Francine Pascal (1932-2024) remains one of the world's most popular fiction writers for teenagers and was the creator of the Sweet Valley universe. This includes Sweet Valley Twins®, Sweet Valley High®, and Sweet Valley Unicorn Club. Over their lifetime, Sweet Valley books have sold millions of copies and have inspired board games, puzzles, and dolls. Francine was also the author of several bestselling novels, including My Mother Was Never a Kid, My First Love and Other Disasters, and the Fearless® series. Her adult novels included Save Johanna! and La Villa and the nonfiction book The Strange Case of Patty Hearst. She collaborated with Michael Stewart on the Broadway musical George M!, and with Jon Marans and Graham Lyle she wrote the musical The Fearless Girl. She was on the advisory board of the American Theatre Wing. Her favorite sport was a monthly poker game.

Claudia Aguirre is a Mexican lesbian comic-book artist and writer. She is a cofounder of Boudika Comics, where she self-publishes comics, and is a GLAAD Media Award nominee and Eisner Award nominee. Her comic works include Lost on Planet Earth with ComiXology Originals, Hotel Dare with Boom! Studios, Firebrand with Legendary Comics, Morning in America with Oni Press, and Kim & Kim with Black Mask Studios. Nicole Andelfinger was crafting stories as far back as when coloring in the squiggles on your composition book was considered cool. Since then, she's only continued to dwell in the realms of magic, monsters, and myth. When not changing her hair color or writing comics for some of her favorite characters, she works a day job best described as 'emails'. She lives with her absolutely, most decidedly perfect cat in Los Angeles.