Flip Animation "L"

Smart Girl

by Steve Moore

In the autumn of 2000, my then-agent Trudy Cloutless-Heimer sent me on a "meet and greet" at Cartoon Network in Burbank, California. For those unfamiliar with the meet and greet, it is a meeting about meeting. At this particular meeting about meeting I met Debbie Reber. She was some sort of development mucky-muck, with a small, cluttered office and a Blue's Clues Thinking Chair in the corner.

My first impression was "The executives get younger all the time." Realizing I had said this aloud, I babbled on to recover. She kindly ignored the foot in my mouth, and we bonded over stories of growing up near Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore. The mention of Johnson's Caramel Corn in Ocean City makes her drool. Literally. She had no work for me.

This mucky-muck was in fact Director of Development at Cartoon Network Studios. Debbie's job was to find new projects to develop into series. "I have such respect for the process and the creativity behind animation and people with a unique creative vision." Unfortunately, her job was to say "NO!" A lot. To people like me. "As a creative person working at a network that is so creator-driven, it was challenging to be in a role where I wasn't creating but rather guiding that process." And so, in 2003, Debbie left her upwardly mobile executive life "...to do my own thing."

Her "thing" would entail a move to Seattle with her husband and her dog where she would pursue her creative passion: writing. For Debbie, "Moving to Seattle was actually pretty painless. As a former east-coaster, Los Angeles never quite felt right. And once I left Cartoon Network to write fulltime, it just didn't make sense to be living in this super-expensive city that felt so completely disconnected and high-maintenance - I always felt like I should brush my hair just to take my dog for a walk around the block. I had only visited Seattle a few times, but loved the vibe of the city... it's totally low-key, community-oriented, liberal, creative, and non-pretentious - all good things in my book."

B-b-b-b-ut.... leave the biz ?!? "It did take a little time to adjust to the idea that there isn't much 'industry' here to speak of." Debbie admits, "I used to feel fairly disconnected and concerned that keeping up with my contacts in the 'business' would be impossible. But... LA and NYC are only a flight away...I still go back to both cities from time to time to network, have my lunches and meetings, and make sure that people remember who I am. Then I get to come home to my nice little neighborhood."

From her nice little not-LA neighborhood, Debbie has written several books for teen-age girls and produced one son. Last month, Scholastic Books published her latest, In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers which, in 400 pages, covers a spectrum of career possibilities as described by women in the respective fields. (Flip's featured excerpt, right.)

She has also created the web site Smart Girls Know. Debbie explains, " I've written a couple of books for teens and have started getting a lot of letters for teens full of questions about stuff in their lives, and I realized that creating a site where I could directly interact with my readers and also share my perspective on issues important in the lives of teens made a lot of sense. Once a week, I post a "Smart Girls Know Affirmation," which can about anything from how women and girls are portrayed in the media to how to make the most out of alone time or how to discover your authentic self. I also write about current events or organizations that would be of interest to teen girls, share opportunities for career exploration, and highlight teens who are making a difference. On occasion, I share an embarrassing piece of writing from my own teen years for a good laugh."

Speaking of her own adolescence, Debbie characterizes it as "pretty typical, in that they pretty much sucked a lot of the time. Being the younger sister of a serious-minded valedictorian, growing up in a strict, evangelic household, and having a penchant for partying definitely got me in a ton of trouble and left me feeling extremely misunderstood. I think that's why I'm so drawn to trying to help teens now...if I can make teen-hood a little easier for a few girls out there, I'll feel like I've done my part. "

You can meet and greet Debbie at her website, deborahreber.com.