A True Story About

true stories about being alive

crafted by Isa Adney

featured Story

I surveyed 150 people about what the end of The Eras Tour means to them. This is what they said.

a true story about the end of the eras tour & what music does for us

a true story about turtle uncles & how pets affect our lives

When Shelley went window shopping for two turtles, she didn’t realize she’d be making a 50-year commitment. This is how two turtles affected her whole life, and why she stayed committed.

a true story about leaving the hospital & dreaming again after tragedy

When Megan and her husband drove their eight-month-old daughter Cam down to Captiva, they had no idea they were about to face the unimaginable. This is how Megan kept going after losing the light of her life.

a true story about about the last of us II dms & also about life

When friends play The Last of Us for the first time I ask them to DM me their thoughts. This is what happened when a friend did just that.

a true story about the last of us & when we need ladders

I didn’t play video games for 20 years. This is how The Last of Us brought me back in more ways than one.

a true story about seeing taylor swift at tribeca & why it’s nice to shout things

When concerts were cancelled in 2020 we forgot what it felt like to scream-sing with strangers. This is how it felt to scream-sing again.

My mission as a writer is to put more beautiful true stories into the world. My hope as a writer is that those stories will do for you what they do for me: make you smile, laugh, cry, inspire you to keep going, or help you feel less alone.

I've been writing true stories about people for 10 years, mostly interviewing people about the creative process or their dreams. The idea for this blog was born after I graduated with my MFA in Writing and found myself suddenly writing about more things and more kinds of people than ever before (like stories about The Last of Us and turtles).

Meet Isa, the founder of a true story about and writer of true stories.

The Little Book of Big Dreams is filled with true stories of dreamers who decided to try for their biggest dreams and kept going when things got hard (which they almost always do).

The dreamers in this book include Oscar winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Disney producer Don Hahn, Pensole Lewis College founder D’Wayne Edwards, Hamilton cast member Seth Stewart, Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant, actor and filmmaker Justin Baldoni, and more.

But the most important story in this book is yours.

The Little Book of Big Dreams: True Stories About People who Followed a Spark

order The Little Book Of Big Dreams

Check Out My Book

Sign me up

subscribe for stories

Quick Links

Subscribe for true stories about creativity, resilience, and the human experience.