SANTA MONICA, Calif.  – It’s story time at the Heal the Bay Aquarium under the Santa Monica Pier and these summer campers are enthralled by 10-year-old co-author Stella Harris. 

“I’m not afraid of you and I want to fly,” reads Stella aloud from her new book, Stella Rose and the Sea Dragon.

She’s reading from a book she wrote with her father Jim Harris, who also happens to be the Santa Monica Pier deputy director. The book is an allegorical tale about overcoming fear. 

Stella has since turned 10, but back when she was younger than her audience, she decided she wanted to ride the Sea Dragon down at the pier but realized she was afraid.

“A lot of people were screaming on it and it just sounded really scary,” said Stella.

So she and her dad decided to write about it. 

“At bedtime, instead of reading bedtime stories, we decided to make our own story and we just started exchanging ideas about a little boy who befriends a dragon that had scared everybody off of the pier,” said Stella’s father, Jim Harris.

“Keep your hands inside and make sure to have your hands up so have fun,” instructed the ride operator at the Sea Dragon.

It took some convincing. 

“Ready?” asked Jim Harris to his daughter.

“Yeah,” Stella responded.

Stella got her groove and she was ready to ride the Sea Dragon. Writing the book helped. 

The main character was later changed to a girl and was similarly named Stella, but it’s not an autobiographical story per se. It’s about making friends with the unknown and overcoming fear, which is exactly what Stella had to do.

“At first it was scary, but then I found like how much it was like a swing. And it was like going back and forth, back and forth,” said Stella. “I loved it.” 

One of the park’s first rides, the Sea Dragon attracts more than 50,000 riders every year.

Designed to look like the Sea Serpent Roller Coaster from the now closed Pacific Ocean Park that operated back in the late 1950s, the Sea Dragon on the Santa Monica Pier brings a new generation of thrill seekers.

As for Stella writing her first book?

“I think it is very exciting and I hope it is an inspiration to other people,” said Stella.