Highlights magazine might have been your companion as a kid in your doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room. Your parents might have bought you a subscription, and it was the first mail you received with your name on it. The magazine has been going for 78 years now, and it is one of the few that maintained its quality and kept striving to become better, more convenient, and enjoyable for kids, parents, and educators.
The History of Highlights for Children
Highlights magazine started as a family project of a couple who believed that kids deserve a space in which they can be as creative and imaginative as they wish. Dr Garry and Caroline Myers, who spent long years as educators and experts on parenting and child development, had already quite a busy life before creating the magazine.
They wrote several books, and they were constantly invited as speakers in different places next to being on the radio. They also had a syndicated column in a newspaper for quite a while before finally deciding to put all their knowledge and expertise into Highlights magazine.
They were almost 60 years old, but they were as hardworking and dedicated as ever. They believed in their vision and put most of their savings into this project. It was a typical start-up company, but little did they know the future was going to be dazzling!
Children Are the World’s Most Important People
The motto that Highlights magazine has been preaching since the beginning was children are the world’s most important people. The current CEO Kent S. Johnson, the great-grandson of the Myers family, said that the mission of the company has always been to help kids become the best versions of themselves. This only can be achieved if they are allowed to explore in a safe environment that would pique their curiosity and motivate them to be creative, caring, and confident. They would be developing skills that parents or teachers could have some hard time ingraining in them at this young age by themselves.
Fun with a Purpose has been the tagline of the magazine from the start, and it sums up what it offers for its little readers. All the puzzles, activities, and stories have different purposes that range from improving the kids’ skills in reading and thinking and teaching them morals through beautiful fables.
One of the most famous and non-negotiable features as French Cully, Highlights’ editor-in-chief put it, is the Hidden Pictures visual puzzle in which kids have to find smaller pictures within a bigger one. Another one is the illustrated comic The Timbertoes which follows a wood-carved family; it has been an irreplaceable section of the magazine since 1951.
Then, there is one more familiar and widely loved feature that introduces two elves, Goofus and Gallant, that are in contrast to each other. Goofus can’t help but do bad things while Gallant is always the good model. Johnson says that although everyone will aspire to be like Gallant, it is also important to help kids navigate their feelings and teach them what they have to do when they are more like Goofus. It teaches them how to differentiate between right and wrong through simpler terms and themes.
The Secret Behind Highlights’ Longevity
One of the main reasons that Highlights is still as popular, loved, and respected in the industry is that it did not steer from its main focus since day one, which is kids’ best interest.
They keep on reinventing themselves as a company, but at their core, they are still a magazine that wants to ensure Its little readers a fun and safe environment. The magazine stays away from violent content and also avoids including any politics or agendas, neither explicitly nor implicitly, in its content. This reassures the parents that they are giving their kids content that is beneficial and suitable for their age.
The magazine also has been keeping up with the times. Next to releasing new editions for different ages, High Five for preschoolers and Highlights Hello for toddlers and babies, the company released business apps for kids to enjoy their favorite games and activities digitally such as The Hidden Picture app and The Highlight Shapes app. Moving forward, Johnson promised a revolutionary expansion in digital content both in the US and worldwide.
Conclusion
At this age, kids have access to so many entertainment tools. Most of them happen to be digital. This mostly robbed them of any organic and engaging tools to pass their time. So, having a magazine that is curated carefully by professionals solely for kids to help them enjoy the process of learning is extremely nurturing, and can be an amazing way for both parents and educators to ease their way into building strong bonds with their little ones.
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