Web Site for Girls Turns Creator Into Top Executive at 15

Two years ago, Ashley Power’s world revolved around such teenage concerns as schoolwork and popularity. Today, Ashley has a talent agent, a Hollywood publicist and a pending book deal.

That’s because Ashley, 15, is the president and co-chairman of Goosehead.com, a Web site for teen girls that’s attracting 250,000 to 300,000 hits (or 35,000 to 47,000 unique visits) a day--even more when the sophomore at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks shows up in a television interview or a teen magazine story.

That leaves little time for hanging out at the mall. In fact, a recent interview at Ashley’s home had to be cut short--she had to jet off to Las Vegas to meet with potential investors for a Goosehead operation in Japan.

The site’s name refers to a childhood incident in which Ashley accidentally broke a cement goose. Billed as the “Goosehead Teen Entertainment Network,” the site (https://www.goosehead.com) features message boards and chat rooms, places for e-mail, advice and help with homework.

Although the site is for girls, it’s adorned with pictures of the comely young Ashley, and it’s undoubtedly attracted some male fans as well.

A key element is the original Web series, “Whatever,” written by Ashley and her stepfather, Mark Schilder (also co-chairman of Goosehead), and loosely inspired by events in Ashley’s life.

The site is establishing itself in one of the fastest-growing niches on the Web--teen girls. That might be enough for some budding Web entrepreneurs, but not Ashley. She and her representatives view the site as a springboard for other Goosehead businesses.

Already, there have been discussions with network executives about bringing the Web teen comedy to television, Schilder said. And Ashley has a pending deal with Walt Disney Co.’s Hyperion Books for Children to write, “The Goosehead Guide to Life,” a paperback featuring Ashley’s views on teen issues and the Web.

Hyperion editor Helen Perlman confirmed the deal but said the contract has not yet been signed.

Ashley has also put the star-making machinery into gear by hiring celebrity publicity firm Wolf-Kasteler & Associates and signing up with United Talent Agency.

It’s heady stuff for an operation that started as an outlet for personal expression. Ashley, who got her first computer when she was 8, never envisioned she was creating a business when she picked up, “HTML for Dummies” and became inspired to start her own Web page.

In its first incarnation, the site was a simple Web page of photographs, movie ratings and e-mail. She urged friends to visit her site. They did and told others. Ashley also helped spread the word herself, engaging would-be site visitors in teen chat rooms.

As traffic grew at the site, so did Ashley’s dreams. A little more than a year ago, Ashley heard about broad-band and streaming media. She decided she wanted to professionalize the site and fixed upon the idea of creating her own Web show.

To do that, she began sending e-mail to Web masters at sites she admired, soliciting their assistance. When her stepfather heard Ashley had been having frequent online conversations with adult men, he became alarmed.

But Schilder made contact with each of them and found they were genuinely willing to help, he said. Some are now part of the site’s 27-member work force, including Valencia resident Pat Galvin, 44, now also a company partner.

Recently, actor Richard Dreyfuss, a Web aficionado, became a creative consultant to the site. The Academy Award winner was introduced to Ashley through his brother, a business partner to Ashley’s mother, Michelle Schilder.

“I am really fascinated by her voice,” Dreyfuss said. “She has a real voice, a genuine authentic presence. There’s something really there.”

Dreyfuss said he and Ashley have talked about several creative ideas for the site, but he wouldn’t share the details.

Schilder has stepped in to help Ashley run the business, but said his goal is to step away when Ashley is ready to run it solo.

“I analyze the deals, bring them to Ashley and talk to her about them,” Schilder said. “But she knows everything that’s going on--from the last penny being spent to where the best partnerships are.”

So far, Goosehead is self-funded. Schilder, a graphic artist and part owner of an advertising agency, said he’s sunk $250,000 of his own money into it, with other partners putting in various amounts.

Like most sites on the Web that focus on information rather than retail activity, Goosehead is not profitable. Schilder said the enterprise burns through $20,000 a month in salaries, content development costs and other expenses.

The company is seeking more sponsors, but has so far rejected funding from venture capitalists, Schilder said, because they want to allocate 80% of the funding toward advertising and promotion and just 20% to content.

Instead, the company is pinning its hopes on the original Web entertainment series, “Whatever,” starring Ashley.

So far, Goosehead has produced seven episodes, 6 1/2 to 10 minutes long, each shot for under $50,000. The teen comedy tells stories of life through the lens of Skye Warner, Ashley’s alter ego. In one, Skye gets grounded after she fails to clean up after the dogs. In another, a sexy teacher has the male student body enthralled.

“I want to show something real. I know what’s going on,” Ashley said.

Ashley believes her ‘voice’--because she is actually 15--differentiates Goosehead’s programming from other creative efforts aimed at Generation Y.

“I’ve been watching shows on TV about teens and thinking, ‘No one really said it that way,’ or ‘That’s not cool,” she said.

But how many people can actually watch “Whatever”--at least easily? Original online entertainment has been around since the Web first exploded onto the scene in the mid-1990s, but so far, there hasn’t been a big break-out hit.

Most people still don’t have the high-speed connections that make watching shows on the Web more like television. At present, less than 2% of U.S. households have cable modems or digital subscriber lines, according to the Yankee Group research company.

Teens, however, may be more willing to put up with lower quality video, and the niche is a nice place to do business, said Yankee Group senior analyst Michael Goodman.

Teen girls are one of the fastest-growing groups on the Internet, according to Teenage Research Unlimited of Northbrook, Ill. In 1996, 53% of teen girls had been online; today, that figure is 94%, as personal computers have become integrated into everyday life.

Although advertisers are eager to tap this market, Goosehead is competing with other Web sites that cater to teen girls, including Kibu.com (https://www.kibu.com), Voxxy.com (https://www.voxxy.com) and MXGonline.com (https://mxgonline.com).

Concerns about making a buck in cyberspace could fade away if Goosehead makes the transition to television, as Ashley and Schilder hope.

“The dream thing would be if we produced a ‘Seinfeld’--a real breakout hit from which dollars would flow back to Goosehead,” Schilder said.

But at present, that is just a dream. And there’s lots to do just running Goosehead. School’s out, so Ashley is working about 50 hours a week. It’s not the 24/7 schedule that zealous dot-comers speak of, but plenty for a kid not yet eligible for a driver’s license.

Ashley said she feels nostalgic about the good old days--meaning two years ago--when the Web wasn’t about money, but fellowship. But the change is inevitable, she said.

“That’s how it has to be. It’s a business.”

Three or four years from now, Ashley intends to go to college. And she’ll be leaving her teen years. What will that mean for Goosehead? Ashley doesn’t know.

Asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she said, “I want to direct. It’s always been a passion of mine.”