Heroes: Hellocreative

Our MissionHelloCREATIVITY’s mission is to help children grow self-confidence and personal courage through artistic expression and connection to mentors worldwide.

HelloCREATIVITY provides a supervised,
online connection between children and mentors who nurture and empower
the young artists. By encouraging children to claim their creative
voice, we strengthen their opportunity for a more understanding,
hopeful, successful, and peaceful future.

Children ages 2 to 18 submit all forms of creative expression. Our mentor community
includes artists, photographers, writers, musicians, teachers, parents,
professionals, and seniors — any adult who has the passion to make a
positive difference can become a mentor.

Works of Art Created by Kids! - HelloCREATIVITY.com

I love this concept. Check it out if you’re eager to inspire & empower!! Here are more thoughts on how YOU might help:

Help Motivate a Child - Mentor Creativity Online!

Free time is scarce, and mentoring is tough to schedule. We know. That’s where creative thinking enters the picture: Ever wondered what could be possible if we all pooled 5 minutes of our free time into an online mentoring community?

Together, we can provide encouragement for children around the
world. By encouraging children to claim their creative voice, we
strengthen their opportunity for a more understanding, hopeful,
successful, and peaceful future.

Check out this link for more on Mentoring Creativity Online.

 

Corp Thoughts on the Future of Tween Social Networking

First of all, as always, Anastasia– you rock. This was a GREAT article find.

Until recently, social networking was predominantly teenage and young adult turf, the place to swap music and gossip and flirt and gather. But as the technology becomes easier to use, major media companies such as Disney Corp. and Viacom-owned Nickelodeon are expanding their offerings to appeal to the preteen crowd, hoping to calcify them into lifelong customers for their other properties.

….

“These tweens have a
crosshairs on their backs,” said Liz Perle, editor-in-chief of Common
Sense Media, a nonpartisan San Francisco organization that evaluates
media. “The corporations know if they can get (young customers) now,
they will establish brand loyalty for life.”

They continue to hit the adults too– thanks beer.tv, Doritos, Coke, etc.

It’s working.

Kids are spending considerable time on these sites — 45 minutes
a month on Club Penguin, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, but that
number may seem conservative to parents who find they must crowbar
their children’s fingers off the keyboard. While 45 minutes is less
than the two hours a month that users linger on MySpace, it’s capturing
media screen time away from television for a formative audience, many
of whom still get tucked in every night by their parents.

Side note– I have a handful of tater tots hanging out in our community all day. ALL DAY. One in particular is eager to talk from noon until 10 pm. She’s an uber-fan, and that’s great… but she displays behaviors that make me worry. She doesn’t know how to relate to other children and she’s dependent on the moderators to placate & entertain her. Not good. And she’s demanding when moderators/screeners ease off (as they should). Over Xmas, I had three bloggers live-blogging their family holiday. Yes. Liveblogging. What on earth?!

Perle believes that 6-year-olds are too young to be social
networking, and about an hour of screen time is enough for an
8-year-old.

**”A 6-year-old should be learning how to work out social
situations on the playground, where you can read someone’s facial
expression — not on some two-dimensional Web site where if an (avatar
of a) penguin doesn’t want to talk to you, he turns his back and walks
away,” Perle said.**

No doubt 6 years are too young! The Disney Fairy site is BRILLIANT for 5 & 6 year olds with help from their parents… as a treat. An activity. Liz Perle is incredibly accurant when speaking of playgrounds & play patterns & social learning. The web is playacting– invisible, not real, but with real implications. How can kids truly understand their peers if they’re not physically around them? Even 8 year olds who visit our community have social confusion– situations they should be experiences IRL before having to confront it with the web-mask of vagueness.

Several of the sites use a similar formula: The tweens play
simple games, earn some sort of currency, then spend it on decorations
for their online pad. Or, in the case of www.barbiegirls.com, users can share their new Barbie makeover with their online pals, while Extreme Disney visitors can fashion their own fairies.

Webkinz and Club Penguin are unusual in that they have become
popular through old-school viral marketing: One kid talking to another
on the playground. There are no TV networks or shows or hit movies or
cultural totems like Barbie to lure kids onto the Web sites.

