Built by a dad. For struggling parents.

Where it started

My name is Matt. By day I'm an investment analyst. By night — and most mornings, and many chaotic afternoons — I'm a dad of two young kids, ages one and three.

The idea for Gremmy Tales came from two moments that happened around the same time. The first was realizing that my son and I had read the same picture book so many times I could recite it backwards. The second was more of a revelation. Getting my oldest into pajamas had always been a battle — until one evening I started narrating his day back to him as a story. What he had for breakfast. The dog he saw on the walk. The block tower he built. His whole body relaxed. The battle vanished. He was hooked. I had stumbled onto something. So I built it properly.

Why "Gremmy"?

When my kids were babies I called them my little gremlins — always into everything, always unpredictable, always somehow adorable despite the chaos. Over time "little gremlins" became "little gremmies," and eventually just gremmies. These stories are for little gremmies. And the parents who love them and are completely exhausted by them.

More than bedtime

Once I started using it regularly, I realized the bedtime routine was only part of the picture. The bigger unlock was previewing. First day of preschool. Trip to the dentist. Getting on a plane. A long road trip. Any new or unfamiliar experience that would normally produce anxiety became so much more manageable when my son had already "lived through it" in a story — one where he was the hero, where things worked out, where the unknown became familiar before it ever happened.

The donut mine

Kids don't only want stories about their actual days. They want stories about themselves. For a long stretch, my son's favorite Gremmy Tale was about the day he operated a massive excavator in a donut mine — digging up fresh donuts and delivering them to nana and papa's house to share. We read that story dozens and dozens of times. Children don't just love stories. They love stories about themselves. The more real the details, the more magic the story holds.

It turns out, the science agrees

The self-reference effect — the finding that children engage more deeply, remember more, and generalize better from stories that feature themselves — is one of the most replicated findings in developmental psychology. Narrative exposure to unfamiliar events is a recognized technique for reducing anticipatory anxiety in children. Consistent, calming bedtime routines built around storytelling are among the most effective tools for children's sleep, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. I didn't design Gremmy Tales around the research. I built it because it worked. The research just confirmed I was onto something real.

Who uses Gremmy Tales

My family uses it every week. Friends who are teachers use it in their classrooms. Friends who are Occupational Therapists use it with their pediatric clients — particularly for helping kids prepare for medical procedures, transitions, and sensory-heavy experiences. At its core, it's for any parent who wants something better than the 27th reading of the same book.