Megan Deibel, 10, of Henrico County likes to write songs, draw and make short animated films.
Fauna Stiffler, 11, of Midlothian likes to write science fiction, explore the outdoors and make short animated films.
The girls' common hobby has gained them a spot on national TV.
Megan's and Fauna's animated films created on the children's Web site Qubo will be broadcast this week and next on cable's ION TV, Qubo Channel, NBC and Spanish channel Telemundo.
The girls' movies titled "The New 13" and "Super 13 Saving the Day" were the only winners in Virginia and two of 12 chosen from across the U.S. by Qubo, a New York-based TV and online family entertainment company.
Judges picked the girls' selections from 44,000 films made with a storytelling tool on www.qubo.com since last December when the project was launched, said Karen Baratz, spokeswoman for Qubo.
Qubo producers re-mastered the films with high-resolution video, color, music and sound effects. Actors recorded dialogue and narration to the story.
The site has interactive clips with the characters Edgar, Eva and a cat named Thirteen that students can assemble into a movie and add pop-up dialogue and sound affects.
Megan has created 16 one-minute films on the Qubo Web site under the name Meganrosie. Fauna has produced 14 movies on the same site under the Fawnzo pseudonym. The themes vary from solving riddles to fantasy, Indiana Jones-style adventure, reality show, "American Idol" and rock 'n' roll.
Fauna a sixth-grader at Robious Middle School, said she discovered the site during the summer.
"I watched some other videos of people saving the day, so I'm like, how about I make this cat save the day," she said.
She said she likes writing the dialogue and creating the adventure.
"I like to act out and make movies and, like, make weird things look real, like, make people look like they're flying," she said. "I like doing fighting scenes because we're usually fighting," she said of her younger brother and sisters.
Megan , a fourth-grader at Three Chopt Elementary School, said she discovered the Web site in the spring and was immediately hooked. She said she watches videos and lets her mind wander for movie ideas.
"If I don't do that I end up copying someone and I think that would be kind of rude," she said.
She found out in August from her mother, Challie Deibel, that one of her movies had been picked to be shown on TV.
She went running and screaming around the house.
"My brother asked me what was going on, I stopped and explained everything to him and then started running again," she said.
Challie Deibel said she is glad her daughter is learning computer skills in a fun way.
"It's a safe Web site," she said. "They're good about checking what students are submitting and pulling out what's inappropriate."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.
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