Hello and welcome to The Monster & The Child, where childhood studies and monster studies collide! I am Dr. Kathleen Kellett, and this is an unscripted little update video. First off, I am back on the living room floor. I’m rearranging the the furniture in my new office, and the shelves are not yet restocked. So, back on the floor I go. Um, but this video is just going to be really brief. It probably could have been a community note, but I figured more people would see it as a video. And it’s just an update on my educational programming and where I am going from here. So, as I am sure, if you watch my content regularly, you know, you have noticed that I’ve been advertising my, uh, educational programs for the past several months, particularly Youth Monsterology, which is my five-month program of educational mentorship and book club experience, um, for teenagers aged 14 through 18. And that is the program that is based off of my doctoral dissertation project that I am super, super excited about, because it will allow participants to have a community of peers who are interested in the topics they are, it will allow them to really dive deep into themes that they may not get to discuss in classroom settings, and it will also allow them to, uh, spearhead their own independent, creative, academic or, um, activist projects or some combination thereof with one-on-one mentorship from myself, um, to help them with building those writing revision and communication skills so they can then actually stage these projects within their local communities. So that is the vision for that project. That is what I fundraised for back in the spring, um, what many of you very generously uh supported. And I am afraid that – it’s still happening, but it’s not happening on the timeline I originally hoped it would. So, that was set to begin at the end of August, um, and I just have not been able to get it in front of enough of the right people to have the signups to make it go.

So there are a few reasons for that. I think this has very much been a learning experience. One of the reasons is just timing. Um, I will admit that I panicked a little in trying to get it started so fast after the fundraising, um, and that is because I wound up getting a winter teaching position at Drexel University. Um, I will be – they have trimesters, so I’ll be teaching a course during their winter term, which starts at the very beginning of January. So, once I got the notice that I’ll be doing that, I was sort of like, oh, oh, this – we have to get the five months in before January. Um, and so that’s why I originally tried to start it at the end of June, and that I pretty immediately realized was ridiculous and moved it to August, so then at least it could end, um, at the end of January and wouldn’t be ending with all of the work that I’ll be doing on the participants’ projects at the same time that I’d be doing like final papers for my students in the Drexel class. Um, so that’s what I tried to do, but that meant that I was pretty much entirely trying to recruit during the summer. Um, I started sort of at the very end of the school year for most places, and that didn’t work out. Um, that is when a lot of teenagers are pretty unavailable. They’re off with their families in, you know, various summer plans and were already in summer programming. So I just was not able to get in front of teens themselves in a lot of cases. And so I’m – what I’m hoping by starting it now in the spring – that’s what I’m shooting for. So after my course, um, at Drexel is over at the end of March, I’m hoping that hopefully I’ll be able to go pretty much right into the start of Youth Monsterology, though nothing is set in stone in terms of dates yet. But that gives me a good chunk of the school year to get this in front of people. So now I – now I know where the teens are and they’re in school, um, so I’ll be able to communicate hopefully with them a lot more easily. Um, so that was sort of issue number one.

I also was hoping that the – just the YouTube viewership that I’ve built up – because I’ve built up such a a great community over here – I was hoping that that would translate into signups. But my analytics tell me that most of you all are adults. Um, and so it just didn’t get in front of enough teens that way. And I suppose a lot of you are not adults like with teenagers. Um, and I had really thought that since my dissertation project – and I recognized the differences in that that was, you know, a free project because I was funded by the university – um, but that I was able to get my participant population entirely through Instagram, and the Instagram ads that I did this for this program like really didn’t go. Um, and I think that a lot of that is because, you know, even in the short time since I did my dissertation study, the algorithms have really been changing and not for the better in terms of reach to young people. Um, I’ve talked a bit about, you know, digital censorship and this sort of siloing of adults versus, uh, youths in various parts of social media and the internet, often under the guise of their protection, but it winds up kind of just having less communication. So, I think that wasn’t in my favor, either. Um, but I think it – I do think it was mostly the timing issue.

So, if you donated to the, um, Indiegogo, what the – probably one of the main things I really struggled with in terms of pushing the start date of the program back is that I felt like I was kind of letting the people who donated to it down. Um, I hope that’s not how you feel if you supported it. Your money is still very much being used, um, to create this program and to keep those costs down for future participants. Um, I definitely reached far above the goal that I had set on that Indiegogo, and so, not only was I able to lower the price for, uh, future participants, but I was also able to defray some, uh, marketing costs that I have incurred and will continue to incur as I, uh, try to get this off the ground during the school year. So, please know that it’s still going to happen. I am still all-in on this. Um, it’s just not quite happening yet.

