Tapping Into the Child Within: How I Came To Write for Kids

By Don Vaughan

Image by Rakicevic Nenad via Pexels

I’ve written for an eclectic array of markets over the course of my freelance career, including publications with a focus on writing, sexuality, popular culture, health and medicine, pets, veterinary medicine, military history, general interest — and kids.

The last one surprised me because (just between you and me) I’m not a kid person. But several years ago, in an attempt to ramp up my market base, I started pitching to Scout Life (known then as Boys’ Life), the monthly magazine of Scouting America. The publication interested me because it paid very well, had a storied history, and sought articles on a broad range of topics. In other words, it looked like it would be fun to write for.

I pitched to Scout Life for a full year — by snail mail because I couldn’t find an online way to reach out — and received rejection after rejection. Nothing I proposed, it seemed, was the right fit. I decided to query one last time about weird American festivals, and if it, too, was rejected, I would move on.

I sent the pitch, promptly forgot about it, and never followed up. A full year passed, and then I received an email from managing editor Paula Murphey: “Would I still be interested in writing about weird American festivals?” I said, “Yes,” and entered into a professional relationship that continues to this day.

Scout Life was my first foray into writing for young people and I really enjoyed it. I wrote several “Cool Job” features, which allowed me to interview a Ringling Bros. circus clown, NASA meteorite specialist, volcanologist, Foley artist, and more. I also wrote features on a variety of topics.

The magazine remained my sole children’s market for many years. It never occurred to me to pursue others because I considered Scout Life more a general interest publication than a children’s magazine. Then I sold my first article to the Saturday Evening Post.

What does the Saturday Evening Post have to do with children’s magazines? The company also owned Jack & Jill and Humpty Dumpty, two of the oldest and best-known children’s publications. But they weren’t on my radar because my focus was elsewhere.

One day I pitched a listicle to Jennifer Bortel, the editor of Saturday Evening Post Online, titled “What’s the Difference?” in which I would explain the difference between commonly confused things such as crocodiles and alligators, and octopuses and squids. “Too simple,” Jennifer said. “Why don’t you try the kids’ magazines?”

It was a suggestion that would change my life. Troy Brownfield, the editor of both Jack & Jill and Humpty Dumpty, loved the idea and immediately commissioned it as an ongoing column for Humpty Dumpty.

A couple of months later, I reached out to Troy with another idea, an ongoing column for Jack & Jill titled “Five Questions,” in which I would pose five questions — the kind kids would ask — to individuals with interesting jobs. Again, Troy said, “Yes.”

“What’s the Difference?” and “Five Questions” proved to be great fun. My “What’s the Difference?” column topics ranged from monkeys and apes to caves and caverns, and my “Five Questions” subjects ranged from Dr. Jessica Ware, lead entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, to magician Mat Franco, who won “America’s Got Talent” in 2014 and currently has a residency in Las Vegas.

I may not be a kid person, but I quickly found that I really enjoyed writing for them. I loved the research these columns required, as well as the opportunity to interview folks with truly amazing jobs. I loved educating!

Since my wife Nan and I don’t have kids, I turned to my inner child for guidance. If I were 7 years old and had the opportunity to talk to a professional magician, what would I ask? I wanted to keep things interesting while maintaining a childlike sense of wonder, so my first question for Mat Franco was this: “My friend says magic is fake, but I think it’s real. Who’s right?” Mat responded wonderfully.

I quickly found that putting myself in the mind of the reader paid tremendous dividends in terms of “Five Questions” profile subjects, as well as other ideas. By thinking as a child, a whole new world opened up to me, and I couldn’t wait to explore it. Ideas just flowed. The lesson: Be open to generating creative pitch ideas, especially for markets outside your comfort zone. It’s how we grow as writers.

Those two columns aren’t the only things I’ve written for Humpty Dumpty and Jack & Jill. A couple of months ago, I wrote a profile of the Turtle Rescue Team at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine for Jack & Jill. Kids love reptiles, I reasoned in my query, and would likely enjoy a feature about a program in which injured turtles received medical care and were released back to the wild. This idea, too, sprang from my inner child because I kept a menagerie of reptiles as pets when I was a kid growing up in South Florida.

Sadly, the Turtle Rescue Team feature will be my last for the Saturday Evening Post group. A couple of months ago I learned that the Post, Jack & Jill, and Humpty Dumpty will cease publication with the Nov/Dec issues, victims of the hard economic realities of magazine publishing. The news devastated me. I’ll miss the regular income, but even more I’ll miss the columns. They were fun to research and write, and always a bright spot in my work week.

I’ve technically lost four markets with the demise of the Post group — I also wrote often for Saturday Evening Post Online — and now I find myself having to replace them. This time, though, I’m going to reach out to some of the remaining kids’ magazines on the market. It’s a readership I’ve come to care about, and I still have much to say.

Don Vaughan is a freelance writer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. His work has appeared in an eclectic array of markets, including Writer’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, Encyclopedia Britannica, and MAD Magazine. Don is the founder of Triangle Association of Freelancers.