Welcome to October!

We usually reserve this month for #spookyszn content. But our October calendars are looking a bit…scary. So Child(ish) Advice will be keeping it light for this week, before heading into a much needed two-week break.

Today’s post is an article review, something we really haven’t done since our first year blogging. This article came out in March, but it fit our Gen A theme/Halloween transition so perfectly. Check it out!

Kids Media Is In Its Villain Era by Katy Hershberger, Romper.com.

Thesis: Today’s kid shows aren’t following the traditional TV show formula: good guys defeat the bad guys. Instead, our usual TV villains are miniaturized. These kid-version villains are now main ensemble characters, able to explore different types of subject matter.

 “According to Vampirina creator Chris Nee, the show (which was adapted from Anne Marie Pace and LeUyen Pham’s Vampirina Ballerina picture book series) is really about immigration, starring a character with different foods and holidays from other kids in her town. ‘What I wanted to show was a kid who was easily called out as different but who, we find out, emotionally is not really different,’ Nee tells me. It’s a classic fish out of water story, mapped onto gothic tropes.”

From our Gen Alpha post, our kids’ generation is the largest and most diverse than previous ones. The “monsters” in kids media represent the idea that most children feel different from their peers in some way; othered, mysterious, unpredictable, a bit scary. By humanizing these perceived bad guys, it allows them to be relatable, helping kids of diverse backgrounds feel seen and understood. This also allows kids to see beyond appearances and backgrounds, and instead focus on character.

The characters also allow our kids to let their freak flag fly, whether that’s through their style choices, hobbies, or favorite things. There is always a friend group of like-minded misfits who accept you no matter what. This relatability builds empathy and belonging all around.

The Backstory

We love a good origin story. The villain characters in recent kid shows usually aren’t at their full powers. In Spidey and His Amazing Friends, all of the bad guys are similar-age kids. They are testing out their powers, trying crude prototypes of their tech and making mistakes, and aren’t really aiming to take over the world (just maybe the candy store). They are still learning and figuring out who they are. “Evil” isn’t really a thing.

“In part, stories with some darkness are compelling for children because, even if the creatures don’t exist in real life, the characters feel realistic, Nee says. This is especially true for kids who don’t always feel happy and perky — which is most of them.”

Since the 2010s, villains have been given more of a backstory as to why they’ve become who they are. In mainstream media, the backstory is now way more nuanced and explanatory: the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Maleficient (2014), and even Joker (2019) What we’re seeing now is not only an origin story, but the idea that villains are misunderstood and oftentimes what makes them “bad” is their inability to effectively cope with their emotions/trauma.

To take this down age-appropriately, look at Elsa in Frozen and Anxiety in Inside Out 2. Kids can relate to these characters, especially when they are also learning the ropes of handling their emotions and challenging situations. In Mary’s clinic, many kids related to Elsa because they knew she was a good person, but she couldn’t “conceal, don’t feel” despite how hard she tried.

“LoBue thinks stories that center villains reinforce an increasingly popular parenting idea: that there are no bad kids and that everyone makes mistakes. ‘It probably makes kids feel better about mistakes because heroes are usually portrayed as all good,’ says LoBue. ‘It’s nice to have the redemption story, because we all do bad things.’”

The way we’ve been parenting Gen Alpha reflects this. Culture and societal norms have shifted to be more accepting of faults and flaws because they makes us human. We apologize to our kids when we mess up, owning up to our mistakes. We tell our kids that there’s nothing that could do that will stop us from loving them. We implement a growth mindset, helping them realize that there’s always a learning opportunity in our missteps. In turn, the message kids gain is the recognition that they are good humans, even if their actions may not show it at the time. But, those behaviors do not define who they are and can always learn to do better.

Intro to the Fantastic

What I also love about these darker characters getting main character treatment is that it introduces kids to structured fantasy and storytelling. Kids already have unbridled imagination; but if you’re like me, you always wonder why kids get stuck on princesses and superheroes. My kids usually don’t like watching movies (anything not episodic) because they are uneasy with the building tension/conflict/doubt that good will triumph. I tell them you can’t have a good story without some sort of conflict.

With a wider array of characters and worlds introduced to kids, that imagination can stretch and create plotlines that aren’t so black and white. If you’re a girl, you are not pigeonholed into only being a princess or a witch. If you’re a boy, you can be more than just a hero or a bad guy. Exposure to all types of characters in all types of environments boosts the creativity of what’s possible.

Every Halloween, I try to challenge my kids to think of a character that no one else in their class might pick. I love when school tries to make Halloween a Dress-like-a-Book-Character Day because it gives me a loophole to suggest different options. Often, they will surprise me and go for someone besides the most beautiful or popular character, which makes going costume shopping so much more fun. This year, Wednesday Addams and SuperMonsters have been thrown into the mix.

This has also spilled into their library book choices and they are not as reluctant to learn about things in the gross/dark/mysterious category. They’ve brought home Greek mythology retellings, the Atlas of Monsters and Ghosts, and Choose Your Own Adventure books. There are still plenty of fairies and princess, but there’s at least a bit of variety.

From there, kids can sit with and understand fear and conflict a little better, in addition to humanizing and finding a character’s motivation.

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