Your Child Should Know That Vanilla and Chocolate Are Not The Only Two Flavors
This is the first post a new series inspired by the children’s book, The Little Prince. It’s a questionnaire called “The Big Hat” designed by Oyalabs, where we ask inspiring grown-ups questions that matter — from a child’s perspective.
We see the brain as a big hat where identity, cognitive and social skills develop starting from day one and can be later pulled out as amazing tricks in life, like solving problems, making friends, learning other languages.
“Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: ‘What does his voice sound like?’ ‘What games does he like best?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask: ‘How old is he?’ ‘How many brothers does he have?’ ‘How much money does he have?’ Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves at the roof…,’ they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!”
-The Little Prince
Meet Evi Triantafyllides, the creator of Worldwide Buddies — the most wonderful box that teaches children about diversity and cultures.
A children’s book writer and a savvy entrepreneur from Cyprus, based in New York. She founded Worldwide Buddies, a startup focused on changing the old perception of “us” versus “them” through interactive children’s books and games delivered inside a colorful box.
Each edition of the box is based on a different country and its culture, and the box is delivered to your house on a subscription model. The current edition is about the Mexican Day of the Dead and rumor has it, the next edition will be about China.
We sat down with Evi to find out more about the problem of Otherism in parenting, the inspiration and educational value behind her boxes and her top 3 favourite books about diversity. Enjoy!
Oyalabs: Fast Company wrote an article about your company Worldwide Buddies a month ago, they say you’re helping parents “fight otherism”, What is Otherism and how is your product helping parents fight it?
Evi: If you look at the dictionary, interestingly enough, Otherism can both have a positive connotation (altruism, empathy), as well as a negative one (distancing/differentiating yourself from someone because of being “other”, based on skin color or religion). Taking the latter definition, very often, people have difficulties in distinguishing between differences and otherism. Otherism is the action of excluding someone because of their differences.
Through our stories and story boxes, we introduce children to different cultures and perceptions, as well as characters and situations they can identify with. This is key in fighting “otherism”. Children are introduced to different cultures and are opened up to diverse ways of thinking through characters they can relate to, and often have similar fears and dreams to them.
We hope that this will make them grow up looking beyond stereotypes in initial introductions, and discover the similarities that can hide behind first appearances.
What’s more, children come to the world without preconceptions and are ready to accept anything and everything (and that’s why they love fantastical stories filled with imagination). We thought “why don’t we also fill their imagination with wonderful customs and traditions from distant parts of the world?” Making these part of their everyday life from a young age will hopefully spark their curiosity to discover more about distant worlds and the people that come with each.
“Otherism is the action of excluding someone because of their differences.”
O: What did you learn about the challenges of modern-day parenting while developing products for them and for what ages are your boxes developed for?
E: One prominent trend that I’ve seen a lot in the past year is that there’s too much noise, too many products out there and it gets more and more difficult to choose from. On top of that, children end up with tons of similar toys/games that go unused (especially from presents they receive). This makes parents look for more valid reasons as to why to buy what to buy. They want the products that they buy to be more aligned with their educational values, with a specific vision or mission, and to serve a purpose.
At the same time, (especially in households with two working parents) they are super busy, and many don’t have the time to filter through the noise. On the one hand, they want to get their children off the screen and help them develop skills through meaningful play, yet on the other hand, they lack the time to do so. I think that’s the problem many subscription boxes are trying to solve.
Our boxes are developed for 4–5 years old children and above.
O: If you could spend a Christmas holiday with a children’s book character, which one would it be, and in which city?
E: Can I choose two?! For some reason, whenever I read books, I try to imagine how the characters would react in different contexts! Matilda and Elephant from Elephant and Piggie. Matilda would try to teach Elephant about everything and anything in the world using her whimsical wisdom, while Elephant would have the simplest and silliest questions (and those are usually the most ingenious). And I would just watch their interactions and giggle.
Maybe in a town in Germany — it has to be a picturesque one, and one that takes festive decorations very seriously.
“Whenever I read books, I try to imagine how the characters would react in different contexts!”
O: Your first box edition was inspired by Mexico. What moved you to write about the Mexican culture first?
E: The Day of the Dead celebration. When children first find out about death, they start asking questions and often feel fear. At the same time, many adults are afraid to address the subject (if you think about it, we also don’t have the answers!). On the contrary, Mexicans see death as an inherent part of life and dedicate an entire holiday to celebrate their deceased loved ones, remembering happy memories with them. I thought that it’s a beautiful tradition and something all cultures should adopt!
