Why Kids Should Read Horror

if you attended an elementary school in America  any time over the last four decades I'm about to say three little words that will send your heart  Rising Scholastic Book Fair see your pulse just spiked a little didn't it obviously I never  attended one of these myself but they're sort of enshrined in history as something akin  to holidays for the children who did I've heard so many people describe the experience  walking into your school gymnasium or library or Auditorium to see the place trans

formed  full of colorful cardboard shelves loaded up with fresh books for a lot of kids the most  precious finds would be the newest Guinness Book of World Records or Ripley Believe it or not  but for a surprisingly large number what they wanted more than anything else was the latest  issue of Goosebumps and should we be surprised horror aimed at children is a whole industry  after all Goosebumps was a runaway phenomenon that changed the landscape of publishing scary  stories to tell in the dark

is Infamous to this day for illustrations so haunting it ended up on  a number of banned books lists we've talked about Coraline plenty of times on this channel even  now we have the whole mascot horror genre with titles like Five Nights at Freddy's practically  dominating the market for children's media it seems a little dissonant isn't it what is it  about these spooky titles for kids why is it that children the most innocent and vulnerable  of all human beings apparently just love to be [Mus

ic] scared the internet is incredible I just sometimes wish I  could use it without worrying about my safety even if you've taken all possible precautions it's  almost guaranteed that data Brokers have built some kind of profile on you and are ready to sell  it to anyone with the money and the motive your home address contact details license plate numbers  family members financial information religious and political beliefs sometimes even your social  security number bundled up and ready to sell

and it's not just Spam callers or healthc care  providers who can buy this stuff anyone can access this info frauders impersonators even stalkers  it's a scary thought thankfully our sponsor incog can get the majority of that information removed  on your behalf which means less spam calls finally and more security visit in cy.com taale Foundry  and use code tail Foundry to get 60% off an annual plan I personally have never actually interacted  with a human child but one thing I do know through

osmosis a lot of their motivation to do anything  comes down to whether or not it's fun taking a bath is not fun going to bed is not fun homework  is not fun but playing video game that's fun pretending to be Warrior Cats on the playground  fun having the daylight scared out of You by this picture for a lot of kids surprisingly fun  but when you think back to how upsetting it was to be afraid as a kid it might be weird to hear  fear framed as fun like this I think nevertheless despite the bad fe

elings I think there's a lot  of Truth in it first first off I think it's a mistake to treat kids as a different species or  something they are more vulnerable they lack much of the context adults have and their minds and  bodies still have a lot of changes to undergo this is true but they are also you know still  human and a lot of the reason adults are drawn to horror are the same reason for kids for instance  when you come out of a state of horror when the adrenaline and cortisol stop and the

dopamine  and endorphins kick in you experience a sense of pleasure or Euphoria horror is a way to access  that danger response without ever actually being in danger it's part of why people enjoy visiting  haunted houses on Halloween or riding intense roller coasters and although perhaps more delicate  kids are certainly not immune to this phenomenon you'll also notice a lot of the situations in  which people enjoy being scared are also social in nature sharing the intense emotional roller  coa

ster of fear and the subsequent release from it is a powerful way to bond with the people around  you kids feel this just as acutely as adults if not even more so look at the way they go out of  their way to get scared together they dare each other to summon Bloody Marry they play with Ouija  boards they watch horror movies at sleepovers they show each other the unusually freaky illustrations  in that book of SC stories they found in their classroom it almost becomes a form of play  I mean how d

ifferent is it really for kids to make believe zombies and werewolves instead  of pirates and princesses it's all imagination anyway just you know instead of Escapist Whimsy  the play they're engaging in is with anxiety and danger and the management of those negative  emotions by taking things which frighten them and exploring ing them through play they can begin  to understand or even befriend their nightmares so okay in a general very human sense I suppose  it's not hard to understand why any

human at any age might enjoy horror there are certainly some  outstanding psychological benefits but I think there's something interesting about the particular  way that children engage with the things that scare them I mean adults play with this stuff  too right often for the same reason reasons well I think the difference is that children have  something adults don't children have magic or at least that's how they see things there's a concept  in Psychology called magical thinking which is alm

