Asked by Kids

Asked by Kids is a global hub of arts-based educational children’s resources that are free, bilingual (Spanish & English), and open source. Our goal is to make information more digestible for kids globally, by co-creating resources that are built from children’s own questions and ideas. Whether it be through a coloring book or interactive workshop, our work spans multiple focus areas, from Covid-19, democratic processes, participatory budgeting and supply chains to children’s rights, peaceful protesting, and mindfulness practices.

Keywords

Children
Co-creation
Social Justice

Collaborator

Julie Vantrease

Partners

Programs

Artists Striving to End Poverty
Center for the Future of Arizona
Equity for Children
Tinkuy Marca Academy

Adobe InDesign
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Spark
Procreate
Miro

Our Mission

Our overarching intention is to co-create resources that are built from children’s own questions and feedback directly, and giving children a seat at the table to create more accessible resources.

Our Origin Story

Asked by Kids grew from a bilingual, educational children’s coloring book we created to provide important facts about Covid-19, based on conversations with 14 children in 7 different countries. The goal of this book was to better understand how children were experiencing quarantine and what questions they might have about Covid-19. We, then, shipped out this book for free to all of the children who shared their stories with us and throughout homeless shelters in New York City, aiming to reach children most impacted by the digital divide.

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Our Focus Areas

Our main focus areas are Covid-19, democratic processes, participatory budgeting, supply chains, children’s rights, and mindfulness.

Our Methodology

Our work is grounded in participatory design methodologies, as we believe that giving children a seat at the design table creates the most accessible resources for children. Within our own design practice, as illustrators and aspiring children's book authors, we have seen time and time again how children's resources are being built without any input from children. We see this as a flawed design process as it excludes and devalues children’s knowledge.

Connecting with Diverse Stakeholders

We brought together varied perspectives and stakeholders in one collaborative space, from academia and non-profits to a homeless shelter representative, to discuss how best to reach children facing the digital divide and other social injustices.

Our Focus Group Analysis

Our Internal Analysis

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Involving Children in Democratic Processes

In partnership with the Center for the Future of Arizona, we have created resources aimed at involving children as young as elementary school-aged in the participatory budgeting process in their schools. To do so, we have created characters such as Tito the Turtle, who walks you through what it means to understand community proposal in his Kiwi Island, and how he ultimately decides to vote for the good of the community, over his personal good.

Building Empathy with Children

As part of our partnership with the Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) creating participatory budgeting resources for elementary-aged children, we created an empathy mapping tool called Ella the Empathy Elephant. Empathy mapping is a crucial beginning step in the participatory budgeting process while students work on writing project proposals. In order to make the idea of empathy mapping more accessible and kid-friendly we created a character named Ella the Empathy Elephant who walks students through this process while breaking down complex language, making it more understandable.