[1] Dooley has said that her mother's work on My So Called Life, "doing some groundbreaking stuff with gay teenagers," helped her to come out as queer herself to her parents.
[4][5] In 2007, Dooley co-wrote Fred Phelps The Musical, which was presented in a workshop starring Randy Blair and Max Jenkins with lyricist Kaley McMahon and director Ryan Mekenian.
Dooley completed the script but ABC Family dropped the project when the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began in November 2007 and halted development.
When the strike ended, Dooley began to work on several other projects, including a pilot for CBS which was never picked up.
[1] Dooley co-wrote and directed a short film, Snapshot, with Miranda Sajdak, about the first meeting between a girl's mother and her prom date, which premiered at the 2010 Outfest.