Webkinz, which is also ad-free and Canadian, has drawn
marketing admirers for its real world/virtual world cross-promotion: a
$10 to $12 plush toy that contains the access code to their
identical-looking online animal character. More than 2 million of these
Webkinz pets have found a home in the past two years, and the site
draws 3.5 million visitors a month. Not that the plushies get a whole
lot of love at Laurel’s house.

“I don’t really play with it a lot,” Laurel said of her plush
toy. “But sometimes, when I see it, it reminds me to go play (with the
computer game).”

Wow, seeing your plushie = reminder, what a great insight! I always wondered about those plushies. I had random plushies as a kid/tween/teen, but they all sat together in a pyramid pile. I liked to collect them, but not really play with them. I had guilty issues whenever I tried to “put away” any of my plushies. Now they’re all living together in a lovely laundry bag in my basement. When I think of them huddled together, I worry. Are they plotting my destruction? Are they sad that I’ve hidden them away? What a bad plushie-mom I am.

Which brings me to a second insight– that’s a great guilt-reminder for webkinz. You come home after school, you’re tired, you want go outside or watch tv or have a snack… but you glance at your Polar Bear Webkinz plushie and think “Oh, crap, I’ve got to go online and feed Mr. Bob.” Slick, webkinz, slick…

It was bad enough with me & Neopets. Colin Skye (my neopet) was a HUGE bit o guilt on my concious. I often forgot to sign on and feed him. And when I DID jump into neotopia to play that block destruction (a game of awesome mindlessness), I wouldn’t look at my neopets toolbar. Why? Because my points were there– the points I should use to hunt out some food and feed Colin Skye (may he rest in peace). After a while I would just stick him up in Neopets hotels (only the best of the best for my lil guy) for months on end. MONTHS! And then, finally, I stopped visiting him. I can’t even go into Neopets any longer. Guilt, guilt, guilt. And yes, I am a looney.

Fun: The Indian Harry Potter

There’s an Indian connection to Harry Potter and Dhaval Dave from Ahmedabad has been getting attention from people all around…

NDTV.com: NDTV 24×7 Live Webcast from India

Check out the video in that link!  I thought it was a cute bit of fun. And he does look a lot like Daniel Radcliffe!

technorati tags:Harrypotter, DanielRadcliffe

FYI: Club Penguin & Surfs UP

Penguins, Penguins everywhere.  This has GOT to be the year– nay… the DECADE of the entertainment penguin.  First “The March of the Penguins,” then “Happy Feet,” and now “Surfs Up“– not to mention the kids social networking bohemoth Club Penguin (bohemoth seemed more appropriate than juggernaut– seemed colder? Blame the Mammoth).

Well this morning I stumbled upon a lovely wee find for penguin-loving tater tots.

Sony (ironically the same company vying to buy CP) has sponsored a “Free Membership for Life” contest for kids & Club Penguin on behalf of their new movie “Surfs Up”.  There are three possibilities– Lifetime, Yearly, or Monthly subscription for free.  I just signed my godson up and watched the trailer they provided after I put my email in.

Anyway– although minute in the big picture of things, thought the Sony & CP contest was a bit of a taste of the future.

FYI: Age Verification & Parental Approvals for kid Social Networking Sites

The North Carolina Senate has passed a new law designed to protect minors from the “perils” of social networking sites like MySpace. Concern about sexual predators on such sites has been mounting, with much of the pressure coming from state Attorneys General, including North Carolina’s Roy Cooper. Now, state legislatures are starting to take action to “protect the children.”North Carolina’s proposed law stands out because it at least recognizes the difficulties with requiring social networking sites to do age verification. While age verification works pretty well for adults, it is much harder to do with children. The North Carolina legislation takes this lesson to heart by requiring that parents or guardians first sign up and verify their ages; only then can their children register for accounts.

Braden Cox recently testified about the legislation before the North Carolina legislature on behalf of the Netchoice Coalition and said that “there is no way to make sure that someone a user designates as their parent is in fact their parent.” He argued that the best way to prevent problems is through education, not regulation—an approach that naturally appeals to the corporate backers of Netchoice.

Bills like this could be a sign of things to come. Congress has already considered legislation which would have made social networking sites off-limits at schools and libraries, and state Attorneys General have threatened Bud.tv and other sites with lawsuits if they do not implement stronger age verification systems.

Social networking sites have clearly gotten the memo about parental worries, and most are moving proactively to head off criticism and safeguard their users. MySpace, for instance, has announced a program called “Zephyr” that will allow parents to access their children’s accounts and keep an
eye on their electronic doings. Critics have already dismissed the move as not being good enough.

