About Susan

An author, psychologist, and award-winning ventriloquist, Susan Linn, Ed.D., is a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. Her book, Consuming Kids has been praised in publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal, and Mother Jones and helped launch the movement to reclaim childhood from corporate marketers. The Boston Globe called her book The Case for Make Believe “a wonderful look at how play can heal children.” Her work has been featured on Good Morning America, Today, Sixty Minutes, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and the acclaimed documentary The Corporation.

She is internationally known for her use of puppets as therapeutic tools for children. She pioneered this work at Children's Hospital Boston and the Children’s AIDS Program, where she used puppets to help children cope with illness, hospitalization, death, loss and other life challenges. She has lectured on the importance of creative play, the impact of media and marketing on children, and the use of puppetry as a therapeutic tool in venues throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Background Experience 

• Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood from 2000-2015
• Research Associate at Boston Children’s Hospital
•  Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

FamilyEducation Area of Expertise 

Susan is one of FamilyEducation's experts. She medically reviews content relating to psychology and therapy for children.