Alex’s Writing Journal

Presenting to Kids

January 29, 2026

Elliot Jay Stocks's avatar
Elliot Jay Stocks
1d

This morning, I gave a talk at my daughters’ primary school assembly (ages 4–11) about being a designer (for their ‘careers week’) and, oh boy, I was *not* ready for that level of audience participation. Possibly the most fun and chaotic 10 minutes of my speaking career to-date.

A slide representing a hypothetical Barbie rebrand, intended to get young children thinking of adjectives to describe design aesthetics and identify brand attributes — without saying that, obviously. The typeface is CC Meltdown by John Roshell.

Can confirm. About once a quarter I give a presentation at the Voyager Club, which is a volunteer organization of 12-18 year olds that do work for the local space centers.

My style for this kind of presentation is simple: Pick a topic, figure out some questions to lead the audience in a Socratic discovery, include a demo of some kind.

The kids just eat it up.

I mean, naturally you'll have some conspicuously looking at their phones under the table, but there's always dozens of hands going up whenever I ask a question. They're usually pretty engaged with the demos, and they ask good questions. And hopefully what I discuss sticks with them.

It's something that I look forward to whenever it comes up. I'd encourage anyone who has some knowledge or skill to volunteer to share it with youngsters. I expect you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you enjoy it.

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