We spent some time with Kids Active Media Founder, Justine Maynard, talking about their magazine POPIN. Kids Active Media is also one of the companies on the first cohort of the Create South East programme and we asked them about their experience so far.
What are some of the most recent projects you’re working on at Kids Active Media?
The most recent and most concentrated is the ne early years magazine, POPIN. POPIN covers the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statuary framework and the 7 factors of learning for young children. The magazine is targeted at 3-7 year olds and is a magazine that has stories but also puzzles, dot-to-dot, colour me ins. While it has all of the aspects of a usual kids magazine, it is also heavily focused on parent interaction as the magazine can be used a homeschooling tool.
What are you most proud of with Kids Active Media?
POPIN magazine is 100% recyclable, and we will not use covermount toys. Through the EYFS framework, part of this is ‘Expressive Art and Design’, so POPIN has an arts and craft double page which replaces a covermount you may find in other magazines. This is again 100% recyclable rather than plastic packaging used for a toy on a covermount which we are very proud of.
Again, if we look at the EFYS framework one of the areas of learning is ‘Understanding the World’ and we are trying to educate our children about the impact of plastic on the environment.
What keeps you inspired?
We’re heavy on sustainability and early years learning but we haven’t just taken these ideas and added them to pre-existing characters. We have made our own characters for POPIN who build friendships with children while educating them too. Our characters are split into different areas of learning, we have one who does maths, another one that takes you around the world or can help you with your spellings. So unlike other magazines, we’re going against the grain with this.
What are you hoping to gain from the Create South East programme?
Our mentor on the Create South East Programme has been amazing and already opened my eyes to so many different business platforms out there. Although we are a massively creative hub and we know which way we want to go, I think this programme will help us understand the business platforms that we need to be hitting. Eventually maybe getting some investment on to support with the financial side of things too. We are only a small team, but there’s no real reason why a small team can’t hit big.
It’s also that network of knowledge that that we’re really looking forward to tapping into with the Create South East programme. We now have a group of experts that can say, have you tried this or why not try that or collaborate with these people? We can’t do everything but we know our goal. We need to overcome a lot of hurdles in our way and just to have that support of how we could get around them or how we knock them down through knowledge on the programme is what is really important to us.
Want to know more about POPIN or Kids Active Media? Visit their website or you can purchase POPIN in independent stores nationwide, One Stop shops, Asda and from September WHSmith and Morrisons (the list is growing though!)