Legislation like that being considered by North Carolina is often dismissed as merely pandering to the “Think of the children!” demographic, but protecting children is part of the government’s public safety obligation. Few of the proposals we’ve seen so far seem like good ways to do this, but North Carolina’s approach at least has the virtue of novelty—unlike most video game legislation, which relies on similar rhetoric but has been almost universally struck down by the courts, sometimes at great cost to the states.

MySpace age verification… for parents?

There have been SO MANY different articles like this in the news for about 4 months now. How is the government going to make up for lacking parents? First of all– it’s making sure that parents ARE indeed parents.

We have a really great advisory board filled with kids– but if you want to participate, a parent needs to approve. It seems easy enough. Wrong.

1. Kids lie. They want to be a part of something and don’t want the time barrier it will take for a parent to approve (or the chance that they may not approve at all). So they send approvals that look more like Junior High art projects than a parent approval letter, and I won’t even go into the spelling (like I should talk) or the “slips” (as in– “I, Mr. Anthony ***, aprve my 9 year old sun, Marc, he relly likes your site a lot and wants to play there every day cos he thinks ur the bestest. Tnx, Marc” OOPS! LOL).

2. Parents are typing/sounding younger (or some would say “cooler”) all the time. I’ve double checked a mountain of parent approvals– simply because I thought they were kids trying to scam me. Parents with Hello Kitty backdrops, L33T spelling, smiley icons, and wretched grammer. Sometimes I have NO IDEA if it’s a parent or a 15 year old. I’ve never been one for “sounding/acting your age”– but MAN, it would be an easier world if people would act like respectable parents when called to do so.

3. Lazy parents. Parents don’t always read the emails coming to them regarding their children. They see paragraph jargon and think it’s just a “heads up”– some respond with empty messages, or they’re put something vague like “Yah, my kid can play on your site.” Play on our site? Clearly someone didn’t even read the first sentence.

Every 1/10 approvals I get from parents is appropriate and consise. My favorite are the parents who actually ASK QUESTIONS about their child’s involvement & safety. Sure some of the questions can be legal and difficult– but at least they ask! Taking an interest– who knew it would be so rare?

Regardless… age verification seems like it will remain an enigma for the masses for some time. That’s why I’m glad we use human intellegence to verify & clarify. There is still room for error, but at least we can investigate a little further (also helps to be a contained, smaller community- ha!).

I have to say– working on a smaller, contained community has been an AMAZING education– you get hands on in the nitty gritty of + and - of ev-er-y-thing. You get to see the world from the top & bottom & middle. Where the future will go, where the past has been, and how the present is both good & bad.

Calling All Kids: Harry Potter Contest

Calling All Kids!
Are you a big Harry Potter fan? Amazon.com is looking for a few good muggles who are passionate, energetic, and under the age of 18 to submit a video clip of themselves sharing their love for J.K. Rowling’s epic series and talking about their favorite Harry Potter character. (Please keep your comments to the published books only–no Deathly Hallows speculation please!) Approximately 10 young fans will be selected as “Amazon Kid Correspondents” to serve as our Harry Potter aficionados on the Amazon.com Web site and in media interviews leading up to and following the much-anticipated July 21 release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To enter the Quest, a parent or legal guardian of the participating child must complete the entry form below.

Amazon.com: Harry Potter Kid Correspondent Quest

Fyi:

Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 21 or older at the time of entry. Entrants must be a parent or legal guardian of a child under the age of 18 who is featured in the video submitted to enter the Quest.

Why must everyone foil me? LOL! But seriously– what I wouldn’t have DONE for this chance as a tater tot. Lucky wee things. Where is the adult fan love? Clearly I have been usurped by the same target-fan-issue I’ve talked about before. Anyway– this is a GREAT opportunity for young wizards branded with lightning scars around the world to feel a part of the whole shabang.

technorati tags:Harrypotter, JKRowling, amazon, amazon.com, contest, youth, reporters

Money and Social Networking for kids

Just to recap here, according to Olsen, Neilsen/Netratings measured the following web traffic in April 2007:

- Disney.com sites = 11 million (visitors)
- Club Penguin = 4 million
- Webkinz = 3.6 million
- Neopets = 3.2 million
- Barbie/Everythinggirl = 1.9 million

