The Love Story

What The Love Story does

The Love Story (legal entity: The Love Story Media, Inc.; EIN 47-2937595) is a US-registered 501(c)-style non-profit organization founded in 2016 and headquartered remotely out of El Segundo, California. Its stated mission is to help brokenhearted individuals process emotional pain, grief, and trauma by transforming it into creative purpose. The organization serves individual journal-artists — primarily people experiencing heartbreak, grief, or trauma — through a horizontally segmented, persona-based audience model.

The core product is the "Mirror Darkly" methodology: a peer-to-peer fiction narrative journaling framework in which participants write stories based on true experiences while a "fight club rule" preserves the boundary between fiction and truth. Sessions are facilitated by volunteers via Zoom on a recurring weekly cadence, supplemented by a structured 7-Acts curriculum called The Love Story Playbook (Acts organized under Faith, Compassion, and Grace) and a peer-review technique called "Resonate-Editing." The methodology draws explicitly on Carl Jung's shadow-work concepts. Adjacent product lines include The Love Story Journal (Volumes 1–3), The Producer's Playbook, and a published-author book collection from journal-artists who have completed the program. The organization operates a 3,000+-member Discord community and produces YouTube content to support awareness and engagement.

The business model is donation-driven and content-commerce enabled. Primary funding comes from one-time, weekly, and monthly donations at preset tiers of $10, $20, $30, and $40 plus custom amounts. Secondary revenue streams include e-commerce sales of journals, playbooks, and published books through a Squarespace-hosted online shop, and program access for the 7-Acts curriculum. The organization employs 11–50 staff and operates with no external investors, parent company, or subsidiaries identified. To date, it has hosted over 1,000 Mirror Darkly sessions and produced 5 published authors from within its journal-artist community.

Name

The Love Story

Legal name

The Love Story Media, Inc.

Website

https://thelovestory.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Love Story is a US non-profit that runs peer-to-peer "Mirror Darkly" fiction-narrative journaling sessions over Zoom, serving individuals processing heartbreak, grief, and trauma, funded primarily by donations and supplemented by journal and book sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mental Wellness & Narrative Journaling Services

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (7115), Other Individual and Family Services (624190), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Online & Hybrid Creative Writing Workshops (EDAMAMAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Fiction Writing Workshops (Short Story, Novel) (EDAMAMAA), Writing Critique Groups & Peer Workshops (EDAMAMAJ), Literary Arts & Writing Organizations (BPAGAHAK)

Keywords

• Narrative journaling services
• Peer support workshops
• Mental wellness programs
• Self-help book publishing
• Reflective writing facilitation

Headquarters

HQ city

El Segundo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Donations: One-time, weekly, and monthly donation options at preset amounts ($10, $20, $30, $40) or custom amounts. Supports the non-profit mission of providing journaling services.
2. Book and Journal Sales: Sale of The Love Story Journals (Vol. 1-3), The Love Story Playbook, The Producer's Playbook, and published author books through the online shop.
3. Program Access: Access to the 7 Acts program curriculum and course materials for journal-artists.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Love Story Organization is a nonprofit collective that facilitates peer-to-peer Mirror Darkly journaling sessions in which participants process personal pain by writing fictional narratives based on true experiences, supported by a volunteer-facilitated community, a Discord server, and a published curriculum. It monetizes through donations and an online shop selling journals, playbooks, and books authored by journal-artists, and runs a 7-Act structured program called The Love Story Playbook (Faith, Compassion, Grace) to transform shadow narratives into integrated 'divine comedy' stories.

Product overview

The Love Story Organization is a collective of journal-artists offering a multi-product portfolio centered on transforming pain into purpose through creative writing and fiction narrative journaling. The core offering is The Love Story Playbook — a structured 7-Act program (The Producer's Program) that guides participants through Acts organized under Faith, Compassion, and Grace — paired with The Love Story Journal (Volumes 1–3) as the primary journaling tool. The organization publishes books through its shop, including works by journal-artists who have completed the program, and facilitates Mirror Darkly Sessions — peer-to-peer journaling workshops using resonate-editing to help participants discern truth from lies in their narratives. The program is supported by a Discord community (3,000+ members), and the organization accepts donations. The Love Story Organization is a registered non-profit (EIN: 47-2937595).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Love Story Playbook: A 7-Act program to transform tragedy into divine comedy through narrative journaling
• The Love Story Journal
• Mirror Darkly Sessions
• Resonate-Editing

