About the book - You At Work
Order now: You At Work: An Introduction to Careers
What's in the book
You At Work introduces 22 aspirational careers of different types, providing customized illustrations featuring an individually identifiable likeness of the child engaged in the profession along with a brief sentence on the career's contribution to society. The featured professions in their order of appearance are:
- Doctor
- Veterinarian
- Dentist
- Business Executive
- Film Producer
- Computer Programmer
- Fashion Designer
- Artist
- Farmer
- Chef
- Politician
- Lawyer
- Police Officer
- Firefighter
- Member of the Armed Forces
- Pilot
- Architect
- Engineer
- Scientist
- Electrician
- School Teacher
- Astronaut
Why we made it
Making this book is what initially inspired us to start Imaginaroo. For those of you not familiar with our origin story, the seed for what became Imaginaroo started with seeing the excitement that our then 7 year-old niece, Madison, had when seeing a visualization of herself as a dentist (her career ambition as of second grade) on Christmas Day 2023.
We thought back to our childhoods and how, similar to Madison getting a teeth cleaning earlier last year, casual exposure to different professions shaped our early career ambitions. After deciding to start Imaginaroo, we believed a book focused on introducing children to different careers and the impact that those professions have on society could be useful to many families in inspiring discussions about career ambitions at a young age.
While the book is intended for both genders and all ethnicities, we realized as we began to research the topic that the potential for positive impact from this book on children of color and young girls was even more significant. It is well-documented that women in total and men from certain ethnic groups are underrepresented in certain aspirational careers; as an example, even after recent progress still only 24% of the 2023 STEM workforce in the United States is comprised of women according to research published by MIT, and less in the EU (17%), Japan (16%), and India (14%).
There are many contributing factors, but one that may onset at a very early age appears to be the relationship between media representation and self-esteem. 2012 research found that there was a negative correlation between TV exposure and self-esteem for girls and non-white boys - and a positive correlation only for white boys. The nature of media seems to explain why this may be the case. Even with documented progress in making media more representative since the 2012 study, 2019 research found that US and Canadian children's programming on television still included a lower percentage of female characters and non-white male characters than the population - and that female characters were twice as likely than male characters to solve their problems with magic rather than with STEM skills or physical strength. Other research suggests similar linkages, finding that by age 6 young girls start to view boys as smarter and more capable.
While we don't have an inflated ambition of society-wide impact from this book, our hope is that providing the ability for any child to see themselves in aspirational careers through You At Work will be a positive input to every child we reach.
Order now: You At Work: An Introduction to Careers