The SPYFLIX Spotlight Series featured a series pilot created by a team of real-world secret intelligence professionals - all women. A real and true sisterhood of spies.

‍Sisterhood of Spies Episode 1: Operation Flashlight is the first episode of an animated webseries created by former CIA senior analyst Gina Bennett and Lauren Bean Buitta, founder & CEO of Girl Security, which prepares girls, women, and gender minorities for national security through equity - informed learning, transitional high school-to-college training, and relationship-based mentoring.
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Bennett and the team believe that girls need to see other girls and women engaged in careers, such as national security, in every space they look for inspiration and role models. Their feeling is that for far too long television, film, and literature have presented women in the intelligence profession as either 'honeypots' or warriors that must be 'like men' to succeed. Bennett says that she and her real-life sisterhood in the US Intelligence Community are living proof that neither is true and that it’s time for girls to see the truth of what they are and can be. 

Listeners of SPYSCAPE’s podcast series True Spies know about Bennett’s badassness - the veteran CIA analyst wrote the first strategic warning about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden while at the State Department in 1993. If you’ve not listened, do check out Blinking Red, the True Spies episode in which Bennett tells the story.

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Bennett and Bean Buitta shared some backstory with Team SPYFLIX about Sisterhood of Spies.

What was the inspiration for creating Sisterhood of Spies as a webseries for Girl Security? 

Bennett: I remember one of the PIXAR co-founders saying that he could not hire more women as animators until more women are choosing to become animators. My response to that very logical and valid argument was that, as much as I loved Disney-Pixar films, if I were a girl today, I still would not see the point of being in animation, as I could not recall a single film that was from a girl’s point of view. Even when girls are the hero, their behavior still seems overwhelmly depicted as if filtered through the lens of how a man thinks a girl hero should act, which is often like a boy! So if you're a girl watching these films, why would you ever want to be in a profession that is not interested in the real you? 

Bean Buitta: Exactly. We want more girls interested in the Intelligence profession. They won't think of it as an option, let alone an appealing one, if all they ever see in books and film are male spies. Even when a woman is featured, there are almost always these harmful stereotypes presented. They end up fighting like a man or using their sexuality as a weapon. We wanted to create a series for young girls that is more authentic to both how girls relate to one another and to the skills and talents required to be successful in the Intelligence profession. 

So your target audience is girls? What about boys? Do you think they will be interested? 

Bean Buitta: We certainly hope boys will watch and find the storyline compelling and relatable. For one thing, our sisterhood will not rely on violence or super powers. They will succeed through collaboration, making mistakes and learning, working through their fears and lack of confidence, and with lots of resilience. That may not be what all boys would like, but we hope the message is compelling for them as well. 

Bennett: Yes, my three boys -- who are actually now young men -- love SOS! Just because they are boys and enjoy typical spy thrillers and much-too violent video games doesn't mean they don't also appreciate clever characters who outsmart villains. 

Can you tell us anything about what happens next in the SOS series? 

Bennett: Viewers can expect to learn more about the main characters, Ty, Luz, Nura and Rory. Over the course of the first season, which will include nine episodes, the girls will begin to open up to one another and understand which talents each has and how to develop them. 

Bean Buitta: It's not as if they are perfect, though. There will be the internal squabbling and drama of high school life. They will make mistakes and not always learn from them. But throughout the series, they will also be "mission first." The girls will be laser focused on uncovering the source of the explosion that occurs at the end of the pilot episode. In the real world, you don't start off being cooperative with people you don't know. The entire development of their sisterhood is a real journey, with all the bumps along the way. 
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Anything else you'd like to tell viewers? 

Bennett: Just thank you for watching and for your interest, and many thanks to SPYFLIX Festival for giving us this fabulous opportunity to share SOS! We are very excited to launch the full series in 2021. We hope that with the 20-year commemoration of the 9/11 attacks and with all that is happening in the world, kids will want to hear stories of the power of resilience. Because that is one superpower they all already have. Thank you again for watching!