survival & healing,
the making of a vampire mother,
a twilight fan film.
this site explores what lies beyond the chronicles.
Hi, I’m Lily.
I’ve always been someone who finds meaning through stories.
They have been my way of understanding the world, of making sense of love, loss, devotion, and the quiet things that shape us over time. Stories are where I feel grounded, where I return when life becomes overwhelming, and where I begin again when something inside me needs healing.
I am a trauma survivor, but survival is not where my life ends. Survival gave me the opportunity to continue, to choose what kind of life I wished to live, and the courage to try, even without the promise of success. I care deeply about gentleness, truth, and protecting those I love, and it is in my favourite fantasy worlds that I have seen these values embodied with a clarity and conviction I have rarely encountered in the real world.
Through storytelling, I found hope in reading page after page of characters who endured their struggles and rose like a phoenix from the ashes. In witnessing these journeys, I found the strength to endure my own battles. As someone who has often felt out of place in the world I was given, it was through storytelling and the art of cinema that I found a space to belong, somewhere I could nurture my creativity and follow my favourite characters as they set off on yet another adventure.
Like the authors and filmmakers behind the worlds that shaped me, my hope is to pay that kindness forward through my own writing and film. I hope my work may become the same kind of sanctuary for others that those stories once were for me: a place of familiar characters and shared wonder, where we can disappear for a few hours into the fantasy worlds we love and follow the lives of the characters who inhabit them, until the credits finally roll.
One of the worlds that stayed with me was Twilight. Not simply as a romance, but for what existed beyond the dazzling vampires — a theme as old as time, and almost as old as some of the vampires themselves: family. A chosen family, built on unconditional love and loyalty that stretches across time. Twilight is one of many stories that shaped me, and one I hold with great care.
The Cullen Chronicles: Legacy – 1935 grew from that place. It is a fan-made film, created with respect for the original work and a desire to explore what was left quietly between the lines. My filmmaking journey is not the whole of who I am, but I do hope my work reflects how I move through the world: thoughtfully, devotionally, and with a deep respect for legacy.
What follows is the work I am creating, the stories I am writing, and the life that exists beyond any single project.
This site exists for three purposes, each one close to my heart:
01
My Film Journey
02
The Lost Journals of Esme Cullen
03
Beyond
My Film Journey
A space to document the process of creating the feature-length fan film The Cullen Chronicles: Legacy – 1935 as a first-time screenwriter and director. From pre-production and casting to the behind-the-scenes world of independent filmmaking, this is where you’ll find updates told through the lens of a woman learning, building and creating her first professional cinematic project.
The Lost Journals of Esme Cullen
Before I step into Esme’s shoes in 1935, I’ve begun reimagining her long life through photography & writing.
On my in-character Instagram (@esmeacullen), you’ll find the shorter, visual storytelling: glimpses, scenes, and moments.
Here on the site, under The Lost Journals of Esme Cullen, you’ll find the full chapters: deeper reflections, expanded stories, and the written voice of a woman shaped by love and loss, now living an eternity beside her mate, Dr. Carlisle Cullen.
Think of Instagram as the preview.
This site is home to the complete story.
Beyond
Beyond is the space that means the most to me.
It is a safe place where readers may set aside the masks we all carry — the ones that help us appear composed, untroubled, or neatly defined — and step into conversations grounded in honesty, curiosity, and compassion. It is the quiet place past appearances, where our shared humanity matters more than what separates us.
This section of my site is created in that spirit.
Here, I write about the real-world issues that matter deeply to me: health and wellbeing, the lived experience of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), trauma and grief, and the dignity and humanity of people of all gender identities.
These writings do not exist to instruct or persuade. They are gentle reflections shaped by my own journey of learning and unlearning; an invitation to explore difficult topics with openness, respect, and understanding, so that we may grow together in empathy and truth.