OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Baby-Sitters Club is a beloved book series, which sold millions of copies and follows a group of young women who start a babysitting business. Now, it's a hit award-winning show on Netflix.
The show's creator and showrunner, Rachel Shukert is from Omaha and got her show biz start in the local theater scene.
"I was really involved in that community, I feel like that was such a great foundation for working in television," Rachel said.
Rachel and her father, Marty vividly remember her love of the stage and her love for words.
"A very early reader, she was at age four, reading chapter books," Marty said.
Rachel graduated from Central High School where she cultivated a love for acting and singing, but her father knew the arts would take her in a different direction.
"She was a great writer, and I really told her even when she was in high school, that I thought she would probably wind up making her living as a writer," Marty said.
That she did — becoming the show-runner of the award-winning Netflix series, The Baby-Sitters Club.
"We wanted to put it in the present day so it didn't feel like this artifact. The '90s — that time — it could feel really relevant to kids watching it now and also feel nostalgic to an older audience that had been fans of the books or the original series," Rachel said.
The show is also garnering praise for its diverse cast.
"What was so great about the Babysitters Club is that every girl reading those books could see themselves in the characters and it was very important to me to kind of carry that through the present day," Rachel said.
The Shukerts say using your voice, leaning on your friends and being a kind person make up the core of this story.
"Her real specialty are really women's issues or women relating to each other, but in very subtle and human ways, and I think that relates to Rachel's friendships and the way that she is," Marty said.
Rachel hopes viewers can take this example from her work.
"Women don't have to cut each other down to be powerful, that's a false advantage. The real strength that women have is their ability to cooperate with each other and be there for each other and to be collaborative and to be communitarian," Rachel said.
Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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