A Penwortham woman is creating a newspaper with a twist.
Tired of negativity in the news, Natalie English is starting Forever Curious, a media platform aimed at inspiring kids to reimagine news stories by creating ideas and solutions together.
Freelance creative Natalie, who says she’s never done anything like this before, began the project earlier this year.
She said: “At the start of lockdown I set up Kid Curious School. I posted daily on Instagram for kids to create solutions to Covid-19 related challenges such as how to stop people stockpiling.
“The responses and ideas I got back were so good that I thought ‘why stop there?’
“So I did research on families and children around the media. I found that actually lots of parents are sick of the fear and scaremongering in newspapers today, and are crying out for their children to be part of a more positive news movement.
“I have been working on it since then – running surveys with kids to find out what issue they would like to take on first, facilitating interviews, creating features etc.”
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The plan is to created two printed editions of Forever Curious per year, and Issue One is already underway. As voted for by 354 kids from across the UK, it will be focussed on the food and hunger crisis.
Mum-of-two Natalie says the paper will help kids create ideas and solutions to issues in society, and help them reach their potential.
“I have seen first hand just how creative children actually are. Whereas adults can often look at situations as challenges, kids straightaway think of ways they can transform them into cool new ideas and opportunities.
“I also believe this newspaper could have a significant impact on children when they grow up as it will help them to understand the world around them from a more positive perspective as they will know that they can help to create a change.”
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In September Natalie started crowdfunding via the NatWest Back Her Business initiative in order to raise enough money to get the paper printed. She reached the £2,000 target within a matter of days.
The crowdfunder will be open until Wednesday 21 October, and you can donate here.
To find out more visit the Kid Curious and the Forever Curious paper, visit Facebook or Instagram.
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What do you think of Forever Curious newspaper idea? Let us know in the comments below