Um, with that said, if you work with teenagers, especially in educational settings or in library settings, and I have a feeling that there’s a decent number of at least people tangential to those fields who watch my videos because they are relevant to those fields, then I am very much inviting you to reach out to me. I am really hoping to do a lot of like school assemblies and library events and those sorts of, um, programming to get my sort of independent programs in front of teenagers and also just to do some teaching. Um, I have done a really fun, uh, flash fiction workshop at a library this summer and I’m going to do it again, um, at the end of this month and I’m really excited. That went really well. Um, participants extremely enjoyed that and getting to learn a little bit about monsters. So, I would love to continue to do that, the flash fiction monster story workshop. Um, also any like guest lectures, um, about monster stuff, um, monster studies. I am going to be, in the coming weeks, like developing programming that I will be linking to here on YouTube and also my website and my blog. So stay tuned there. Um, but truly, truly if you work with like middle schoolers or high schoolers, um, I would absolutely love to hear from you and see if we can, uh, do some collaborative thing together.

And then one thing I’m also working towards is sort of modifying the Youth Monsterology program, um, to fit perhaps a like homeschool platform. Like there’s a lot of online platforms for classes, um, that teenagers or like middle school or high schoolers can take. Um, so that will look a little bit different based on you know what the platform demands and whether I get like accepted to them, but that is also one thing I’m working on. So hopefully there will be like multiple ways to access my future programming as I go forward. And I’m also really hoping, you know, with all of this networking through um, you know, educational institutions, library institutions, other youth organizations that I’m going to be diving head first into, I’m hoping that that can hopefully eventually lead to some connections where my programs can be kind of be subsumed under an institution and then could be like free for the students if I could get paid through the institution and not from the participants directly. That’s the ultimate goal. Um, but that may take a while because, you know, places generally require a bit of proof of concept. So, that’s that’s the long-term goal. Um, but hopefully we can get those at least the pilot program going for the spring. So, that’s the spiel on that. Um, if you guys can continue to help me out to get these programs off the ground, I would be very grateful.

Uh, meanwhile, the adult Monster Book Club has had its first meeting. I had an amazing time. I hope that the participants over there did, too. And if you would like to join, we’re going to be reading Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster this month. So, our next meeting of that is going to be the last Wednesday of August. So, head on over to themonsterandthechild.com to sign up for that if that interests you.

Um, other things. So, like I said, I’m coming up with new in-between video essay content. I know this one is just an update video, not the most exciting type of content, but, um, I think my next one is going to be a discussion of some of the Claudia bits from the current season that just ended of The Vampire Lestat/Interview with the Vampire. Um, so a little addendum to my, uh, child vampires video. And that’s I think, um, one type of in-between content that I’m going to be doing, is like additions as they become relevant to previous videos that I’ve done. So that can be a fun little, uh, like – not shorts, but shorter videos in between the longer essays. And then, you know, as I was putting together and then immediately dismantling my bookshelves up in my office, I was like, “Oh, I should talk more about a lot of these academic monster books that I have because – you know, sort of give them a shout out.” So, I’ll be doing some like academic book reviews. I do also have, um, a fiction author interview coming up. Um, I think that’s going to be released – it was either like the end of September or the beginning of October, um, and the interview itself is happening at the beginning of September. So, that’s mysterious and you’ll learn more about soon.

Um, so that’s really the update from me. I am currently working on an essay about, um, evil groups of children in historically fraught or culturally fraught moments. Um, so that’s going to be my Village of the Damned plus other related movies video. Um, so that will be the next one up. Um, I don’t know if it’s going to be up a week from now or two weeks from now. Like I said, um, the longer essays will be mostly every three weeks from here on out as I work on my programming, um, but you know, sometimes it might only take the two, so we’ll see. All right, so that is all I’ve got for you. I don’t do unscripted very often. I’m a very um’s and uh’s kind of person, so hopefully that wasn’t too irritating. Um – there we go. So I will see you next time with either the full video essay or a little bit more on Claudia. And until then, take care and I will see you soon for more monstrous food for thought.