First Draft Episode #196: Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, Amy Andelson, and Emily Meyer

Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, Amy Andelson, and Emily Meyer are the team behind Trinkets, the Netflix TV series based on Kiwi’s young adult novel of the same name. Kiwi Smith is one half of the screenwriting team behind films like 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, and more, and the author of young adult novels The Geography of Girlhood, and Trinkets. Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer are the writing team behind films like Step Up 3D, Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List, and the young adult novel Layover, and they adapted Trinkets and are credited as co-creators of the TV show.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

• Every listener should check out the first episode of First Draft with Sarah Enni with Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer, when we talked about her first novel, Layover

• 10 Things I Hate About You was shot at Stadium High School in Tacoma, Wash.

• Shooting Trinkets on location in Portland, Ore. was a way to differentiate the show visually from glossier teen shows like Riverdale, and evoke classic teen shows like My So-Called Life

• Awesomeness TV produced the show and helped shape the project into a TV show

• Writer and artist Alex Israel was singing Amy and Emily’s praises to Kiwi for years before the three actually met

• John McAlary, the casting director for Trinkets, said he saw 6,000 actors during the casting process for the show’s key roles

• Seeing Trinkets star Brianna Hildebrand sing on her Instagram inspired Kiwi, Amy, and Emily to include singing as part of her character

• Actor Katrina Cunningham, who plays Sabine in Trinkets, and is a performer as well and her music is featured in the show

• Kiwi is currently writing “Party Girls” with long-time co-writer Karen McCullah

• End of the Fucking World and Russian Doll are TV series that Kiwi thinks are ideal bingeable lengths for TV series

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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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