Does magic only exist within the pages of fairy tales? Alumni Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman (both PhD ‘18) say no. To them, magic exists all around us, as folklore is the “stories we tell and the things we do to understand ourselves and others.” Cleto and Warman recognize the importance of finding magic in one's life, drawing on their academic expertise in folklore to help others do just that. This is what led the pair to found The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, where they work to “teach creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales.”
Carterhaugh is a primarily online school where Cleto and Warman teach various courses on fairy tales, legends, and more. These courses work to break out of typical academia, expanding on the ways folklore can improve people’s lives, just as it has for Cleto and Warman. "Folklore made us feel like there was all this cool stuff going on in the world” Cleto remarks. With courses such as Enchant, focusing on how to use folklore to enchant your everyday life, and Introduction to Fairy Tales, focusing on exploring stories from around the world, the pair show participants how to use folklore to express themselves, highlight their everyday artistic pursuits, or even serve as a “possible avenue for the quest for meaning.”
“At its best folklore is the art of the everyday, the little rituals and sayings and stories that people tell. And we really think that that's what makes life, what gives life flavor, what gives life magic”
Cleto and Warman first came up with the idea for Carterhaugh in 2016 while plagued with jet lag after presenting at a conference outside of London. One late-night topic of conversation led to another, eventually leading to the stress of navigating the academic job market. The lack of folklore jobs available and the competitive nature of the job market had the pair apprehensive about their ability to acquire fulfilling jobs aligned with their passions. “We just really enjoyed the teaching process,” explains Warman. “That was our favorite part.” The two knew they wanted to teach what they loved to “people who wanted to be there.” Determined to continue teaching, Cleto and Warman began investing in online business courses alongside their PhD work. From there, they learned how to run a business, brand themselves, work in outreach and public-facing positions and more. These courses, their experience in their PhD program, a steadfast passion for what they were creating, and many a trial and error have helped steadily grow Carterhaugh, which has generated over a million dollars in revenue and received the Dorothy Howard Award from the American Folklore Society in 2019, into the success it has become.
As the two discovered, being a PhD student prepares one for starting a business a lot more than they may initially think. In addition to providing them with rich experience in teaching, Cleto and Warman’s time at Ohio State also helped them develop critical research skills necessary for running Carterhaugh. Cleto emphasizes, “We are so trained in [research] and it's so much more applicable outside of academia than people realize.” This ability to evaluate and critically analyze sources has helped establish Carterhaugh’s credibility. As the school’s website points out, they “know exactly how to navigate the paper and digital troves of stories and information, how to make connections, and how to show you unexpected gems you would never have even thought to look up.” This impulse to do research and do it well also led the pair to seek out the business courses that helped them build their venture in the first place. “Because we knew how to research, because we knew how to be students, because we were sitting there taking notes on everything, we moved through those courses really fast and were able to implement things really fast” Cleto explains. Additionally, this desire for and openness to learning gave the pair the confidence to start Carterhaugh, for as Warman explains, “it's definitely a ‘start before you're ready’ kind of thing, because you're never going to be ready for something like this.”
A key aspect of running Carterhaugh, closely tied to their experiences in the Department of English, is recognizing the significance of accessibility. Cleto credits the bulk of her knowledge in the field to the courses in disability studies she took with Professor Emerita Amy Shuman. “In the classes that we took and in the prep that we got for running our own classes, I think [the department] does a great job showing how you can make things better for people. We are always thinking about that because of that training,” Cleto explains. This information greatly influences Carterhaugh’s construction, both in course content and its welcoming nature.
Between the accessibility of the school, the content being taught, and Cleto and Warman’s notable passion for their work, a truly special community has emerged. As Warman fondly reflects, what initially started as a collection of online courses has “turned into a community of people who support each other and meet up independently.” She notes, for example, how amazing it is to see that when someone wants to take a class but can't afford it, someone in the community will often pitch in and pay for them. she emphasizes, “The best part has definitely been all the people that we have found through doing this.”
Though creating Carterhaugh may not have been the traditional post-doctoral route, Cleto and Warman have demonstrated just how much success can come from simply going for it. Through their work with Carterhaugh, the pair have not only developed a thriving educational community, but have also lectured for the Smithsonian; produced two series for the educational streaming service The Great Courses; spoken at festivals; and have a new book, Fairylore, forthcoming from Sterling Ethos in autumn 2025, among many other opportunities. As the two have emphasized, if you are passionate about something, pursuing it is worth a try, as you never know what could come from it. “If we had spent forever thinking about it or trying to do it perfectly, we never would have done it,” Cleto notes. For Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman, this passion is folklore, “the little artistic things we do outside the notion of what high art is.” This is what “makes life just a little bit better,” “what gives life flavor, what gives life magic.”
