Our Story

Serious growth doesn’t have to feel serious all the time.

Feels Like Fun® lives at the intersection of play, reflection, communication, and learning.

Hi, I’m Amanda

I make things that invite people in.

Meet Amanda on LinkedIn ↗

I’m an educator, communication scholar, instructional designer, creator, and doctoral student in Educational Leadership.

Much of my professional life has centered on a question I keep returning to:

How do we create experiences people actually want to engage with — especially when what we’re asking them to do is difficult?

I’ve explored that question through communication, teaching, instructional design, educational leadership, and my research into how students understand and navigate meaningful learning experiences.

Feels Like Fun® is where I get to explore that same question differently.

Here, play is allowed to do some of the work.
Why Feels Like Fun®

The things that help us grow don’t always need to look like work.

Sometimes learning looks like a classroom. Sometimes reflection looks like a journal. Sometimes care looks like putting something small into someone’s hands. And sometimes clarity arrives on a card with a panda on it.

That idea connects the things you’ll find here — from free educational tools to the Panda Deck and the objects we make to wear, hold, practice with, or give away.

Why pandas?

Because reflection can be hard enough already.

So can learning. Change. Asking for help. Setting a boundary. Realizing you were wrong. Starting again.

We don’t necessarily need to make those experiences heavier.

The Panda Deck grew from the idea that something playful could create a small opening for something meaningful.

13 pandas. 13 arcs. Upright and reversed meanings. A little randomness.
What does this bring up for me?

There is no promise that a panda can solve your problems. That isn’t the point.

The point is creating a moment in which you might notice something you hadn’t noticed before.

Tools + Shop

Some things we make. Some things we give away.

That’s why this website has both Tools and a Shop.

Through my work with future educators, I create and share resources that support learning, reflection, communication, and professional growth. Some of those tools belong here freely because I want educators and students to be able to use them.

And through Feels Like Fun®, we make physical things you can wear, hold, give, write in, laugh at, or return to.

They may look different.

They come from the same place: make the invitation to engage a little easier.
Sometimes care is small

We can’t always fix what someone we love is carrying.

There are people we love whose problems we cannot solve. People who are exhausted. People carrying more than we know. People we can’t always reach in the ways we’d like to.

I know what it is to love someone from a distance and wish I could make what they are carrying a little lighter.

I can’t.

But I can make something small enough to hold.

Not “I know what you need.”
Not “this will fix you.”

Just:

Here. This made me think of you.
Pull a card.
You’re invited

Who is Feels Like Fun® for?

Teachers are here. So are students, anime lovers, journal people, helpers, thinkers, gift-givers, people who are burned out, people who aren’t burned out at all, and people who just really like pandas.

You don’t need to be interested in educational theory to belong here. You don’t even need to be particularly interested in self-improvement.

You are allowed to come because it feels like fun.

And if something meaningful happens along the way? Even better.

Where do you want to begin?

Explore in whatever way makes sense to you.

Practice

Meet the Panda Deck

13 illustrated invitations to pause, reflect, and choose what comes next.

Explore the deck →
Play

Pull a Card Free

Try the practice digitally before deciding whether the physical deck belongs with you.

Draw a card →
Learn

Explore Free Tools

Resources for educators, students, and people who love learning.

Find them under Tools ↑

Feels Like Fun®

Created at the intersection of play, reflection, communication, and learning.

Serious growth doesn’t have to feel serious all the time.