Today, I witnessed a little moment that stayed with me while we were in the park a few other parents and children.
One of the children had decided that he was a traffic light. He stood there expecting the other children on their little bikes to stop for him, but no one realised what he was doing. They simply rode straight past.
He became completely overwhelmed and burst into tears.
His mum went over to comfort him and said, “Maybe it’s because you don’t look like a red light. You look more like a green light.”
I found their little exchange so sweet.
What stayed with me was how real a child’s imagination can be to them. To everyone else, he was simply a little boy standing there. But in his world, he was the traffic light — and of course it was upsetting when nobody seemed to see what he saw.
And I loved his mum’s response just as much. She didn’t bring him back to reality by telling him, “But you’re not a traffic light.” Instead, she stepped into his imagination and responded from inside his world.
It reminded me how naturally children can turn something completely ordinary into something else. A place to play can become an entire world, and for a little while, they truly believe in it.
As adults, we become so used to seeing things for what they are. Children remind us that there are always other ways to see them.
That little moment made me think again about Wonder Looks Good on You — and why I wanted to create it in the first place.
Keep asking beautiful questions. Keep seeing a little more in ordinary things.