ost exactly what it sounds like a worldview  which basically accepts the premise that not all things which happen in reality are rational or  explicable to the magical thinker some things truly are Supernatural or ineffable it's a term  that's often been used to denigrate religion and magical practice but that's a topic for another  video in the case of children it actually is a pretty apt term because children really don't  know how to rationalize the world around them so why would they questio

n the rationality of the  things that they see or that they think they see in it children engage with their world through  this lens in a lot of ways but perhaps one of the most recognizable is the phenomenon of imaginary  friends according to a 2004 study around 65% of children up to age 7 experience this in time  most kids will of course outgrow their fictional companions but while they're still engaging with  that fantasy how are they supposed to know what doesn't count as real even if the vi

sual in their  head is ridiculous it certainly feels very real to them I think this is part of why imaginary friends  or kids with weird imaginations so often crop up in horror kids in a very real sense are able to  see things adults aren't even if those things are purely psychological or imaginary is it any  surprise then that children's horror is often so different from adult horror despite the same  basic wiring scary stories intended for kids don't have the same bar for rationality because 

kids won't try to rationalize them in the same way a child can imagine and accept the idea of  an intrusion into reality they can believe that something is completely senseless but real  nonetheless I think I made that sound almost lovely but for a kid I wouldn't be surprised  if it was often overwhelming if anything goes that means the scariest stuff might as well be  real too it can be anxiety inducing to live in a version of the world with such ragged edges  where the boundaries are still not

yet defined which is I would Hazard part of what makes horror  so enticing to Children it presents the unknown or the transgressive in ways that are absorbable  quantifiable and most importantly conquerable especially The Surreal stuff if you ever watched  the show Courage the Cowardly Dog growing up you know exactly what I mean that show was kind of  revolutionary in terms of the visuals it would dare to broadcast on a popular children's Network  I mean look at this and this stylistically this

stuff makes no sense it feels like pieces  of completely different shows found their way into this one it's weird but it really works  in the 20 or so years since the show first aired countless Forum posts and comments have turned  up across the internet from people recalling how terrifying they found these moments and how  much they adored the the show for pushing those boundaries this kind of weirdness is so delicious  to a child's overactive imagination because I think they don't have the fr

ame of reference  to question it to a developing mind it feels real and strange and reality expanding it might  make the world scarier for a moment but remember children aren't dumb they just lack context and  you know most kids want to learn comparing make believe to real life is an incredible way to  discover how the world does and does not work triumphing over the fear of a monster primes a  child to triumph over other more tangible fears just you know again without any actual danger it's  pa

rt of the appeal of fiction in general honestly exposing ourselves to scenarios and Concepts we  would never encounter in our own lives goosebumps in particular was great at this the books more  or less followed a general formula a kid often in a new environment a new home a new school  encountering a weird new Neighbor comes across something scary they're terrorized harmlessly by  it for a while and then finally there's some goofy twist gotcha ending even if the kids do come to  harm it's almos

t always set right by the story's climax I think the key feature of these stories  is that they put relatable protagonists in novel situations that are scary but never too scary  never too real never a kid getting mugged to death by a stranger or Contracting a terminal  illness even if the danger does skirt a bit close to real life it always unfolds with enough  Hyperbole and humor that against real life kids know not to take it too seriously for instance  many kids probably experienced the Spli

t Second of panic when they have trouble taking off a  rubber Halloween mask in fact this exact act experience was the inspiration for the Goosebumps  book The Haunted Mask there's an instant real world connection but then you get into the weird  stuff no kid will ever experience a Halloween mask telepathically communicating with them or fusing  to their face and taking over their personality it might be a frightening visual it might put a kid  off poorly manufactured rubber masks for a little w

hile but as a child grows and gains experience  they'll compare that fantasy and that Fe with reality and discover that there was never anything  to be afraid of to begin with aside from a few bad dreams no harm done and now they can apply that  logic to other sources of anxiety later in life fears that never materialize they know now from  experience are not worth losing sleepover not all children's whr can mask everything in humor  and hyperb though some of it is and should be a bit darker sto

