From Book Lists to Paid Services

An August 19, 2021 annual report added Stephens as a director of the nonprofit later called Empowered Parents. On October 26, 2021, Parents Empowered in Education Resources and Support filed the name change.

Filings record Stephens leaving the board on March 30, 2022 and returning on July 21, 2022. She signed as president on August 4, 2022. A November 25, 2024 amendment lists her as inactive and names three active directors.

On October 23, 2024, Moms for America announced Stephens as Civic Engagement Director in its new Utah leadership team. Its October 2025 Utah registry entry lists her as an officer.

On May 16, 2025, RatedBooks.org filed its Utah nonprofit articles. Stephens signed as incorporator, director and president, and the articles name her registered agent. The filing names five principals. RatedBooks' May 25, 2026 annual report names Brooke Stephens, Amy Bruner and Renee McCurdie as directors.

The Daniels Fund’s 2024 return lists a $20,000 grant to Empowered Parents for homeschooling public awareness. Hope of Utah’s FY2025 IRS return lists $48,050 in grants to unnamed affiliates. RatedBooks is an affiliate, but no grant to it is identified. On February 5, 2026, Hope of Utah posted a RatedBooks profile among its first five videos.

On April 5, 2024, a Protect Ohio Children webinar introduced her as PCHC's national cochair. She said BookLooks supplies the ratings and described collecting district book-location data.

The World Library Association’s About page, updated June 26, 2026, lists Stephens on its team with roles at RatedBooks, LaVerna and NBRI. A September 12, 2026 view lists her and Bonnie Wallace and adds Utah Moms for America to her roles. These page dates do not tell us when she joined.

On September 13, 2026, RatedBooks' Rating Teams page assigned school-location searches to Take Back the Classroom, followed by separate data, report and rating teams.

Recover America’s guide, dated August 20 and September 13, 2026, recommends rating cutoffs for removing books by school level. It directs parents to Take Back the Classroom for locations, RatedBooks for reports and cutoffs, and Bonnie Wallace for local challenge help.

StoryLabs registered storylabs.online on July 20, 2018 and storylabs.app on September 3. S&S Apps registered the STORYLABS trademark for foreign-language learning apps on April 30, 2019; its application claimed first use on July 11, 2018.

On June 8, 2020, iKeepSafe announced StoryLabs' FERPA and California student-privacy certifications and quoted Brooke Stephens as cofounder. The HEART curriculum also names her on its advisory board and identifies S&S Apps as its digital provider.

S&S Apps registered in New Jersey as a foreign LLC on August 21, 2020 (entity 0600468934). Its stated business purpose is "Online Delivery of K-12 Curricula: World Language Reading & Sex Education." It moved its registration to Utah on January 13, 2021 (entity 12115414-0160).

A fall 2021 conference program lists a StoryLabs subscription among its 2020–2021 resource grants. It gives no amount or exact subscription dates.

On July 8, 2026, S&S Apps registered SCHOLAR'S LAB as a Utah assumed name (Business ID 14713126-0151), with Stephens as registered agent.

On January 29, 2023, the StoryLabs storefront displayed a $45 Explicit Materials Brochure and an Amplify subscription page.

On January 10, 2024, Utah Parents United used Amplify USA to ask readers to email State Board members in support of repealing R277-328, the educational equity rule. S&S Apps, co-founded by Brooke and Aaron Stephens, makes Amplify. The post names Utah Parents United without identifying its author.

On August 28, 2026, Amplify described organization notifications and school-board lookup, and StoryLabs sold Amplify subscriptions and customized apps.

A November 2025 newsletter advertised an index of review links coming at the end of 2025, for $5 monthly or $50 lifetime. Domain records date nationalbookratingindex.com to late November, followed by a defensive .org registration. RatedBooks offered NBRI memberships on December 2, 2025. The NBRI YouTube channel’s first video, a silent demonstration, followed on December 8.

On August 17, 2026, the interface showed local-review flags for anti-BDS legislation and Utah sensitive-materials law. An archived comparison that day found some shared software names with the Parental Choice Index, which combines sources and calculates ratings differently. The shared code’s author is unknown.

On September 3, 2026, the product page counted 28,000+ titles and the homepage advertised 37,000+ reviews. Its source lists also changed between the launch video and later pages.

On June 1, 2026, Stephens demonstrated a $100-per-library inventory review, rating-based checkout preferences, author flags tied to an Israel-boycott letter and a parent letter distributed through PeachJar.

In a Utah Moms for America interview released June 30, 2026 and uploaded July 1, Stephens said she helped build NBRI. She described paid links to library systems, matching submitted lists against 34,000 reports and Texas entities sending lists before buying books. She did not name those customers.

On September 3, 2026, the Index & Products page offered institutional branding and library-system links for rating-based parent opt-outs. It named no installed system. RatedBooks offered a $50 annual membership with AI scans and title audits, although its footer denied subscriptions. Service requests went to NBRI.

On February 24, 2026, a Davis library supervisor told staff that parents should not have catalog administrator access and that the district does not upload book-rating systems.

On March 6, 2026, a journalist requested Davis emails about Stephens and any training materials she supplied. The request remained pending on August 1, 2026. A March 10 complaint to USBE was later sent back to Davis because USBE said its audit department cannot manage districts.

On June 18, 2026, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Davis denies a breach. The district gave no written finding, a quoted FERPA attorney questioned the access, and Stephens said, "Nothing happened."

The timeline describes a comparison of five RatedBooks-listed districts: Queen Creek, Arizona; Fulton County, Georgia; Alpine, Utah; Phoenixville, Pennsylvania; and West Ada, Idaho. The original files are not linked, so this page withholds the results.

In February 2026, the Pickens County Library System's policy manual names NBRI as a possible source for assessing age appropriateness.

The clips section has 13 clips of remarks at Pickens County Library System board meetings in South Carolina, from August 2024 to March 2026.

On July 19, 2026, RatedBooks listed 72 library-catalog links, mostly for South Dakota districts.

The timeline describes a May 20, 2026 report of a Michigan parent using NBRI for an opt-out request. The original is not linked, so this page withholds that account.