There is a growing sense among Americans that something fundamental is slipping away from childhood. It is not just that kids spend too much time staring at screens or that social media has invaded every hour of their day. It is deeper than that. It is the feeling that innocence itself is being chipped away. Imagination is being neglected.
Wonder is being replaced. The stories that once protected childhood have given way to content that confuses, burdens, and influences children in ways they are far too young to navigate. And the consequences of that shift will not be limited to parents. Every person, whether they have children or not, will eventually live in the society these children create.
This problem did not begin overnight. It has been building for years. While the culture slowly shifted, pressuring children to see the world through adult lenses, few people noticed the long-term damage. But now the effects are impossible to ignore. Anxiety is up. Identity confusion is skyrocketing. Children who once dreamed about becoming explorers, artists, astronauts, and inventors are now overwhelmed with questions about who they are, what they are supposed to believe, and which ideological lane they are expected to stand in. Childhood has become a battlefield, and the cost of losing it will be felt by everyone.
Long before this crisis reached the surface, the Dream Dragon already existed. He was first created in 1986 during one of the most difficult periods of my life, born in a creative writing assignment as a playful, comforting companion who helped carry me through a time of intense personal struggle. For years he lived only on paper and in my imagination. It was not until 1999 that the Dream Dragon took his first steps into the world when I published the very first bedtime story and officially introduced him to children and families. That publication marked the beginning of his public journey, but his true origin was much earlier. He was born from adversity and shaped by necessity, long before society understood how much children would one day need him.
In the years that followed, I expanded the Dream Dragon concept into a broader mission. I appeared on national talk shows such as Sally Jessy Raphael and The Rob Nelson Show, speaking about child safety, emotional development, and the importance of protecting children from a world that was already starting to move too fast for them. Out of that advocacy work came the Dream Dragon Safety Squad, a program built around teaching children how to stay safe, trust their instincts, and build confidence. The themes were always consistent. Empowerment. Protection. Imagination. Hope.
The Dream Dragon has been part of my life for more than forty years, and during that time he has evolved from a playful bedtime character into a symbol of what childhood desperately needs. And then, in 2020, everything changed. The world shut down. Children everywhere were isolated, anxious, and exposed to more screen time than ever before. It was in that moment that I knew the Dream Dragon had to become more than a book or a classroom program. I wiped out our personal savings and funded and produced a full animation pilot. I developed activity books, new characters, and expanded Dreamland concepts. What started as a single story had grown into a complete world called the Dream Dragon Universe, filled with Dreamland Castle, Bedtime Forest, Hot Chocolate Springs, and the Knights of Catcher’s Table. It was no longer just a character. It had become a full intellectual property created to preserve the magic of childhood itself.
The next step in the Dream Dragon Universe is the animated series Adventures in Dreamland. This is not just another children’s show. Each episode is built around a real life challenge that children commonly face, from fear of the dark, to anxiety about school, to friendship struggles, bullying, self worth, and navigating confusing emotions.
When a child in the story encounters a problem, they drift into Dreamland where that same issue appears in symbolic form. With the help of the Dream Dragon, the Dream Makers, and the other Dreamland characters, the child faces the deeper meaning of the problem in a magical, imaginative setting that feels safe and empowering. Together they discover practical solutions and emotional tools that the child can then apply in the real world when they wake up. Adventures in Dreamland is designed not only to entertain, but to strengthen children from the inside out by turning challenges into victories and confusion into clarity.
A core purpose of the Dream Dragon is to help rebuild something children are desperately missing today. A moral compass. Not a political agenda or a personal ideology, but the timeless values that have guided children for generations. Values like courage, kindness, honesty, humility, loyalty, bravery, compassion, and the strength to do what is right even when it is difficult or when no one is watching. These are the principles woven into every Dream Dragon story, guiding children gently and naturally toward becoming good, grounded human beings. And the character himself carries a universal familiarity.
Dragons appear in nearly every culture on Earth. Asian dragons, European dragons, Middle Eastern dragons, African dragons, Indigenous legends, ancient serpent lore, and countless regional stories across the world share this same mythical creature. The Dream Dragon taps into that global tradition. He is instantly recognizable, instantly intriguing, and instantly meaningful to children everywhere. He bridges cultures and unites imaginations in a way very few characters can.
