Katie Eder: A Kid's Tale

I created Kids Tales five years ago when I was thirteen; I am its Founder and Executive Director. Kids Tales is a nonprofit venture that brings summer creative writing workshops to 8 to 12 year old kids around the globe who do not have access to writing experiences outside of school. During a Kids Tales workshop, kids spend one week brainstorming, writing, and editing their own short story. At the end of the week, the stories are assembled in a collection and published as an anthology, a real book. All of Kids Tales’ instructors are teenagers.
 
Kids Tales gives kids from underserved communities the opportunity to tell their story and become a published author. I didn’t start Kids Tales knowing it would become a nonprofit. I started it because I love to write and wanted to share my passion for writing with other kids. But at the end of our first workshop, a girl named Alana told me, “Thank you for letting me have a voice. No one has ever done that for me before.”  Alana’s parents were divorced and she never had the opportunity to write and share her thoughts. Kids Tales gave her that chance. I knew Kids Tales had to grow to give more kids, like Alana, the opportunity to find their voices.
 
Kids Tales has grown more than I could ever have imagined! More than 1200 kids across twelve U.S. cities and nine countries including Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Guatemala, Honduras, Taiwan, and a refugee camp in Hungary have participated in Kids Tales, and we have engaged over 300 teen teachers. Since Kids Tales was founded in 2013, we have published 65 anthologies, real books, written by Kids Tales Student Writers.
 
During Kids Tales first summer, I taught our workshops. As we grew, I trained teens that love to write and are passionate about sharing writing with younger kids to teach Kids Tales. Our teen instructors tell us teaching Kids Tales transforms them; they are empowered to continue giving back to their communities. All teen instructors are trained to teach Kids Tales workshops via virtual training sessions and a written Kids Tales workshop curriculum. The time commitment for teen instructors is three to four hours of teacher training, plus one week during the summer to teach a Kids Tales workshop. If you are a teen who loves to write and are passionate about helping younger kids, please consider joining us and becoming a Kids Tales instructor this summer. We need more Kids Tales teen teachers!
 
To become a Kids Tales teacher, fill out our application: http://kidstales.org/apply-now/
If you have any questions or want more information, please email me, Katie@KidsTales.org.

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