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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. Ten years ago, Nivia Viera saw how the student newspaper she helped create at a White Plains elementary school instilled confidence in young children and decided to promote literacy on a broader scale by creating a magazine completely populated with kid-generated content. Kids X-Press was born.
My daughter went to George Washington where this all started and it was seeing her involvement in the school newspaper there that got this all started. She has been my inspiration, Viera, 57, said of her daughter Alexandra Imbrosci, 17. What kids get out of this, especially those who never thought of themselves as an author, is it builds confidence, self-esteem, and nobody can take that away from them.
Viera and the volunteers of Kids X-Press celebrated the magazines 10th anniversary Thursday evening with a calypso and cocktail benefit dinner honoring donors and organizations, such as Basf Chemical Group, which helped Kids X-Press launch a science literacy magazine and expand its audience from a regional publication to one that now attracts submissions from South Africa.
Two frequent contributors, Nauroz Farhan, 7, of Queens, and Hawa Tejan-Cole, 10, of Ossining, received touch the sky awards and spoke about how the White Plains-based magazine helped them express themselves.
Nauroz, who designed the cover of Kids X-Press 10th anniversary edition, said the award means everything to me because this award gives me confidence to write.
Viera, who was a health care administrator before she began publishing Kids X-Press, said she envisions the magazine expanding further, beginning with the January launch of a kid-written Voice of New Orleans.
Print has tremendous value. There was a time maybe a year or two ago that I was concerned that I was not in tune with the trends. But I realized, everyone can be published online and sometimes what gets published doesnt stay true to its original intention. In print it is your own, said Viera, a White Plains resident.
Serious issues on topics such as childhood obesity and type one diabetes, and natural disasters have made Viera especially proud, she said. Viera added that kids communicate in a very simple and its honest way, which makes them an untapped resource in the publishing world.
Kids X-Press aims to make its next special edition about bullying, a nationwide dialogue, that Viera says many children know about.
Have your children ever published something in Kids X-Press? Join the conversation below.
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