Despite the decades-long journey that brought the Dream Dragon to life, my own journey is what shaped who he eventually became. I grew up in a poor household with a single mother serving in the United States Navy, doing her best to keep us afloat on enlisted pay. When I was around eleven, she met the man who would eventually become my stepfather. He was one of only a few men who entered our life, and unlike the others, he stayed. They married when I was thirteen, and shortly after that we moved to the Philippines where my mother continued her Navy career and where he began his career as a Navy JAG Officer. That time marked the beginning of the most emotionally turbulent period of my youth. Returning to the United States only intensified the chaos.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I was younger I was no angel, but I was also not a “wild child”, at least not compared to the actions of truly out of control children. I was more of a burden than an actual problem, and my step-father simply didn’t want me around. So he figured out a way to get rid of me. During my mid-teens I was sent to various placements, including seven and a half months in an out-of-state program. Not long after I returned from nearly two years of going form place to place, I was told by my step-father that I was old enough to fend for myself, although I do not think he expected me to take those words literally. But I did. So, at seventeen I moved out and lived on my own for several months. It was during that time that I was introduced to methamphetamine. My introduction to that world did not come in a manner most would expect. I was an avid basketball player and my first time trying meth was just before playing hours of pickup basketball games. The addiction did not take root until later, but that moment itself marked the beginning of a long struggle.
A few months after I moved out a simple misunderstanding forced me to return to the home of my mother and step-father, leading to the biggest argument we ever experienced. The conflict carried into the next morning, and that was when I grabbed two gym bags of clothes and my basketball and left for good. The following day I was arrested as a runaway. I spent a month in juvenile detention before being placed in a long-term group home. I arrived exactly ninety days before my eighteenth birthday, when I would age out of the system entirely.
At the group home I was required to sit at a table for five hours a day and complete schoolwork or remain silent. When my academic records were reviewed, I learned that two and a half years of credits were missing because of all the placements I had been cycled through. I was supposed to be a graduating senior, but on paper I had only finished half of my tenth-grade year. I was asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to earn my diploma. That meant completing a total of twenty-five assignments a day, seven days a week, for the duration of my placement. I did this, while also working a part-time job with a roofing company. Every day was filled from the moment I woke up until the moment I collapsed into bed at night. The hard work paid off. On my eighteenth birthday I received my high school diploma, and the staff even rented a cap and gown for a private graduation ceremony, with me as the only graduate.
It was during those intense months that the Dream Dragon emerged. He first appeared in a creative writing poem as a playful, friendly companion to a child. Years later, as I watched the pressures facing modern children, my playful dragon evolved into a protector. He became a symbol of the safety and stability I had needed so desperately as a child. He became what I wished I had all those years earlier.
That is why the Dream Dragon Universe exists today. The culture has grown louder and more intrusive, but the needs of children have not changed. They still crave wonder, adventure, safety, and guidance. They still respond to stories that help them understand who they are. They still need imagination more than ideology. And when we tested the Dream Dragon pilot through Google Ads, the response was extraordinary. More than twenty thousand views at three cents per view with an eleven percent retention rate on a twenty-two-minute cartoon. Google referred to the performance as almost unheard of for a video of that length. Children watched because they loved it. Parents watched because they trusted it. The numbers spoke for themselves.
But numbers are not the true crisis. Children are. Whether a person has children or not, the next generation will shape the future of this country. They will be the nurses who care for us, the teachers who guide our communities, the business owners who shape our economy, the engineers who build our world, and the elected officials who will one day make the decisions that affect every one of us. And here is the hard truth. If a child grows up confused about the most basic parts of themselves, that confusion does not disappear when they turn eighteen. It follows them into adulthood. It becomes part of their choices, their worldview, and their influence on society.
It needs to be said clearly. If someone cannot figure out who they are, I do not want that same person making decisions that affect my life or the lives of others. A generation without identity will grow into a society without direction. And a society without direction will not stand. This is not cruelty. It is reality. The future will be shaped by the emotional, psychological, and moral strength of today’s children. If we fail them now, we pay the price later.
This is why the Dream Dragon matters. This is why imagination matters. This is why childhood matters. And this is why the Dream Builder Campaign exists. The idea is simple and powerful. If enough people contribute even one dollar, those small acts of support add up to something meaningful. What we need now is not vague assistance. We have interest from a Christian-based animation studio that believes in the purpose of this project and sees its potential to reshape children’s entertainment for the better.
The next stage is production, and that requires funding. When someone contributes a dollar, it brings us one step closer to creating stories that strengthen children instead of shaping them with ideology. It is not about big donors. It is about ordinary people choosing to take a stand for the innocence of childhood.
The Dream Dragon was created during one of the hardest seasons of my life, and now he exists to help children navigate theirs. If you believe that imagination deserves defending, if you believe children should have stories that uplift rather than influence, and if you believe that wonder is worth preserving, then I invite you to join the movement. Even a single dollar makes a difference when enough people choose to take a stand. Together we can build something beautiful, something lasting, and something children can carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Be a Dream Builder. Help protect the dreams and futures of the next generation. Make a donation. Share the information. Take action and make a difference.
