At first, Alyssa ran Live From Snack Time! anonymously. "My students were asking brilliant questions and their thoughts and comments were so pure. Honest kids say all the things we wish we could," she told Bored Panda. "Sure, the kids' quotes are sometimes hilarious, but there is also so much meaning, anxiety, curiosity, and joy behind them. It’s fascinating as much as it is entertaining and I really wanted to encourage people to actually listen to these smart kids."
Soon after she launched the project, her good friend Greg Dunbar started designing the funny sayings for Instagram. At the same time, their followers began sending them quotes from the mouths of their own funny kids and students, so the two friends decided to share submissions as well. 5 years later, the quotes we see on Live From Snack Time! are largely submitted from people around the world.
Alyssa and Greg have realized through this process that the things kids say are just so relatable. "Some quotes are perfect for a quick laugh, while others have so much heart and are exactly what you need after a long, exhausting workday. Kids have questions and comments about every topic you could imagine. Our goal is for adults to take these comments seriously, address the big feelings and wild questions, and still laugh along the way!" They think people have been responding so well to their content because it's light-hearted, pure, and honest.
Live From Snack Time! gets around 100 submissions per week, but they've seen such a boost recently (as you can imagine) with parents being around their kids a bit more due to the pandemic. "We're also fascinated that these submissions literally come from all over the world. Just this week we had submissions from the US, Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand, Thailand, Finland, Italy, Maldives, South Africa, and Uganda."
"We get such a wide variety of quotes, we do our best to find ones that we know will make people laugh or smile. We also sometimes try to pare submissions to things that are happening in pop culture and the world which sometimes sheds a light on topics that are resonating with kids around the globe," Alyssa explained.
Alyssa added that they hope to keep people laughing, grounded, and connected during this uncertain and scary time. "It's fascinating to read kids from Australia or Africa saying the same things as kids in the United States. Turns out we're not so different after all! What a concept!"