Products and services

• The Love Story Journal Vol. 1 The first volume of The Love Story Journal, a creative journaling resource for journal-artists to process pain through fiction narrative journaling.
• The Love Story Journal Vol. 2 The second volume of The Love Story Journal, continuing the narrative journaling series for journal-artists.
• The Love Story Journal Vol. 3 The third volume of The Love Story Journal, the latest in the narrative journaling series.
• The Producer's Playbook An introduction to The Producer's Program, covering the mission behind transforming tragedy by revealing it in fiction.
• The Love Story Playbook A 7-Act program (The Producer's Program) that guides journal-artists through transforming tragedy into a divine comedy, structured across three main acts: Faith, Compassion, and Grace.
• Mirror Darkly Sessions Peer-to-peer journaling workshops facilitated by volunteers, designed to help journal-artists process pain through fiction narrative journaling, told in fiction, based on true experiences. Sessions use resonate-editing where kindred strangers highlight parts of journal entries that resonate with them. Scheduled weekly on Sundays and Wednesdays.
• Let the Hurt Girl Speak (Katie Andrews) A published book by Katie Andrews about healing from hurt, the journey of moving through trauma, and learning to give oneself grace; part of The Love Story published author collection.
• Don't Touch Me (Eva Shyann) A published book by Eva Shyann, part of The Love Story published author collection.
• Between My Lines (Viviany Alicea) A published book by Viviany Alicea, part of The Love Story published author collection.
• The Moth that Haunts the Laundry Room (Kali Paszkiewicz) A published book by Kali Paszkiewicz, part of The Love Story published author collection.
• Diary of a Crazy Entrepreneur (Mingjie Zhai) A published book by Mingjie Zhai documenting the entrepreneurial journey and personal narrative.
• Let the Hurt Girl Heal (Katie Andrews) A published book by Katie Andrews, a follow-up to "Let the Hurt Girl Speak", about the ongoing healing journey.
• The Shattering (Annabelle Lennox) A raw, self-reflective collection of journal entries by Rhiannon documenting recovery from a violent relationship, alcoholism, and a Dark Night of the Soul; contains trigger warnings for alcoholism, death, suicide, assault, and trauma bonding.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3,000+ journal-artists have joined the community
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Calm: A leading consumer mental wellness app offering meditation, sleep, and emotional well-being content via subscription. Comparable to The Love Story in addressing mental wellness for general consumers, though through a much larger, app-based, for-profit model.
• Headspace: A major mental wellness platform offering guided meditation and therapy services. Comparable to The Love Story as a consumer-facing mental wellness brand, though with clinical credibility and a for-profit subscription model.
• Medium: A large-scale online publishing platform for independent writers. Comparable to The Love Story as an ecosystem enabling individual writers to publish and build audience, though without the therapeutic or workshop component.
• BetterHelp: A large online counseling platform connecting users with licensed therapists. Comparable to The Love Story in serving adults seeking emotional support, though via credentialed clinical professionals rather than peer-led creative writing.

Direct peers

• Narrative Magazine: An independent literary organization publishing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry while fostering a writing community. Comparable to The Love Story as a literary nonprofit that combines community programming with publishing output from its members.
• National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo): A nonprofit creative writing organization that mobilizes large communities around structured writing challenges. Comparable to The Love Story as a mission-driven literary community that uses group momentum to drive individual creative output and publication outcomes.
• The Write Practice: An online community and platform for creative writers offering workshops, peer feedback, and writing prompts. Comparable to The Love Story as a peer-driven creative writing community using structured workshops and group critique to develop writers.
• 826 National: A nonprofit literary arts organization supporting writing and publishing among young people. Comparable to The Love Story as a nonprofit combining creative writing programming with community engagement and a path-to-publication model for participants.

Emerging players

• Wattpad: A community-based fiction writing and reading platform that has launched many authors into traditional publishing. Comparable to The Love Story in providing a community-to-publication pathway, though operating at vastly greater scale and as a for-profit platform.
• Substack: A publishing platform enabling independent writers to build subscription audiences and monetize their work. Comparable to The Love Story in empowering independent writers to publish and earn from their craft, though without the mental health or workshop framing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutu.be/8Z7_fYPgwlk
• Xx.com/thelovestoryorg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Love Story