio. In her free time Niamh enjoys knitting, going to museums and taking photos.