Sarah Jane Inwards grew up in Rochester, Minnesota—home of the Mayo Clinic where both her parents worked. That medical atmosphere shaped her early life but didn’t point directly to screenwriting. She studied theater and writing in college, then moved to Los Angeles to pursue scripts. Persistence paid off when her original screenplay, Jellyfish Summer, snagged a 2017 Nicholl Fellowship and landed on the 2017 Black List, two of the industry’s top honors for unproduced scripts. Jellyfish Summer follows a troubled teen who finds healing at her grandparents’ summer cottage on Lake Superior. Sarah Jane wrote it as a character-driven drama about loss and connection. Judges praised her vivid settings and emotionally honest dialogue. The Nicholl win brought a $35,000 prize plus mentorship opportunities, while the Black List mention caught the eye of producers across town. Scott Myers, host of Go Into The Story, asked how those accolades changed her life. Sarah Jane said they opened doors—meetings with agencies, interest from managers, even calls from mid-level studios. But they also raised expectations. She still treats each draft like a new battle, balancing guidance from her mentors with her own voice. When Myers brought up Pixar’s Inside Out, Sarah Jane lit up. She loves how that film captures a child’s inner world, and the fact that its protagonist, Riley, also hails from Minnesota made her tear up at the climax. It reminded her why she writes: to tap into universal emotions through personal stories.