History Main / WrittenForMyKids

As we know, some actors will only take roles [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]], regardless of whether the movie is good or complete garbage. Others will take roles [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so as to be in]] a work friendly for their children when most of their productions target older audiences. And in particularly bad situations, producers - or actors - will end up needing to make a work [[ContractualObligationProject only because their contract says so]].

Sometimes, it's because they want to depict issues they don't feel the media gives enough credit. Others, they want to give their child a starring role. But whatever the case, the work is written specifically for the author's child.

* ''Literature/{{Struwwelpeter}}'' was invented as a Christmas gift for Hoffman's young son.

* English poet Ted Hughes wrote ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' (originally titled ''The Iron Man'', but re-titled outside the UK to avoid confusion with Tony Stark) to comfort his children following the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath in 1963.
* Astrid Lindgren invented ''Pippi Longstockings'' to cheer up her daughter who was ill.
* ''Struwwelpeter'' was invented as a Christmas gift for Hoffman's young son.

* Astrid Lindgren invented Pippi Longstockings to cheer up her daughter who was ill.
* ''Literature/Struwwelpeter'' was invented as a Christmas gift for Hoffman's young son.

Important to note: This is not the same as SoMyKidsCanWatch; that's when people who normally write adult works decide to make something appropriate for their young family members, while this is works the author wrote with their children in mind.

As we know, some actors will only take roles [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]], regardless of whether the movie is good or complete garbage. Others will take roles [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so as to be in]] a work friendly for their children when most of their productions target older audiences.

As we know, some actors will only take roles [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]], regardless of whether the movie is good or complete garbage. Others will take roles [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so as to be in]] a work friendly for their children, when most of their productions target older audiences.

A SubTrope of DoingItForTheArt, where an author writes a work because they want to, not for profit. Can sometimes lead to WriteWhoYouKnow, where the author writes traits of people they knows into their work written for their children.

* Creator/NeilGaiman wrote ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' for his daughters, as noted in the book's dedication. He started out looking for some good horror books for them, and realized that "horror for children" wasn't really a genre, so he wrote one himself.

** ''Literature/TheHobbit'' is a curious case -- while the popular myth is that he conceived of it as a bed-time story for his children using [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium the sprawling Legendarium]] he had been creating for decades but never published as a broad framework for it, and then made it the first published work of Middle-Earth when they were delighted with it, it was later revealed that he'd always intended it as a "serious" work of fiction but told his peers it was originally for his children when they inquired about it so as to avoid their potential scorn (since in the [=1930s=], an interest in "fairy stories" was still seen as highly unbecoming of a gentleman of Tolkien's age and position). And yet this contained, as his own saying goes, a grain of truth -- he ''did'' evidently use his children, his son Christopher in particular, as a sounding-board for the chapters (and it was Christopher whose imagination was especially captivated by it all) in order to get a feel for what worked and what didn't, even though he hadn't written it "for" them.
*** There's another episode that perhaps causes a little confusion about all this - when Tolkien finished the manuscript, he passed a few copies around to friends and favorite students. One of these traveled from one of his students, to a friend-of-the-student's, and eventually to the hands of Stanley Unwin, one of the heads of Allen & Unwin (Tolkien's first and greatest publisher). It was Unwin who then presented the book to ''his'' ten year old son Rayner to get an opinion of what a child thought of the book. After Rayner ended up loving it, Allen & Unwin's desire to publish ''The Hobbit'' was sealed, and the rest is history.

** ''Literature/TheHobbit'' is a curious case -- while the popular myth is that he conceived of it as a bed-time story for his children using [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium the sprawling Legendarium]] he had been creating for decades but never published as a broad framework for it, and then made it the first published work of Middle-Earth when they were delighted with it, it was later revealed that he'd always intended it as a "serious" work of fiction but told his peers it was originally for his children when they inquired about it so as to avoid their potential scorn. And yet this contained, as his own saying goes, a grain of truth -- he ''did'' evidently use his children, his son Christopher in particular, as a sounding-board for the chapters (and it was Christopher whose imagination was especially captivated by it all) in order to get a feel for what worked and what didn't, even though he hadn't written it "for" them.

* Similarly, Scott Stapp of Music/{{Creed}} wrote "With Arms Wide Open" upon learning that he was going to be a father.

* Creator/NeilGaiman wrote ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' for his daughters, as noted in the book's dedication.

* English poet Ted Hughes wrote ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' (originally titled The Iron Man, but re-titled outside the UK to avoid confusion with Tony Stark) to comfort his children following the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath in 1963.

!!Examples

* ''Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea'' was written by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki with his own estranged son in mind, hoping to reconcile with him.

[[folder:Film]]
* Creator/RobertRodriguez wrote ''Film/TheAdventuresOfSharkboyAndLavagirl'' about a pair of characters created by his young son.
* Mel Stuart directed Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory because his 10-year-old daughter loved the book and demanded that he make it as his next film.

* Demigods in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' have ADHD and dyslexia because [[NeurodiversityIsSupernatural their brains are hardwired for Anceint Greek]]. Creator/RickRiordan came up with the story after his son (who disliked reading but loved Myth/ClassicalMythology) was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.

** ''Literature/TheHobbit'' is a curious case - while the popular myth is that he conceived of it as a bed-time story for his children using [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium the sprawling legendarium]] he had been creating for decades but never published as a broad framework for it, and then made it the first published work of Middle-Earth when they were delighted with it, it was later revealed that he'd always intended it as a "serious" work of fiction but told his peers it was originally for his children when they inquired about it so as to avoid their potential scorn. And yet this contained, as his own saying goes, a grain of truth - he ''did'' evidently use his children, his son Christopher in particular, as a sounding-board for the chapters (and it was Christopher whose imagination was especially captivated by it all) in order to get a feel for what worked and what didn't, even though he hadn't written it "for" them.

[[/folder]]

** ''Literature/TheHobbit'' was a "fairy-story" crafted by Tolkien to tell his own children. Although it contains allusions to [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium the Legendarium]], it was only linked to the Middle-earth mythos [[{{Retcon}} well after its publication]], accounting for the disparity in tone between it and his other works.
*** Subverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', which was conceived in a similar way, but because Tolkien's children were adults by the time he wrote it, it has a distinctly more grown-up tone.

A SubTrope of DoingItForTheArt, where an author writes a work because they want to, not for profit.

* Creator/RobertRodriguez wrote ''Film/TheAdventuresOfSharkboyAndLavagirl'' about a pair of characters created by his young son.

* Demigods in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' have ADHD and dyslexia because [[NeurodiversityIsSupernatural their brains are hardwired for Anceint Greek]]. Creator/RickRiordan came up with the story after his son (who disliked reading but loved Myth/ClassicalMythology) was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.

* Creator/NeilGaiman wrote ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' for his daughters, as noted in the book's dedication.