Susan Linn

Susan Linn, Ed.D., is Research Associate at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She was Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood from 2000 to 2015. A psychologist, she has written extensively about the effects of media and commercial marketing on children. Her book, "Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood," 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: Saving Play in a Commercialized World", “a wonderful look at how play can heal children.” Her work has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Sixty Minutes, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and the acclaimed documentary The Corporation. An award-winning ventriloquist and children’s entertainer, Dr. Linn appeared on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and is internationally known for her innovative work using puppets in child psychotherapy. 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 America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Among other honors, Dr. Linn received a Champion of Freedom Award from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association for her work on behalf of children.