“When children first find out about death, they start asking questions, and often feel fear…if you think about it, we also don’t have the answers!”
O: If you had the chance to be the U.S. Education Minister for a day and you could add two new required subjects, what would those be and why?
E: I mean… I couldn’t NOT add cultural education! I would hopefully create a fun curriculum around it, trying to encourage students to get into different people’s shoes.
And then probably a more experimental, hands-on class, where children are given all sorts of everyday, real-life challenges, as well as open-ended tasks revolving around interactions between them. Absolutely no textbooks, or clear-cut rules. We never stress the importance of just learning how to go about life — how to interact with different types of people in diverse situations, stand up for yourself, feel empathy, reflect, know when and how to change, prioritize, apologize and simply become… the best version of your everyday self! These are skills ALL children will need to use, every day, for the rest of their lives.
“Absolutely no textbooks, or clear-cut rules.”
O: Can you give us a clue about your source of inspiration for the next box and which children’s skills you’re trying to help develop with it?
E: Siblings… lack of siblings… my fascination with China after my visit there a couple of years ago… wanting to portray an aspect of Chinese society through a more personal, emotional lens, as well as show its culture beyond the economic and political realm… the diverse landscapes… dragons!! I think I’ll stop for now.
O: Who told you that Santa was not the one drinking the glass of milk by the Christmas tree and how did you react to the news?
E: Believe it or not, my (favorite) elementary school teacher. I was devastated. I remember being so mad with my parents. I told them: “you taught me not to lie and you’ve been lying all this time.” (SO dramatic!!!) I don’t remember how they justified that!
O: What are your top 3 children’s books that touch on cultural integration?
- Me too! — Annika Dunklee, illustrated by Lori Joy Smith
- This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from around the World by Matt Lamothe
- Lovely, by Jess Hong
O: What words or activities would you suggest parents should use more or less with their little ones to prepare them for a diverse loving world?
Parents should introduce diversity and differences in cultural differences, just like they introduce any other differences: people with different tastes in food, different hobbies, different favorite colors and so on… There’s a great video the BBC posted that perfectly sums up how children compare themselves with others:
Children see differences and similarities between them through a naive way, with no preconceptions: “I like ice cream, I have green eyes, I am from France, I celebrate Christmas, I’m afraid of spiders and LOVE dancing. Yael likes ice cream too, he has brown eyes, he is from Israel, he celebrates Hanukkah, has a pet spider and also LOVES dancing. We love dancing together.” No difference or similarity is more important than the others. We should try to preserve this way of looking at the world and its people as much as possible.
“No difference or similarity is more important than the others.”
The introduction of opposites is also something interesting to look at — white vs black, north vs south etc. Of course, opposites need to be introduced in order to help children make sense of the world, but we should try expanding these beyond binaries. We should teach children that white can be off-white, shiny white and white with black dots! A location on the north can be south compared to another north location. We should teach them that more often than not, a single word is insufficient on its own, and we should be looking beyond that. Descriptions can be multi-faceted, they can change and they are always subjective. I think this is a great stepping stone in bringing up curious, open-minded children that embrace different perspectives.
“We should teach them that more often than not, a single word is insufficient on its own, and we should be looking beyond that.”
The third piece of advice is to be mindful with whether parents themselves are accepting of a diverse, loving world. Words they use to describe situations, the way they analyze information (not just with their children, but also with others), their own ideas and beliefs and how these translate into their habits and daily vocabulary. Children are like sponges and develop their values based on their parents’ mentality and everyday interactions with the world. If parents are accepting and open-minded in their conversations and actions, then their children are more likely to be like that, too.
“If parents are accepting and open-minded in their conversations and actions, then their children are more likely to be like that, too.”
O: Can our Oya parents be one of the firsts to have access to the next edition?!
E: Absolutely!
O: What’s your favorite Little Prince’s quote?
E: “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” Maybe I remember it more than I should, though!
Thanks for reading! If you liked this article, give us some applause! 👏
Inspired by Evi’s approach? Find out more about her and get Worldwide Buddies for your little one on their website!
Haven’t joined our newsletter yet? Become a part of our parenting community here and you’ll always get our stories, take part in pre-launch product testing and get special discounts from inspiring education innovators.