While these numbers don’t specify what percentage of these visitors actually belongs to the 2-11 year old demographic (all?), I’m guessing that they’re assuming that a large or majority percentage do. As for BarbieGirls, the site is claiming to have registered half a million kids since April 26. Of particular note is the growing excitement for real world/virtual world crossover play (a la Webkinz and this new MP3/BarbieGirls play), which appears to be developing quite quickly from the “premium”-model that Neopets was applying a couple of years ago (where purchase of a Neopets toy came with a special activation code that allowed you to get into a special area of the site), to a more integrated and ongoing approach (watch for Viva Pinata’s toy/avatar venture later this year). Another promising aspect is how Mattel has integrated this real/virtual crossover into its safety features, via the special access players can obtain for “best friends”.

Gamine Expedition: CNET Covers BarbieGirls and kids’ MMOGs

Mmmm. There is talk of such ventures here. Time will tell.

I’m weary in a bit of the frenzy. Why? Because it feels… shifty.

Remember in the movie The Witches (adaptation of Roahl Dahl’s brilliance) with Angelica Huston– when the witches lured the chubby kid into the conference hall promising chocolates as long as he showed up. He opened the door and all of the wig-toting, square-shoed, purple-pupiled old bats turned around and eyed him greedily, giggling with success, excited to see what happened to this kid in their environment, eating up their product? Yeah… so that’s a total exaggeration of the situation, so take about a 1/10th of that creepiness and apply it to companies salivating over the toy + virtual world = big bucks scenario. That’s how I feel about it.

It’s not a wrong venture. In fact– in terms of making the money needed to support such an engaging website, I understand the need to pursue such a licensing coup. Companies are companies– they’re in it to win it… “it” being your business of course. Virtual worlds & branded sites are for consumer awareness & engaging the end user (preferably with a wallet). Doesn’t sound very flattering, I know, but truth is truth… besides, it’s also about your companies intentions and the respect returned to the people who support businesses & companies (at least that’s my opinion, and what I look for in the companies I support as a consumer).

Brands thriving online = a two way street. A Bert & Ernie situation. Two ideals co-habitating to be successful in one environment, despite the differing goals, both have the same intentions.

1. Give back to the audience/consumer. Listen to the voice of the people. Give them what they want and in return, they’ll support you. Good intentions, sincere thanks, opportunities for all, and a positive step forward.

2. Promote brand awareness. Make engagement with the product easier– more information/understanding of the product/brand, alerts of new offers, quick buy links, profitability, capitalism, etc.

I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of other ideas… but to me– these are the good cop & bad cop of branding online. A good company is able to balance the two. A GREAT company makes #1 the majority (le sigh) while still managing to pull in enough profit to make the website sustainable. Lord knows it takes $$ to staff & build– thems the facts. Nothing is “really” free.

What bothers me are the “Me toos” — the people who only see dancing dollars. The companies that see others have success with their online ventures and make hasty decisions to jump in too. #1 isn’t even a thought… but looked at as a “plus” later on down the line when flinging out their PR statements. Flurry, flurry, fluster, fluster– get on that gravy train! UGH. No thank you. Maybe I’m being naive, and that’s just the way things are done… but in MY line of work? I have to make #1 the majority, while doing my best to understand #2. But #2 will never be my first reaction. You lose any credibility as a community role model & leader.

Silly side note & probably bad example: Ever notice the fact that Gilligan’s Island wasn’t called “Skipper’s Island” or “Mr. Howell’s Island”? Gilligan (although the pratfall & gag of the island) was the only one TRULY supportive of the people around him before himself. He’s the one the people look to (despite his mistakes & goof ups on the show).

When I was in India last fall– I was on the end of those greedy glances– the kind that make you feel like a Moneybags McGee among a crowd of Impoverished O’Emptypockets. I really REALLY hate it when hungry companies look at children like dancing steaks. Thank god no one at SF does (at least not that I’ve seen). I’d turn all Rambo.

Anyway… the next 6 months should be VERY interesting in terms of social networking for the wee ones. Sara from Gamineexpedition already pointed out the Viva Pinata example (really? VP? I didn’t really think it had that great of a following where kids would search ‘em out online & buy their stuff in stores. Hmmm. Who knew?) I wonder who the next “Me Too” will be– I’ve got my eye out for ‘em. Hopefully you will too.

technorati tags:licensing, neopets, webkinz, barbiegirls.com, barbie

Curious: Parents Trust Moderators…?

