About SmallTalk

SmallTalk is a children’s news platform built on a simple idea: kids deserve to know what’s happening in the world, and they’re more than capable of understanding it.

Every article on SmallTalk covers real news. Wars, science breakthroughs, politics, nature, history. Written in age-appropriate language across three reading levels: Ages 5–9, Ages 10–12, and 13+. No dumbing things down, no avoiding hard topics. Just honest journalism written with kids in mind.

Why SmallTalk exists

Most kids news sites either oversimplify stories to the point of being meaningless, or ignore the topics that actually matter. SmallTalk tries to do neither. We believe that a kid who reads the news grows into an adult who understands the world. In addition SmallTalk tries to improve the literacy gap in younger children that has gotten bigger in the past years with fun-to-read content.

Who built it

SmallTalk was created by James Benerofe, a Senior at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. What started as a project to make news accessible to younger readers has grown into a full platform with daily articles, an interactive world map, and a reading challenge system.