Emmers turns everyday moments into meaningful emotional growth through play.

Our games and storybooks help kids build core skills like resilience, emotion regulation, and empathy - while having fun with the people who love them most.

Every Emmers product is created with child-development experts so kids stay engaged and grown-ups feel supported.

Rooted in research and designed for joy, Emmers builds the emotional foundation that shapes how kids learn, connect, and build lifelong wellbeing.

About our Chief Clinical Advisor, Dr. Lauren Marchette:

Dr. Lauren Marchette, is a child clinical and educational psychologist, Harvard Medical School faculty member, and co-founder of the Child & Adolescent CBT Clinic at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard teaching hospital. She collaborates with the Emmers team and other child development experts to review all products, helping ensure they’re developmentally appropriate, research-backed, and truly effective in home, educational, and therapeutic settings. As a mom of three young children, she brings both clinical rigor and a real-world understanding of what families, therapists, and educators face every day.

Once Upon a Feeling…

Melanie Sperling Palmer saw that emotional skills are neither “soft” nor a “nice to have” - they shape how kids learn, build relationships, and move through the world.

Before creating Emmers, Melanie - a mom, psychology nerd, and former nonprofit leader - spent nearly a decade teaching teens and parents how to navigate relationships and emotions. As the youth mental health crisis intensified, she saw a gap: we were waiting too long to teach kids the skills that shape their entire lives.

When Melanie became a parent, she set out to build what she wished existed: playful, research-backed tools that make emotional growth a natural part of everyday life - at home, in classrooms, and in counseling spaces. Emmers is her way of giving kids the emotional toolkit we wish we had growing up, so they can practice resilience, emotion regulation, and empathy in the moments that aren’t meltdowns.

Today, Emmers is for families, schools and providers who know emotional skills are as essential as academics and want tools that are as practical as they are playful. One game and story at a time, Emmers is building the emotional foundation for kids’ future mental health and wellbeing.