Ever since Pretty Little Liars premiered in 2010, I was hooked. With all of its mysterious twists and turns, it was hard not to be. This show has dominated ABC family & is still holding on strong in its 6th season.
What I love most about it is that it is based off of Sara Shepard's book series.
With this popularity and my own love for the show, I decided to turn this into a library program. Since the TV show is rated TV- 14, the target audience for this program was high schoolers.
For my program, I wanted something laid back. I decided to do a countdown to the top three fan rated "scariest episodes." I picked these episodes based off:
1. The Pilot - (Season 1, Episode 1)
I chose this one to appeal to kids who may have not seen the show. I also wanted to watch this one to allow participants to look for clues about who the mysterious "A" is.
2. If These Dolls Could Talk (Season 2, Episode 24).
This episode was just super creepy. It had lots of weird little dolls, and a creepy boy in it. The teens really like this one just for its thrill factor.
3. Now You Seen Me, Now You Don't (Season 4, Episode 12)
The teens picked this one for its thrill factor. It is a crossover episode between the show Pretty Little Liars and its spin off series called Ravenswood.
This program was very easy & the teens really enjoyed it. It was fun to discuss their theories on who they thought "A" was. They got so into their conversation they didn't want to leave. Which is saying something because this was a drop in 3 hour program and they stayed the whole time.
The only prep I had to do for this program was make popcorn.
I also set out some fun little activities for them to do while they talked & watched the episodes.
Some of the things I set out were:
Adult Coloring Sheets
Friendship bracelet supplies and tutorials
I chose to do this activity based off of the bracelets that appeared in the show.
....and finally, I just set out some foamy play dough.
This was my first program of the summer, and right during finals. Many found this to be therapeutic to take a break to color and play with play dough. I think I was on track with planning it like this.
What I Learned
I had more boys show up to this program then girls which really surprised me.
Although I didn't have many show up for program, I did feel like it was successful. I was able to help a few teens who were stressed with finals and that was a library win for me.
I feel like my biggest pitfall was that I did not advertise it well. One of the teens told me it was an amazing program, but the library does a terrible job at advertising.
Even though it stung a little, I felt like he was right with this comment. I think next time I will advertise it as a final study break & try and reach out to more social media outlets.
I am going to try this program again with the TV show Supernatural around Halloween. I am hoping to advertise it better, but I am a little disappointed that it didn't go better before.
How does your library advertise to teens?
Until next time,
Pamela
It is very difficult to advertise to teens. Even though we have flyers out in our teen section I have them telling me they didn't know we had certain programs. The schools will not let me pass out flyers there. For a while I made slides for the school's morning tv segments, but didn't get much response. I have Twitter and Instagram, but have had trouble getting teen followers. They don't read the newspaper. Now, I have made shelf talkers that hang in among the books. Not sure how that will work. I have not seen great success yet! I find attendance at my summer programs has been slowing down on the teen front. The best promotion I have is teen advisors telling friends at school. And, now I think the more teen advisors the better. If you want to know what I do with teen advisors contact me at lbostian@cclva.org. Best.
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