Ana Holschuh, Julie Vantrease

Asked by Kids is a global hub of arts-based educational children’s resources that are free, bilingual, and open source. Our goal is to make information more digestible for kids globally by co-creating resources inspired by children’s questions and ideas. Our work, delivered through a coloring book or interactive workshop, spans multiple focus areas, from COVID-19, democratic processes, participatory budgeting, and supply chains to children’s rights, peaceful protesting, and mindfulness practices. Our research direction is grounded in participatory design methodologies, as we believe that giving children a seat at the design table provides the most accessible resources for them. In our design practice, as illustrators and aspiring children's book authors, we have seen time and time again how children's resources are being created without any input from children. We see this as a flawed design process, as it excludes and devalues children’s knowledge, which we aim to center from beginning to end. We would like to thank our amazing partners: Artists Striving to End Poverty, Center for the Future of Arizona, Equity for Children, and Tinkuy Marca Academy. Thanks to these organizations, we are able to ensure that our resources and workshops reach children who need them most, especially children facing the digital divide.