The Kid & Corona

Inspiration

How we feel on the inside has a huge impact on how we show up on the outside. Much of our unhappiness comes from childhood emotional experiences we couldn't make sense of or express over the years. We don’t have the words or language to calm our emotional charge and express how we feel.

We hope to empower kids to share how they feel through these hard times by creating Beasties to symbolize and mirror qualities they seek and qualities they may not like. Beasties represent different emotions, and emotions are energy in motion. When they get stuck, they have a lot of ripple effects in our lives and ultimately lead to dis-ease. What do we do about it? We tune into our Beasties to help recognize our emotions, uncover how we feel, and develop a vocabulary for our emotional world. We took inspiration from our favorite children's books, Mr. Rogers, and conversations we were having with little ones around us to explain confusing times, and most importantly, how they feel.

What it does

From toddler to adult, Beastie connects the exploration of emotions and the wild side of human nature with personal experience, science, and current or historical events. With a new emotional language for the animal kingdom, we can talk about how we feel and feel understood, the precursor to deepening self-awareness and building better relationships. Our goal is to help kids develop their emotional vocabulary and see the link between feelings and behavior. Linking these together shows kids how feelings can affect the choices they make.

How we built it

We are just three traumatized kids who found each other at the right time. Three kids who realized we had been suffering for too long and something must change—three kids who have a dream to transform the pain from our past. Standing on the shoulders of giants like Dan Siegel and Peter Levine, we are fascinated with the many forces that play a role in forming our shadow selves. It is messy, complex, and forever in hiding, but also intricately connected to the physical and natural sciences, to philosophy, to mythology, to sports, and the arts. When we look at the world through the eyes of future generations, we begin to discover what we all have in common: a choice and a story. That is where it all begins.

Challenges we ran into

We have been researching complex theories of development. Our idea has always been to make this information accessible and relatable to everyone, no matter the age or level of education. Finding the essence of these complex topics and translating the message into a new emotional language has always been our goal. The ultimate challenge became creating this children's book to explain these crazy times in an educational, playful, and age-appropriate way.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Well, we officially wrote our first kid's book! We filled it with love and respect for all the people who have been doing this and changing people's lives through storytelling. Pressed with time and working remotely, we came together as a group and prioritized writing this book two weeks before graduation and final thesis delivery. But ultimately, it was beyond worth it!

What we learned

We have a lot more books to write. Our philosophy is no feelings left behind, but we had to leave some feelings behind to make this book! There’s a lot more coming from us soon, so look out for more Beasties!

What's next for The Kid & Corona

We graduate with a Masters in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons School of Design in a few days. We are continuing to explore the ways living systems and cycles create and trigger behavior. Our focus is on continuing to learn, experiment, iterate, and, most importantly, play while we officially start Beastie!

Built With

• indesign
• procreate