Okay, I take staffing VERY seriously. I’ve been accused of being a zealot recently in terms of my paranoia with private information, kid contact, and the “Grey Area” of tween community communication. At first I was very pleased with the zealot label… why wouldn’t I want to be concerned with responsibility of those put under my charge (even in in web form)? I was a nanny, a camp counselor, a teacher– I’ve been privy to some of the darker sides of childcare (thankfully, not due to anything I’ve done, and more to horror stories, peer watching, and parent contact). But then I realized that zealot isn’t always a very lovely term (especially how it was said to me at the time).

Why is it that society shows SO MUCH concern for the adults put in charge of kids in a public structure (teachers & schools) and barely acknowledge the question: “Who is moderating my kid?”

Granted, companies that provide online community functions within their websites for kids should automatically train their moderators and screeners (Heaven knows I do to the point of micromanagement… trust earned, trust earned). Unlike teachers and camp counselors and babysitters and nannies and coaches– parents never get the face-to-face with the people responsibility for safe-guarding their kids online activities. I’m just uber-interested in why I don’t get more emails from parents asking me about the management & staffing & safety of my team. Ate least I’m ready for such questions.

As you can see from this good ole blog– I’m uber concerned about kids welfare online. How is it that I rarely hear (or read) about others who are in charge of a youth online community? In this day and age of uber technological transparency (Joi has a great article about this), I find it funny that others in my profession remain silent and don’t participate in this BOOM of communities & online marketing for the tater tots.

A tangent of this topic is– while all of these branded companies are scurry scurry scurrying about trying to create brand evangelism through their online facilities… why haven’t the big biz (OUTSIDE of online community positions) started taking a public stance about their investment in quality staffing? “Anyone can do it, I don’t care who does it as long as it gets done.” <– This is the vibe I keep getting and it just confounds me. No. Not everyone can do it– and you don’t want just ‘anyone’ doing it. Recently I’ve come across a “community” student who, upon further connect-the-dots websurfing, proved NOT to be very clever about private information & a TMI profile (took me two click-thru to get to this information, that’s all). Wouldn’t hire him if you begged me. People around me keep calling him a “guru”– and I’m just stunned.

Fan sites giving management powers to fans– I can’t comment on that. But a business giving access to the management/admin tools over an ocean of kids in a community to just “anyone”? NOT ACCEPTABLE. This is not backyard babysitting with the teenager next door, whom you watched grow from infancy.

Community staff have their collective ears tuning into the voices of the community… the audience. You want to know what people think of your brand? Where the problems are? Where the trends are? Do you want to know who is representing you (the brand) to the public? Start paying attention to the people who serve the community: not only to protect yourself, your kids, your brands– but also to push possibility & opportunity & entertainment & involvement to the future.

Branded Online Community: Target Demographic?

Do you ever have two-sided arguments with yourself? I do. Often. Does that make me nuts? I sure hope so. (The nutty ones are always more interesting).

Anyway, so my problem within the last few months is this: Target Demographic of a book/cartoon series VS wide ranging fans in an online forum format.

Unlike many tween branded communities these days, we actually break that fourth wall and allow them to interact with “Us”– EEHQ (as a vague entity that runs the website & works within the hallowed halls that creates their favorite branded entertainment). I love this. Why? Because the audience has our ear & attention. They KNOW they are being “heard” and acknowledged and respected. <– I’m telling you, this is the way of the future.

U13, and more importantly the tweeners, are a sticky set to work with. Why? Because it takes CONSTANT diligence & vigilance (Oh, Mad-eye, I wish I had you sitting on my desk to yell at my whim) if you’re going to give them any room to grow & own the space.

They are so WONDERFULLY unpredictable. In fact, they are predictably unpredictable. They don’t know what they want, but they know they want what they can’t have. They want to be adults without the responsibility. They want to be unique without being singled out. They want life to be fair, but not when they’re trying to push rules. They don’t want you to look at them until you’re not looking at them, and then it’s quite the opposite. Oh, to be 9 - 13 again.

So what I’ve really grappled with lately is the idea of: Tween online community life takes a lot of attention & energy… and it REALLY forces you to put up high walls of safety to keep their tween insanity safe within (both for their own protection for others and from others).  How does that effect your entire fan base–outside the tween demographic?

