There are so many incredibly talented creators who didn’t lack talent. They lacked access, personalized guidance, long-term support, and safe spaces where they truly felt seen.

PBRS started as a mentorship, but over time, it became clear creators needed something bigger and longer lasting than one season of support. Something they could opt into and not wait to be chosen — where they could choose themselves.

Too many people were trying to piece together growth through workshops, scattered advice, isolated critique groups, and trying to figure out publishing mostly alone.

So, the PBRS Collective was built to become something different.

A long-term creative ecosystem where picture book creators could continue growing their craft, careers, confidence, and community with support that feels intentional, thoughtful, human, and deeply invested in their growth.

The PBRS Collective was built from the belief that picture book creators deserve and need more than isolated workshops and surface-level advice.

We care deeply about helping creators understand not just WHAT works in their picture books, but WHY.

We believe creators grow best when they have access to thoughtful teaching, meaningful support, honest conversations, real personalized strategy, and a community that genuinely wants to see them succeed.

We are especially passionate about making sure historically underrepresented creators feel seen, welcomed, supported, and empowered inside kidlit spaces.

We believe talented creators exist everywhere.

We believe access changes lives.

We believe creators deserve safe spaces that challenge them and support them at the same time.

We believe community should feel intentional, not competitive.

We believe picture book creators deserve deeper conversations about craft.

We believe creators should leave learning experiences with tools they can actually apply to their work.

We believe publishing information should not feel impossible to access unless you already “know someone.”

We believe creators deserve long-term support, not just one moment of encouragement.

We believe representation matters not just on bookshelves, but inside creative spaces themselves.

The PB Rising Stars Collective was intentionally built to feel different from many online spaces. We care deeply about creating a community that feels thoughtful, welcoming, growth-centered, and emotionally safe for creators.

Growth Over Perfection:
We believe creators grow through experimentation, revision, learning, and honest conversation, not perfection.

Support Without Competition:
We believe creative spaces can be ambitious and deeply supportive at the same time.

Thoughtful Teaching:
We value teaching that is actionable, intentional, and transformative, not surface-level inspiration without real actionable direction.

Long-Term Growth:
We believe creative careers are built over time, and creators deserve ecosystems that support sustainable growth instead of burnout.

Human First:
We believe creators are people first, not content machines.

Your Art is the Prize:
…and don’t you forget it!

Representation and inclusion are not side conversations or an afterthought for us. They are deeply woven into the heart of what PB Rising Stars has always been.

From mentorship selections to faculty invitations to scholarship opportunities to community building, we are committed to creating spaces where creators from historically underrepresented backgrounds feel welcomed, safe, respected, empowered, encouraged, and supported.

We know the publishing industry still has a lot of work to do when it comes to equity and access, and while no single space can solve that alone, we believe intentional communities matter.

We believe creators deserve to see themselves reflected not only in books, but in the rooms where publishing conversations, opportunities, mentorship, and growth are happening.

We are proud to be one of those rooms.

The PBRS Collective is built as a long-term creative ecosystem for picture book creators. Instead of paying separately for workshops, critiques, strategy sessions, publishing conversations, coworking, and community support across multiple places, everything inside the Collective is included under one membership.

Every creator inside the Collective receives ongoing access to:
• Live craft workshops
• Business and publishing education
• The growing craft & business libraries
• Coworking & cocreating sessions
• Community spaces & chats
• Social events & founder gatherings
• Publishing conversations & occasional AMA sessions
• Accountability & long-term support
• Personalized growth rhythms
• Rotating high-touch support opportunities like 1:1 critiques and business strategy sessions

There are no additional add-on fees for workshops, strategy sessions, coworking, or the core ecosystem experiences included inside the Collective.

The PBRS Collective is intentionally built around rotating support rhythms or “cycles” instead of overwhelming creators with everything all at once.

Every creator continues receiving ongoing access to the workshops, community spaces, libraries, coworking sessions, chats, social events, and ecosystem support at all times. On top of that, creators move through rotating high-touch support experiences over time.

For example, one creator’s current rhythm may look like:
• Month one- A 1:1 video critique session
• Month 2- Personalized feedback & replay access
• Month 3- Business strategy support

Another creator may simply be entering that same rhythm at a different point in the cycle.

This structure allows creators time to actually implement what they’re learning, build momentum, receive ongoing support, and grow sustainably over time instead of rushing from critique to critique without space to create, revise, reflect, and apply feedback.

The goal of the rhythms is not less support.
It’s more intentional support.

ALL creators entering the Collective will begin with an intentional onboarding season designed to help them settle into community, explore the ecosystem, build momentum, and create personalized growth goals before continuing into the ongoing long-term rhythms.

During a creator’s first cycle inside the Collective, they may also experience bonus publishing conversations or AMA opportunities with an agent or editor in addition to their rotating support rhythm.

The rhythms inside the PBRS Collective are ongoing and cyclical, meaning creators continue moving through them over time as long as they remain part of the ecosystem.

A creator inside the Collective for one year may move through the rhythm four full times. A creator inside for two years may experience eight full cycles of support, growth, strategy, publishing conversations, critique, accountability, and community.

And if you stay forever… well…. the rhythms just keep rhythm-ing.