An Interview with Nadine Fonseca, Co-Founder of Mighty Kind: an Anti-Bias Series for Kids

Nadine Fonseca is the co-founder of Mighty Kind, a educational anti-bias publication for kids ages 5 and up. Mighty Kind aims to inspire a global community of kids who care to celebrate diversity & feel empowered to take action towards a kinder world. Each magazine issue is full of illustrated stories, fun activities and actionable volunteer opportunities to empower kids to tap into their natural capacity to love and learn while having fun.

The series celebrates world cultures, big ideas in personal development and works toward making the world a better place. The focus is on kindness and compassion as a foundation for anti-bias learning and conversations while providing a platform for diverse voices and perspectives.

You can find a special feature on Indigenous Peoples in Mighty Kind Issue 5: Home

Tell us a little about yourself.

“I'm Nadine Fonseca, the co-founder and CEO at Mighty Kind, a children’s anti-bias education resource start-up. I'm married to my high school sweetheart from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I also have an ongoing love affair with all things organization (he knows!)— from color-coding to technology hacking, this homeschooling mama of four has multi-tasking down to a science! In true Latina fashion, my free time is spent indulging in some combination of food, family, and music."

What inspired you to develop Mighty Kind?

“I was exposed to a lot of diversity growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also was the daughter of an immigrant and had a front row seat to how assimilation was tied to survival in this country. It was one of those situations where you don't know what you have until it's gone, but one day, after an out of state move with my husband and young children I was hit with the realization that we had not prepared ourselves for living in a much more homogenous area-- let alone raising our kids in one. As a work from home mom and homeschooler at the time, I had the time-privilege to create and curate a curriculum of sorts to replicate as many opportunities to engage with topics around diversity in its many forms, the best I could. While it was no replacement for organic life experiences, I was able to be very intentional about the conversations I had with my children regarding the world around them and the potential role they get to play in it. From there I wanted to do what I could to bring these resources to others who may be in a similar situation wanting to prioritize anti-bias learning, but perhaps didn't have the time-privilege I was afforded to get things started for my own family.”

What is unique about your business?

“Mighty Kind is the only anti-bias education magazine in the world! There is no other publication in circulation that we know of that helps children look at contextualized diversity with the aim to understand and respect differences and not just grope around for the things we have in common to forge an immediate, but likely superficial connection. We know we can do better than that with our children and that it can be fun!

With our work in anti-bias education, we aim to make the strange and different more familiar and comfortable. We are able to amplify diverse voices, experience, expert advice and allow kids the tools and scaffolded conversations they need to develop long-lasting and deep-seeded empathy they can bring with them throughout their lives as they bring about change in our global community. We aim to empower a global community of kids who care!”

What do you hope Mighty Kind accomplishes?

“I hope homes and classrooms put Mighty Kind to work exposing kids to incredible cultures, traditions, stories, and people from around the world. I hope the grown-up section of the magazine lends itself to helping facilitate meaningful discussions and exercises. I hope kids lean in to the “Big Idea” topic in each issue and develop a positive sense of self and strong moral character as they focus on personal growth. But mostly, I hope engaging with Mighty Kind is just a small piece of a larger effort to learn, to grow, and to speak up and activate against racism and other harmful biases worldwide. I’d love to see Mighty Kind facilitate a thriving online global community to exchange ideas, experiences, stories, and encouragement for kids and adults alike. I want our kids to know they are powerful beyond measure. They have the capacity to forge change within themselves, their families, their communities, and the world-- let's empower them to do so!”

$1 from every product purchased at MightyKindKids.com on October 11, 2021 (Indigenous Peoples' Day) will be donated to help Native American youth attend AIS PREP.

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