Dr. Emma Reay is a Senior Lecturer in Emerging Media at the University of Southampton. Her research spans social constructions of childhood, games and mental wellbeing, new heroism in interactive texts, playful resistance, empathy, cuteness, and toys. She is the author of The Child in Games (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024) and has published articles in Games Studies, Games and Culture, Journal of Games Criticism, International Research in Children’s Literature, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, International Journal of Young Adult Fiction, Barnboken, and Digital Games Research Association. She has contributed book chapters to Reinventing Fashion (Palgrave MacMillan), Playful Materialities (Transcript), and Silence and the Child (Makadam).