When you have a book & cartoon series that pinpoints the “clever 11 year old” — you really need to pay attention to +2 and -2 years around that identified age. The series was made for them, it’s their world to play in.

The trouble: fans range far beyond the target demographic. Like Harry Potter & The Chronicles of Narnia & The His Dark Materials books– there is a WIDE appeal to adventure/fantasy/fun/dark/humor/subculture, etc.

When building an online community or a virtual world– it’s easy to fall into the trap of singling out a certain demographic as being the ideal members. And with U13, it becomes a mission to protect those kids from the rest of the big-bad-world… and what I’ve realized is that– by putting my “Eye of Mordor” on this mission, I’m cutting out the rest of the fans who enjoy this series and would like to continue the adventure online.

If you decide to break that 4th wall of communication, you HAVE to pay direct attention to the fans if you plan on building a communication-based environment. Do you risk alienating the older demographic in hopes to retain & appease the target? Or do you double the effort to make an environment that appeals to young, old, fankid, newbie, goofball, serious, etc. That’s quite a fete.

What I’ve come to realize in the last month (especially) is that it is a balancing act, a priority chart, a slight of hand, and a whole lot of charisma.

It’s kind of exciting to have epiphanies like this. You work so hard for so long just trying to identify and define what it takes to work with kids SAFELY while retaining that fun factor. The sketchiness of the world really closes in– and you see how others make their choices. Sweet Heyzeus (yes I know that’s not how it’s spelled, lol), my Eye of Mordor has focused soo intently on Tween Online Safety that I’m sure the whole concept has a really nice tan at this point. But once you make peace with your understanding & have confidence, you can really start to focus efforts on how to make a Tween-oriented book/cartoon/brand series also available to fandom in general, while keeping everything safe and fun and worthwhile. Oh living, learning, growing… ain’t it fantabulous?

We’re trying to push some BIG changes down the pipeline for E&E’s community (which is just a speckle in the eye of the grand design). Let’s just hope it works the way I want it to– hahahaha. I can honestly say, I don’t know too many brands that have broken that 4th wall for the youngin’s. Why? Because it ain’t easy. Hahaha. But that’s a ramble I’ll save for a blog topic based on The Yays and Woes of Staffing an Online Community for Tweens.

Ypulse & Totally Wired: Interviews!

Shaping Youth Interviews Anastasia Goodstein of Totally Wired

Recently, I brought my tween daughter to meet Anastasia Goodstein, (at left) publisher of youth blog YPulse and author of the Totally Wired book and blog.
Since we’re both Bay-area based, I thought I’d seize the local
opportunity to hear what she had to say at one of her book talks on the
press circuit….

Shaping Youth » Shaping Youth Interviews Anastasia Goodstein of Totally Wired

Both Amy (From Shaping Youth) and Anastasia (Author of the book Totally Wired and the blog Ypulse) are amazing!  I look to them daily for insights & expertise in this wild web world for tater tots and teeny bops.  Their candor and passion for the current state of the media is exactly what the doctor ordered in this time of blog podiums and community voice. 

Check out Amy’s interview of Anastasia in the link above (if you haven’t already done so, I know many have linked to it already– like my mentor Joi)

And of course, the Anastasia interview by grand-master Guy Kawasaki (whom I was delighted to see talk at Noah Kagan’s CommunityNext conference a few months back… where I also “saw” Anastasia, but due to my star-struck nature wasn’t able to say “hello”, and awesome Amy, who happened to stumble upon me as I was knee-deep in a rambling diatribe about tweens & communities).

I really must start stalking the conferences again. 

I was going to cut & paste my favorite parts of both interviews (because they’re both UBER valuable if you’re at all interested in teens/tweens and online life), but I think I would prefer sending you to their sites to read the articles.  (Besides, I was having trouble deciphering which parts I wanted to ramble about, perhaps another time).

I will post this one paragraph– why? Because I was gynormously-honored to even be mentioned!!! I’m still pink in the cheeks from it. 

Shaping Youth: What are your top 5 TWEEN (8-12) blogger sites/resources
you use to understand tween demographics as a ‘non-parent?’Totally
Wired: I look at AllyKatz for tween blogs (though they’re all girls),
Disney’s tween oriented sites, Nick.com, and read Izzy Neis’s blog for
insight into kids’ communities.