Summer Lovin' 2026: Join us on August 8 for our 1st birthday party celebration at Elaine's Literary Salon in Old Town, Alexandria — Children's Book Authors, Student Art Exhibit, Student musicians, Craft projects, and more!

July-August 2026: Inkandescent Kids magazine is turning 1 on August 8: Join us to celebrate kids, children’s literature, kid art, student musicians, kid-friendly food, and more!

A Note from Hope Katz Gibbs, creator and publisher, InkandescentKids.com — It is an honor and privilege to invite you to join us on August 8 at Elaine’s Literary Salon in Alexandria, VA, where we host our grown-up literary salon events promoting and supporting authors everywhere!

So many of the adults had big dreams as kids! We envisioned ourselves growing up to write a book, become a journalist, an artist, an illustrator, a photographer, a videographer, or pursue other creative careers. Many of us realized that ambition. Some didn’t. So we are on a mission to help kids around the world make their creative dreams come true. Whether our students eventually go into careers in the creative arts — or become engineers, chefs, rocket scientists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, computer programmers, politicians, diplomats, or anything else their heart desires — our team of loving moms and dads (who also happen to be authors, journalists, teachers, website designers, illustrators, photographers) is here to help them along the journey.

When I was in elementary school, my Dad said to me one day, “Hopie, you are a really good writer. You should grow up to be a journalist and author.” His words stuck, and that is exactly what I became. I married illustrator Michael Glenwood Gibbs, and we had two remarkable humans: Anna Paige Gibbs, who graduated in 2017 from Virginia Commonwealth University’s photo and film program and grew up to be a photographer and videographer, and Dylan Zane Gibbs, who graduated in 2025 from Harvard’s architecture program and is now working for a world-renowned company in New York City.

Our editor, Ellen Smith, a special education teacher, is the mom of two daughters whom she homeschools. Her goal is to provide her girls with as many opportunities as possible so they grow up to be everything they wish to be. She is also the author of 3 books (so far), and her insights, creativity, and wisdom into how to educate children well are a powerful force in our InkandescentKids.com project.

We are a family! And we invite you to join us on our first birthday for a fabulously fun day at Elaine’s in Old Town — and beyond.

Our mission: In addition to wanting kids to realize their dreams, we are focused on helping them learn to think critically, like a reporter. We want them to always ask the tenets of journalism when assessing any situation: Where, What, Why, When, and How. We insist they triple-source an assumption and ask essential questions: Is what you just told me true? How do you know it’s true? Does the data support that truth? And we want them to learn to use their brains (never AI) to write articles, photograph what they see, create art, make videos, games, puzzles, and more so we can publish their work and share it with the world.

Our print magazine: Bimonthly, Ellen takes the content from our online cover stories and turns it into a printable magazine that can be purchased for download — and is also available in our partners’ shops (bookstores, coffee houses, music and art schools for kids, and more!). This provides our student staff the opportunity to share their work with kids in their communities, and around the country.

Here’s how our InkandescentKids project works: 

• Let us publish your work: It’s just $3 to submit an article, photo, illustration, video, game or puzzle for us to publish. Our grown-up editors (for now) will review the work, and if it fits within our guidelines, we will publish it on our online magazine and give you a byline (first name and state where you live).
• Join our staff of student journalists: If you’d like to work with us on a regular basis, you can take our classes that will train you to be an InkandescentKids.com reporter, photographer, illustrator, editor, or to be part of our online newsroom. (Classes start at $150.) Upon graduation, you’ll be eligible for assignments to work on our cover stories that include interviews with ambassadors, politicians, authors, artists, diplomats, scientists, and more.
• And there’s more: InkandescentKids is also working on creating a slew of kid-friendly events from student art exhibits and concerts to national mural exhibits, publishing their books, connecting parents and grandparents in our Parent Corner, working internationally to build bridges around the world, and projects we haven’t yet thought of.

Our dream: Like so many loving parents, profound writers and inspiring artists who have come before us, we want our children of all ages to know they are cherished. As a collective, we hope to inspire and support them in their journey to adulthood. If we can’t make the world a better place — we know they can.

We hope you’ll be part of our brilliant vision.

With love from the InkandescentKids team — Hope, Ellen, Anna, Mike, Nelson, Max • Our columnists: Chef Kim, Homeschool/OT founder Sarah Collins • Our Sponsors: Elaine’s Literary Salon, bestselling thriller novelist Jeffrey James Higgins, The Zebra, Greet Del Ray magazine, Noir author Christopher Chambers, IP attorney author and proud Army Brat Timothy Trainer, Courage2Thrive author Rev. Robert Flanagan, Historian and Author David O. Stewart, Fox5+ • Our Ambassadors: Alexandra Kuehn, Harper, Vivienne