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Storytelling has always been regarded as one of the best way to reach children. Fairytales and fables can teach kids valuable morals, however, they rarely tackle everyday situations that kids inevitably encounter.
LA-based Twigtale is using a new method of storytelling to help small children cope with stressful and confusing issues. By incorporating photos of the child and family into the books, the stories and messages resonate with children better and help parents tackle difficult subjects more personally and directly.
The company, located in Marina del Rey, graduated from Disney’s accelerator program in October and received $1 million in funding last month to help build their team and aid product development. The startup is founded and run by people who have had firsthand experiences with the difficulties of explaining hard topics to children.
“My child was going through separation anxiety and my wife and I were leaving town to go to Europe,” said CEO Bobby Benfield. “We consulted our child development specialist and she said ‘make a book’”
Benfield and his wife went out and bought art supplies to piece together their own publication. After eight hours, they had created a book to show their child what will happen when they go out of town, but Benfield knew there had to be a quicker way.
That quicker way was Twigtale — their site that features stories generated from child care professionals in which users can upload photos of themselves and their children.
There are dozens of stories ranging from “My Family is Moving” to “My Food Allergy” that allow children to understand serious topics by seeing themselves within the narrative of the story. The most popular book is unsurprisingly “I Have a New Sibling,” which is a notoriously difficult transition for most first borns.
The company has begun to see competition in the personal book market, but they are confident no one has reached the same level of professional content or subject matter diversity.
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“The thing that differentiates us is that we combine professional and personal content in a way that very few, if any, companies do,” said Benfield. “The core text of our books has been provided by people who are experts in the field and then parents can customize it.”
Twigtale also considers its material a valuable source of knowledge for new parents. The books themselves become transcribed parenting advice that can be applied to a variety of subjects.
A recent partnership with Autism Speaks has propelled Twigtale into the special needs world by helping kids adjust to routine life situations. The partnership has created five books so far, dealing with topics like water safety and trusting police officers.
Disney remains a primary investor in Twigtale as they look to expand their brand and content further in 2015.
“We view this current momentum as the early innings of what we ultimately hope to do,” Benfield said.
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