Fundraiser featuring Ann Ryan, author of Dad, Barbie & Me: An Insider Biography In Conversation With “MorphMom” Kathleen Butler Smith

Fundraiser featuring Ann Ryan, author of Dad, Barbie & Me: An Insider Biography In Conversation With “MorphMom” Kathleen Butler Smith

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 – 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM

Location: Atwood Museum, Mural Barn

The Cape Cod Toy Library, Inc. (CCTL) and the Atwood Museum are pleased to present a special fundraising event featuring author Ann Ryan, whose newly released memoir, Dad, Barbie & Me: An Insider Biography, offers a unique and deeply personal perspective on her father, Jack Ryan, the engineer and inventor whose innovations helped bring Barbie, Chatty Cathy, and other iconic toys to life.

Hosted at the historic Atwood Museum in Chatham, the event will feature a conversation between Ryan and Kathleen Butler Smith, founder of “MorphMom” and a nationally recognized advocate for women navigating life’s transitions. Together, they will explore the fascinating story behind one of the twentieth century’s most influential toy inventors, the cultural legacy of Barbie, and the family experiences that inspired Ryan’s memoir.

Reservations are available by clicking HERE.  Admission is $50.

Proceeds from the event will benefit both the Atwood Museum and the Cape Cod Toy Library, supporting each organization’s commitment to preserving history, fostering community engagement, and enriching the lives of Cape Cod residents and visitors.

About Ann P. Ryan:

Ann P. Ryan was the first child ever to play with a Barbie doll, and is the author of Dad, Barbie & Me: An Insider Biography. Her father was Jack Ryan — one of the most remarkable inventors of the twentieth century. A Yale graduate in electrical engineering who went on to study business at Harvard, Jack Ryan invented Barbie, Chatty Cathy, and Hot Wheels for Mattel, held more than 1,000 patents worldwide, oversaw the development of the Hawk and Sparrow low-altitude defense missiles for Raytheon during the Cold War, built a medieval castle on a five-acre estate in Bel Air, California, and was married five times, including to actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ann grew up inside that world — the celebrities in the living room, the fire engine in the driveway, the parties every other night — and Dad, Barbie & Me is her story of it.

The book draws on a family archive, personal memories, and interviews conducted for Ann’s documentary podcast, Dream House: The Real Story of Jack Ryan. Ann has also appeared as an on-camera authority on her father’s legacy in the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us and the Amazon Prime documentary Barbie Uncovered: A Dream House Divided.

A Los Angeles native who grew up in Bel Air, Ann trained as a Producer Fellow at the American Film Institute after earning her degree from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, and is a graduate of Harvard-Westlake School. Before turning to writing and podcasting, she founded and ran Beachy Cream Organic Ice Cream in Los Angeles, a small-batch brand sourcing exclusively from certified organic dairies that earned a devoted following and national press attention.

Ann has deep roots in Chatham, Massachusetts, where her family has summered for generations. She has lived there full-time since 2017 and is deeply involved in the community, serving on the Council on Aging Board, the Water & Sewer Advisory Committee, and the Community Preservation Committee. She is also an active member of the Brewster, Orleans, Chatham, Harwich Citizens Emergency Response Team (BOCH CERT).

Dad, Barbie & Me is available at Yellow Umbrella Books in Chatham and on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

About Kathleen Butler Smith:

“Every Woman Has A Story…”

Kathleen Smith is the Founder of Morphmom , a multimedia platform dedicated to inspiring, empowering and connecting women to help them discover their next step. It is a resource for women trying to decide what to do tomorrow, next week or next year thru the power of sharing stories.

After graduating from both Holy Cross and Georgetown Law, she served as an Assistant Prosecutor in Hudson County, New Jersey for six years. She stopped working following the birth of her second child, and later discovered that re-entering the workforce would be difficult. Kathleen quickly noticed that she was not alone and that there were, in fact, many women who found themselves in a similar position, struggling to discover their next step, be it work related, volunteer-based, dealing with unexpected tragedies or simply rediscovering their passion. She began to chronicle the inspirational stories of women (whom she named “Morphmoms”) who had managed to chart their own course with the hope of helping other women do the same. Since its launch in 2012, Morphmom has become a platform to promote and to support these women and their remarkable stories, through a variety of mediums, including: live events around the country, a podcast, a weekly television show “The Happier Hour” which “morphed” into a weekly Instagram Live Show, a newsletter and a virtual club.

About the Cape Cod Toy Library:

Supporting Play as the Foundation for Healthy Development

The fundraiser will benefit the Cape Cod Toy Library, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering healthy child development through play experiences by providing enriching, accessible, and culturally inclusive educational environments, resources, and guidance for children and families.

Founded from a vision that began in 2015, CCTL has grown from community pop-up play spaces into a thriving organization serving families from across Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts. In December 2025, the organization opened its permanent home: a custom-renovated, 4,300-square-foot facility designed to expand public access to child-centered, play-based learning.

Today, the Cape Cod Toy Library offers:

CCTL’s Community Play Space is believed to be the only publicly accessible Reggio Emilia-inspired community play space in the United States, offering families access to a learning environment typically found only in private educational settings.