What did you make as a kid?
Last week we had our very first Doodle Cafe — and it was wonderful.
If you haven't heard about it: Doodle Cafe is playtime for serious professionals. A monthly gathering where we get together, talk creativity, and then doodle around.
We started the evening with a question that I’ve been marinating in for the last few months:
What did you make when you were a kid?
I love this question. It drops us right into a playful space, where we can think about what lit us up as kids. What we were drawn to. What fascinated us. What sparked our imagination. What we loved building, drawing, making, creating.
THINGS I made
As a young kid, I wrote and illustrated my own children's books (see above for a selection of my creations). I also put on elaborate tea parties for my soft toys. As a neighbourhood kid-gang, we’d make things to sell at a stall on our street (think the classics, potpourri and lemonade). We invented games and imaginary worlds — like pretending a new ice age had arrived, so we could climb trees and wrap our little sisters in woollen blankets in the height of summer.
childlike, not childish
This question is interesting because it gets us into one of the great nuances of reconnecting with our creativity: that creativity is childlike, but not childish.
Many of us, as we grow up, absorb the idea that our creativity is unserious, trivial, frivolous; that it’s not what you do if you're an ambitious, responsible adult looking to make an impact. It can feel like a sign of childishness or immaturity.
So when we start reconnecting with our creativity, answering questions like ‘what did you make as a kid?’ can feel uncomfortable, risky, or pointless.
But what we're looking for in our creativity isn't childishness. It's childlikeness.
That free, unselfconscious, open, inquisitive part of ourselves. The part that brings our imaginations to life. The part that generates ideas, makes lateral connections and experiences joy, awe, and wonder.
Kids are inherently, naturally, freely creative — and we can be those things as adults too. We're wired to learn by doing, to explore, to get curious about why things are the way they are. To get our hands dirty and dive into our ideas.
When we reconnect with our creativity, we're reigniting that childlike spirit. Not to go back to being children, but to reclaim something that's still in each of us.
why it matters
Treating creativity as childish does our world a huge disservice.
Creativity is our most powerful tool for complex problem solving.
But if we carry an unconscious message that creativity isn’t relevant, or that inquisitiveness and play don't belong in our serious worlds of work — we end up sidelining half our brain.
We put all our attention on our critical faculties; our ability to deconstruct, analyse, refine. And almost no attention on the generative side: our capacity to imagine, to construct, to develop new ideas.
Curiosity, wonder, a sense of possibility, joyful exploration. These are the building blocks of creativity. And we need them if we’re going to find new ways through the challenges we're facing.
So when we tap back into our childlike creativity, we're not being frivolous. We're building richer soil. More fuel. A more interesting and generative foundation for everything else.
what still lives in us
Here's an exercise worth trying: take one of the things you loved making as a kid, and ask yourself — where does this impulse still show up in my life?
For example, I mentioned that I loved hosting tea parties for my soft toys. And I’ve been thinking about how I still love bringing people together (and I mean people in the broadest sense of course, including all my cuddly ‘friends’). I love hosting events, connecting people and creating the conditions for a room to come alive.
My friends tell the story how a while back I invited twelve of them over for Sunday brunch. Without realising it, I’d invited each of them separately — and each person thought they were just coming to have brunch with Dayle and me. But when they arrived, surprise! It was a brunch party with all sorts of different people. That was entirely unintentional on my part. I’d simply invited a series of close friends who I thought would love each other — and I guess unconsciously I trusted that we’d have a great time.
I really appreciate that impulse in me, to bring people together in slightly awkward ways and trust that it’ll be worthwhile and that we’ll have fun!
I’ve also been thinking about my early foray as a children’s book author/illustrator. A few years ago, on holiday, I actually wrote the draft of a new children’s book, my first in perhaps three decades! It’s called Frida Flies Her Flag. I haven't done anything with that yet, but I am doing more writing these days than I ever have before. And the idea of connecting writing with my drawing and doodling feels exciting. So maybe that's something I need to reconnect with as well.
over to you
This week, I invite you to sit with the question.
What did you make when you were a kid?
What were you drawn to? What did you love building, drawing, inventing, performing?
And where does that impulse still live in you now?
If you'd like to tell me about what you made as a kid — flick me an email at hello@kateyesberg.com! I’d love to hear from you. Totally confidential and just between you and me, because it's a conversation I love having and I think there's a lot of wisdom in it.
our next Doodle Cafe
You can also email me at hello@kateyesberg.com with a “Sign me up!” to get the invite to our next Doodle Cafe.
Tuesday, 24 March, 5:30 - 6:45pm at Cuckoo, 57 Customhouse Quay in Pōneke. Koha / pay what you can.
Our first Doodle Cafe last week was a total joy for me. People were drawing, collaging, writing, painting - all sorts of doodling! It’s a big, open, low-stakes, safe, fun, zero-judgment space to come and experiment and make something with your hands.
You can learn more about Doodle Cafe here.
Please also let me know if you’re based outside Wellington and would be keen for virtual Doodle Cafe? I think we could do something fun online, so let me know if you’re interested.
8-week creativity deep dive
I’m getting ready to launch my first 8-week creativity deep dive — a small-cohort, in-person group coaching programme for professionals keen to reconnect with their creativity and build their creative intelligence at work.
If you’re interested, let’s chat. Send me an email at hello@kateyesberg.com and we can find a time that works.
studio life
Our punk-pop band Love Party is playing Newtown Festival!
Sunday 8 March, 1:20pm at the Wilson Street Stage.
It’s a dream gig, will be a heap of fun — and there’s lots to celebrate! Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary — which means 13 years since the original love party. And Sunday is also International Women’s Day - so a special one for all the women and girls who want to rock out and make noise.
You can find Love Party on Bandcamp, YouTube and all streaming platforms if you’d like to get yourself primed in advance.
Have a great week everyone.
Creative power to you,
Kate x
Want to learn more about my leadership coaching practice grounded in creativity, or interested in working together? Get in touch at hello@kateyesberg.com.