Gracie’s Corner, launched in 2020, is hit animated YouTube series starring a young Black girl, Gracie, who educates and shares positive lessons through song and dance. The series was created by Javoris Hollingsworth, PhD, his wife, Arlene Gordon Hollingsworth, PhD, and their daughter, Graceyn, who is the inspiration for the series and its voice. What started with catchy songs that won the hearts and ears of children and their curious parents has rapidly grown into a booming educational platform with over 5.3 million subscribers, highlighting the impact that can be had you offer cultural representation and powerful instruction–from counting to 100 to how to handle bullies.
Now Gracie’s Corner is bringing its infectious lessons into a new territory. The family is releasing their first series of children’s books. After landing a publishing deal with HarperCollins, the family hopes to share their passion for learning through literacy.
“Writing a book has always been a part of the plan. We’re big believers in trying to advance literacy for children in the early stages. And on the same note, too, my wife, being a psychologist, is very conscious of screen time,” Javoris says.
“The one thing I do know as a psychologist, because I do a lot of work and psycho-ed evaluations on children, is the more you read or the more a child is read to, the stronger they become readers themselves,” Arlene says. “We want to be a really big part of helping children get exposure to books as early as possible.”
Within the book series, the first two works are What Sound Does the Letter Make? and Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day! Both are available Sept. 30. Based on popular songs in the YouTube series, the Hollingsworths wanted the stories to be adaptations of the tunes that could be read while watching “Phonics Song” and “Good Morning Song” videos, making this the perfect expansion of their engaging content.
The parents, who have two other children in addition to Graceyn, intentionally created the books to reach kids at different developmental stages. “Both of the books that are coming out now can be read with children as early as infancy,” Arlene shares. “The research shows that you can start really early with What Sound Does the Letter Make? But both will be good starts at a developmental level. The third book that we have is going to be more appealing. I think the first two books are appealing to young kids, but the third one is definitely going to allow kids to use their motor skills, and they can explore more with the book while they’re using it. So I think that is a cool thing.”
The goal the family has had with the Gracie’s Corner universe has always been to provide fun and joyful learning experiences for kids. With keeping families in mind, the Hollingsworths hope to make schooling a family activity.
“The thing I’m most excited about with the books is kind of similar to the content that we create. It was creating these co-viewing experiences where, yes, the content itself is catered towards the kid, but it somehow pulls the parents into it too, where now they’re sitting here jamming with their kids,” Javoris explains. “Now it’s in a book. I feel like it’s a win-win opportunity where you can still get a taste of the Gracie’s Corner world, but in a way where you can walk away with something tangible that can live on with the kid.”
One of those tangible things that has a serious impact is an increase in confidence.
“With the way things are in the world right now, we want our kids to know they’re smart, they’re beautiful, and they belong. Because you see a lot of things going on now, some messages are trying to make our kids feel small or make them feel like they’re not worthy. We want to try to eliminate that as much as possible,” says Javoris. “So even with our content, we are trying to instill these messages and affirmations. Letting them know that they’re more than enough.”
And there are lessons in the book and in the accompanying video content that can certainly have a positive effect on everyone in a household—child and parent.
“I very much believe that if you start a day saying, ‘Today’s going to be a good day’ or ‘I’m going to get a lot done,’ it really does set everything up for that to truly happen. Versus waking up and saying, ‘I don’t want to get up’ or ‘I don’t want to go to school,’” Arelene states. “So, I’m very much a fan, as Javoris said, of speaking and believing positive things; not only over yourself, but over your day, over your week, over your month, and over your future.”
