A Kids Company About’s latest piece of media is aimed at a new age group for the Portland startup: adults.
It's an effort that includes an NFL Hall of Famer as well as a singer in one of the 1990s best-known acts.
The company launched a parenting book called “100 Diverse Voices on Parenthood.” The book consists of essays from 100 parents on such topics as caring for new babies, maintaining a sense of purpose, money, finding community, navigating a new social reality and single parents returning to work.
Authors include Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, a member of the 90s group TLC, who's a dancer and actress, as well as NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith. Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, a founding member of the Women’s March, contributed a chapter, as did Dr. Becky Kennedy, a clinical psychologist and Instagram’s “Parenting Whisperer."
The book’s authors come from a cross section of race, gender, socioeconomic backgrounds and lived experiences. It’s part of the company’s overall mission to empower the next generation through diverse storytelling, said founder and CEO Jelani Memory.
“We looked around and thought, ‘gosh, where is the diversity and the inclusion element when it comes to parenting books,’” he said. “We have built amazing relationships to incredible voices, (we asked ourselves) what if we collected them to present a radical and revolutionary book when it comes to wisdom and stories and advice and parenting.”
The book has been in the works for over a year. A handful of the authors have written for the company’s children’s book line A Kids Book About, but most were new to the process.
The AKCA team ran writers through an idea workshop to hone the topics each would cover, then sent them off to write, Memory said.
“This incredible book gives readers a succinct diversity of thought, so you can make your own choices on what works best for you and your new family. I wish I had something like this when I was a first time parent,” said Orly Marley, who wrote a chapter called “Letting Them Pave the Way.”
AKCA started in 2019 as a children’s book publisher and has since expanded to a full children’s media company with books, video content and podcasts. It is also developing a TV show with The Jim Henson Co. based on the A Kid’s Book About book series.
The children’s book line has more than 80 titles covering tough but important topics like racism, death, gender, climate change and leadership. The company's media is known for speaks directly to children without speaking down to them.
For its first parenting book, the company followed the same philosophy with each of its chapter authors.
Memory said the company has other plans for the parenting products category. The company already launched a parenting podcast earlier this year that Memory hosts.
A Kids Company About has sold more than 750,000 books and its flagship podcast, “A Kids Book About: The Podcast” has more than 500,000 downloads since it launched last year.