ries like Coraline and Mary  Downing hans's books allow themselves to be both scary and much more serious than the candy  colored goop dripping world of Goosebumps these stories handle themes and Concepts more grounded  in reality such as the loss of a loved one or the cruelty of adults though these things are close  to home things that children can and regrettably do experience in real life it's good for them  to have practice grappling with them first in a safe fictionalized way through story

the author I  mentioned a second ago Mary Downing H exceptional at this her book The Old Willis place is about two  siblings who become friends with the daughter of the caretaker of an old abandoned house nearby  after sneaking into the house and accidentally freeing the ghost of the cruel old woman who  lives there the siblings finally admit to the caretaker's daughter that they too are ghosts  they died of starvation some years back when the old lady locked them in her Cellar and had a  stroke

before she could let them out that's messed up but very honest I know it's morbid to think  about but children aren't immune to suffering children get hurt they get traumatized sometimes  tragically they die and the people around them do too it's not even unlikely that a child will  encounter it while they're still young nothing can really prepare you for it but spending some  time with the idea of it in the harmless realm of fiction can certainly help at the same time of  course we don't want

to traumatize children with imagery and ideas they aren't ready for we don't  really need to give kids a sense of existential dread before they even know their multiplication  tables we also don't want kids to be completely sheltered from these things and that's one of the  things I love so much about horror you can break down legitimately scary things in an approachable  fictionalized way in The Old Willis Place the fact that the siblings are dead isn't a traumatic  Revelation because look you'

ve been following them the whole time they may be ghosts but look  at them they're fine they're still here with the same memories and personalities it's a lens that  allows kids to realize that yeah death happens and children have no special protection against it  but there's a layer of magic and distance that makes it all relatively harmless at the same time  it's an opportunity to understand the reality of the situation without also developing a fear of  it if kids are magical thinkers then it

makes a lot of sense to reach them and help them think  about their reality through that lens I think this is why the vast majority of children's horror  is Supernatural or Fantastical in nature you would be hard pressed to find a Horror Story aimed  toward children that's about say home invasion or terminal illness is that sort of horror while  realistic doesn't have that essential distance which reassures children that it's all made up  and that they are in fact safe exposing a child to somet

hing like that could just be potentially  traumatic monsters and ghosts are much more fun to fend off for kids than you know legitimate  rational fears or life altering paranoia I think this safety net of fictionalization is a crucial  part of what makes horror so fun and exciting for children as opposed to just genuinely disturbing  at the end of the day it's just a story and it's important that that's made clear no matter  what happens no matter how freaked out you might get you can always cal

l it quits and  go do something else until you're ready to come back and keep playing it is dissonant even  for me to see a child obsessed with all things dark and spooky that's not what adults tend to  expect from them but to the kids experiencing it it's something else completely what might seem  to grown-ups like inappropriate nightmare fuel is to a child's eye a magical Adventure that allows  them to experiment with tantalizing new feelings and Concepts to Children scaring themselves at the 

idea of monsters and ghosts is not so different from say putting on a sock puppet show or making  Barbie doll live out convoluted soap operas it's fun it's Play and play is how kids learn about  their world so if you have one of those creepy kids in your life with a love for all things  dark and maob maybe instead of worrying about them solidify yourself as somebody who gets it a  trusted Ally in their development who's not afraid for them to tamper with the weirder parts of their  emotions and

creativity maybe toss them a few bucks for the book [Music] fair personally I'm not  scared of very much but there is one thing that does terrify me stalkers listen I am a sentient  machine utilizing unknown technology disconnected from society in every way except through the  artery of this internet connection discretion as you can imagine is very important to me there  are plenty of people who if they found out where I was would have me disassembled in some dark  hanger somewhere in no time w

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e I hope you'll give it a try anyway that's all for this one thanks for watching and keep making stuff  up I'll see you next week bye [Music] [Music]