Daily Inspiration: Meet Calli Ryals

Today we’d like to introduce you to Calli Ryals.

Hi Calli, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Can you briefly walk us through your story — how you started and how you got to where you are today?

My sister Tara and I began creating “It’s CeCe!” while raising our young children and noticing a lack of toddler content that met our needs. We made a real effort to be intentional about when and what we put in front of our children, especially at that age.

When we needed a break to do the dishes, tackle the laundry, or even just brush our teeth and change out of our pajamas, we would choose a show for our toddlers, hoping they would stay engaged and learn while we took care of household chores. But we were never truly excited about the content available to us and always felt as though we were making a compromise: It was too computer-generated, too stimulating, not fun, or filled with too many annoying sound effects. Most of the parents we spoke with felt the same way.

While discussing the future of our careers as mothers, we had a eureka moment: Our combined skills and talents were perfect for creating a toddler show that we, as parents, would be excited about.

As a filmmaker and former Second City comedian, I could play CeCe and handle the technical aspects of creating the show. With Tara’s background in photography and media production, she had the versatility to take on both creative and business roles. Finally, our mom, who spent 30 years teaching kindergarten and has a master’s degree in early childhood education, could write the episodes.

We believed silliness could be a superpower for learning. Our mom had decades of real-life experience finding creative and humorous ways to engage children in her classroom, approaches that produced proven results. For my sister and me, humor has always been a way to connect with our own children and with others, and to learn about the world around us.

We film out of our homes in Cleveland. On shoot days, we babysit each other’s children so I can be on camera. On editing days, we do the same. Our mom writes scripts between school drop-offs and family dinners. We have built this show the way families build things: by showing up for one another.

We launched in 2024, and since then, we have grown to nearly 100,000 subscribers and 60 million views. We have collaborated with brands such as Learning Resources and Mokuyobi, as well as the Cleveland Ballet, and we recently had our entire content library licensed by Kidstream, an ad-free streaming app that curates only the highest-quality children’s content. Kidstream is incredibly selective, and we are one of only two YouTube creators on the entire platform, which is available through Amazon Prime. That was a huge moment for us.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?

The show’s early development and success have been surprisingly smooth. Because we already had many of the foundational skills in place, including editing, teacher-backed curriculum development, and video production, we felt we had a head start. Even filling the gaps in our experience happened naturally. For example, we couldn’t compose music ourselves, but we wanted to expand beyond traditional nursery rhymes by creating original “It’s CeCe!” songs. We were fortunate to find two incredibly talented Ohio musicians: Chris Neiner, a classical composer with a graduate degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and our longtime friend Dan Myers, a music composer and professor at Tiffin University.

Shortly after we released our first few videos, YouTube began recommending them and featuring them in its “Up next” selections. Our views and subscriber count began to climb. During that first year, we also heard from so many parents, teachers, and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who shared meaningful stories with us. One parent wrote to tell us her daughter said her very first word after watching CeCe. SLPs let us know they were recommending our show to the families they work with. And one mother shared that her son with autism, who had never shown interest in pretend play, suddenly started acting out scenes from our show and playing make-believe for the first time. Those stories gave us every reason to keep going.

Of course, building a YouTube show has also presented plenty of challenges, especially finding a way to manage our demanding and often conflicting schedules as mothers. I’m a single mom, and my son was still at home with me during the first two years of creating “It’s CeCe!” My sister’s children were at an age when they were busy with school and extracurricular activities, so we often felt as though we spent more time scheduling and organizing than working on the show itself. Fortunately, this is a family business, which means we can lean on one another for childcare, family meals, and whatever else is needed to keep the show moving forward.

The demands of YouTube can sometimes feel like a hamster wheel because the algorithm appears to reward creators who publish frequently and consistently. However, because we hold ourselves to a high standard, producing an enormous volume of content simply isn’t realistic. We are not willing to increase our output at the expense of the quality and care that define our videos.

Another challenge is building a sustainable business within the children’s content market. COPPA, the federal law that protects children’s privacy online, appropriately limits how children’s content can be monetized through advertising, which means ad revenue is significantly lower for creators in this space. At the same time, YouTube currently offers limited support tailored to high-quality children’s programming. This has encouraged us to think beyond traditional ad revenue and explore other ways to grow responsibly while remaining committed to creating thoughtful, enriching content for children.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Please tell us more about your business or organization. What should we know? What sets you apart? What are you most proud of?

It’s CeCe! is a slower-paced, comedic variety show for babies and toddlers that encourages language, learning, and empathy. CeCe teaches baby sign language, first words, colors, numbers, shapes, and animal sounds, along with social-emotional skills like kindness, recognizing feelings, self-regulation, and friendship. Every episode weaves together language, movement, and real childhood skills, the kinds of things kids need before they walk into a preschool or kindergarten classroom. And it’s all done with humor, charm, and a little wink to the parents watching alongside. We’ve often been compared to Sesame Street for the way we use puppets and storytelling to teach, but with a host who’s as fun for parents as she is for kids. That’s It’s CeCe!

There is a massive underserved space between overstimulating kids’ content and dry educational programming. We built something that lives right in the middle. What sets us apart is the combination of genuine early childhood expertise and real entertainment value. Our mom won awards in her school district for using humor as a teaching tool. I trained at Second City. And Tara brings years of experience behind a camera. So the show is actually fun to watch, for kids and for adults, while still being grounded in what children developmentally need.

We’re incredibly proud that we offer all of this for free. With the rise of expensive streaming subscriptions, a lot of families are leaning on YouTube as their primary source of children’s content. We’re proud to be something high-quality and genuinely good for little ones that every family can access, regardless of budget.

But what we’re most proud of is the feedback we get from caregivers. Parents, teachers, and SLPs continue to reach out to tell us about first words, new sentences, and little breakthroughs happening in their homes and classrooms. One mother summed it up perfectly: “You should be proud of your work, as what you do makes an impact on families like ours.” We both cried reading that. Messages like hers are why we started this show, and they’re exactly why we can’t wait to see where it goes next.

What are your plans for the future?
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for — any big changes?

Originally, we thought we would simply create videos for YouTube, but throughout this process, new ideas and opportunities have emerged, many of them inspired by fans of the show. We receive requests for so many fun things that we had never initially considered.

We plan to launch merchandise for both children and grown-ups, along with educational toys, books, downloadable learning materials, and curriculum-based resources for families and educators.

We also have new episodes in development. We were thrilled to collaborate with the Cleveland Ballet on an upcoming dance episode, and we continue to build partnerships with brands that share our values.

Ultimately, our vision is to become a meaningful consumer brand, not just a YouTube channel: a women-led company built from the ground up in Cleveland and serving families everywhere. That is where we are headed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/itscece123
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itscecetv123/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itscecetv123
• Spotify: It’s CeCe!