Ashley Varela is a freelance writer and author based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her latest work, Newsies vs. The World, was published by Theme Park Press in 2019. Guided by a profound passion for history, she has conducted original research and put forth multi-part analyses on many topics, including the development of Major and Minor League Baseball in the Pacific Northwest; the creation of the four main theme parks of the Walt Disney World Resort; and the contributions of prominent women artists, designers, and costumers at Walt Disney Imagineering.