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Hey there! I'm Jennie and I'm the proud owner of The Storybook Character Company. In 2015, I set out to create a character entertainment company that elevated the typical princess party model to provide theme-park quality entertainment for children. With a little three year old princess of my own, I know how much kids idolize their favorite fairy tale characters. I'm also a mom to an adorable baby boy, so I'm ready to tackle superheroes, too!
If you've attended any of our public events, you've probably seen me anxiously tending to the princesses and making sure they are picture perfect before meeting your little ones. Once they're on set, I get lost in the magic and find myself forgetting that they're performers. The interactions your kids have with our characters is so special and intimate. My favorite part though, isn't watching the kids. Instead, I turn to you to try and catch that little sideways smirk or glimmer in your eye. Seeing you appreciate and cherish that moment is the reason we put so much work into providing you with the best character entertainment possible.
As a child I often put on shows for my family and friends, usually taking center stage and casting my little sister in the less-desirable roles. I was almost always wearing a costume and crown, so it should come as no surprise when I came home from Kindergarten one day proudly holding my “All About Me” poster, declaring that when I grew up, I would be a princess. A girl can dream, right?!
Fast forward about 20 years to when that dream came true. I applied for a summer job as a princess entertainer for a local kids party company and was hired on the spot. I was doing as many as six parties a weekend and soon started working in the office during the week to help with admin work. I didn't know it yet, but the experience and knowledge I gained in the office would become invaluable in setting up my own company later down the road.
What was going to be a fun summer job turned into 10 years of “princess-ing”. My passion for bringing fairy tales to life fueled me, and in my princess career, I performed at over 2,000 parties and events all over San Diego. The beautiful costumes, the crowns, the hugs (...oh, the hugs!), it was all magical and so rewarding. But there was something that bothered me. At the end of the day, I was just a performer and didn't have the control I wanted to take everything to the next level. My new dream was to start a company of my own.
Enter Amanda. She and I worked together and were becoming fast friends, sharing in our love of Disney and performing. One night we were eating pizza, daydreaming about all the improvements we would make if we had our own company. I remember this so well-- I grabbed an extra paper plate and drew a chart with two columns. On one side were words like “fairy tale”, “magic”, and “enchanted“. In the other column was a list of boring descriptive words like “character entertainment” and ” parties and events“. By the time the pizza was gone, there was a line connecting “storybook” to “character company”. I wish I kept that paper plate to frame and hang on our soon-to-be office wall.
Together, Amanda and I co-founded The Storybook Character Company, LLC and opened our castle doors in early 2016. With brand new custom made gowns, improved entertainment, and a whole lot of heart, we embarked on our very own “once upon a time”.
Since then, we're happy and humbled to have had the opportunity to make magical memories for thousands of people all over San Diego. While we have room to grow, we promise to always value quality over quantity. We find that entertainment companies that grow too large lose the heart and no longer have the means to consistently provide specialized high-quality entertainment.
Whether you've hired us for a birthday party, are one of our corporate partners, attended one of our meet-and-greets, interacted with us on social media, or recommended us to a friend, we sincerely thank you for your support!
-Jennie Ellison, Owner