Two years ago, during a family trip, my then-8-year-old niece, Shireen, came across the deck of Holstee Reflection Cards I had packed with me. She started reading some of the questions for family members to answer: "What message would you put on a billboard for thousands of people to see every day?" then "What in your life are you most excited about right now?"

Shireen was immediately captivated by the answers — ideas and stories from people close to her that she had never heard before — and she enjoyed sharing her own as well. For the rest of the trip — in the car, in between meals, even during meals — she’d pull a card from the deck, read a prompt, and engage whoever was near.


A photo of Shireen during that family retreat!

I gave Shireen’s mother (my sister) an extra deck of Reflection Cards to take home with her. The cards became Shireen's favorite activity to do with her fellow fourth graders! But some time later, on a FaceTime call, she told me, “I use these with my friends, but some of the questions just don’t work for us! Like ‘What would I tell myself 10 years ago?’ I wasn't even alive then!”

Fair enough :-), we hadn’t designed the cards with the expectation that kids under age 10 would be using them.

Months after the trip, Shireen hadn’t forgotten about the problem she’d found with the cards, and now pressed Dave and me: “When are you going to make Reflection Cards for us kids?!”

She was not alone in her request. By this point, we had heard from many of you in the Holstee community asking for more tools for younger minds. It hadn’t been on our roadmap, but then again some of our favorite Holstee projects have come from following unexpected paths.

With Shireens encouragement, we decided to embrace this one.

We began by asking every kid we knew about the best questions to ask other kids. We also asked their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, and older siblings...until we had a mega-list of fun and engaging kid-oriented questions.

To be certain that every question spoke the language of today’s kids, we sought out leaders in the mindful-parenting movement: Hannah and Kelty of Upbringing.co. With their guidance, we narrowed down the list of questions and tweaked the language until each one was pitch-perfect for young and curious minds.

Hannah and Kelty of Upbringing.co.

Now, a year-and-a-half later, we’re proud to present the most fun product we’ve ever made: Holstee Reflection Cards for Kids, made especially for Shireen :-) — and everyone else age 6 and up!

Mike Radparvar

Co-Founder, Holstee & Reflection.app

P.S. For those who have been following Holstee since the early days, Shireen may look familiar! As a one year old, Shireen was one of Holstee first models  showcasing our Holstee Bib. It's incredible to think today she is helping guide our product roadmap — time flies :-) Here is an old screenshot of the Holstee shop with Shireen rocking the Bib those many year ago: