Idea blog

jacqueline wilson to visit idea hq

So I told you we were having a mystery guest in Idea HQ this Friday, right?

Well, I'm so excited to be able to tell you that it's Dame Jacqueline Wilson! Awesome! Jacqueline's the author of the Tracy Beaker books, Candy Floss and loads more. So I'm really grateful that she's going to be supporting our brief to hold a Be Different March.

You can find out more about Jacqueline, where and when to find her on Friday, and her support for ChildLine right here.

hey good buddy

This little guy is Buddy. He's ChildLine's new friend for schools. 

From September he'll be visiting primary schools across the UK to explain what ChildLine does, how it can help children, and what they can do to help it. If you're in school, look out for Buddy on posters, in games, online and more later in the year!

In the meantime, Buddy is looking for some friends, so there's an Idea brief to help him. If you're interested, you and your school can help to create some for him...find out more here.

special guest in idea hq next friday

Seems like all kinds of writers are intent on supporting Idea's work for ChildLine, because one is our very special mystery guest at Idea HQ next week!

I can't say who it is yet...it's not Michael Rosen. Although you might be hearing from him again soon. And it's not Tom or Lia, who've given you advice on the comic briefs...so here's a few clues. 

She's won loads of awards for her writing. 

In 2004 she became the most borrowed author in libraries across the UK - she stayed that way until last year.

And she's had no less than six of her books adapted for TV. 

Figured out who it might be? I'll tell you next week sometime...

proof that people just care

Anyone who knows me also knows I love robots. So when I saw this through Twitter, I just had to blog about it. 

New York. Not a city that's known for being particularly friendly. Although, going by this, that's a little unfair. Tweenbots is a project by an art student who uses technology in her stuff. She created these lovely little robots who can only travel in a straight line.

And then gave them a complicated journey to take. Because they need to turn left and right, and get past obstacles, they need people to help them on their way. 

So that's exactly what passers by did. They helped them turn corners, get up and down kerbs and all sorts. All of the robots reached their destination. None of them went missing.

How cool is that?

Now I just need to figure out what a ChildLine robot thingy would be about. Maybe there's an idea in this for one of our gaming briefs? What do you think?

whatever matters to you, spit it out

So excited that Chipmunk and the legend that is Westwood are supporting ChildLine's Spit It Out campaign. 

Basically, if you've got the lyrics that say what matters to you, you could earn yourself a spot in ChildLine's Dubplate Drama ads. Meaning you'd not only get the seal of approval from a panel of hip hop industry insiders...you'd also get to showcase your skills on MTVBase, Channel 4 and MySpace.

Here's Chipmunk and Westwood to explain it better. 

 

Now go enter on the Dubplate MySpace.

their life, their show, their headspace

We've announced the names of peeps who'll be helping ChildLine to create our Headspace show with Channel 4 over the summer.

Here's Chris, obviously. Take a look at his profile and the ones for Marc, Joseph, Bella, Suraiya, Manisha and Nehir over here.

And don't forget, there's still time to apply to be a presenter as well.

just say the word: your ideas

Here's just a few of my favourite entries to the Just say the word brief for ChildLine. All you had to do was choose the word that feels most important to you and tell us why. I'm seeing what ChildLine can do with them. In the meantime, more are in the gallery.

This one's by Mari:

This one's by Olivia:

And this is Sophie's chosen word:

Go see the gallery here.

make up the rules

Whether it’s football, tennis or cricket, all sports change over the years. And at the same time, everyone has their reasons for simultaneously loving and hating their favourite game, whatever it is.

So Idea would like to know, where do you see your sport going in the future? And what would you change if you could? It could be the players’ haircuts, pay packets, the stadiums or the rules. Whether it's football or frisbee, take a look at the proper brief here.

advice for when you're worried and need to talk

A few weeks ago, I asked you to send in your advice for other children and young people who were worried about something. It's for a booklet that ChildLine does called "Worried? Need to talk?", which will be sent to schools around the UK later this year.

Well, now we've put some of my favourites up in the Idea gallery. Like this bit of advice from Mollie:

Take a look at the rest of the entries here.

very goo indeed

This amazing bit of film was sent to Cadbury as part of a film competition to do with their Creme Eggs. Apparently it took the best part of six months to come up with the machine, build, test and film it!