If Mister Rogers Were a Creator Today

A reflection on When You Wonder, You’re Learning and how I'd reimagine Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for today’s audience.

May’s Book Club pick, When You Wonder, You’re Learning, is more than just a look back at Fred Rogers’ legacy. It’s a thoughtful exploration of the tools kids need to thrive today: curiosity, creativity, connection, appreciation, and resilience.

As I sat down to reflect on the book, I had an idea: What if I explored what Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood would look like in 2025?

After all, I didn’t want this Substack recap to be just a book summary. I want it to be a space to explore, to reflect, and to wonder out loud.

The truth is, the world kids are growing up in today looks nothing like the one Fred Rogers first stepped into. It would be difficult for a show like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to reach the same level of success today and it would be a missed opportunity for it not to take advantage of all the tools available to us now.

So, I gave myself a creative assignment: If Mister Rogers were starting today, how would I reimagine the Neighborhood?

Reimagining The Neighborhood

Rather than starting with a flagship series and branching off, I wanted to reimagine Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as a holistic media experience.

One of the biggest issues I see in kids’ content today is that it’s often created in silos. You have the digital team, the YouTube team, and the production team typically working on their own. They might share assets or align on tone or big franchise moments, but more often than not, they’re working toward different goals on different timelines.

But kids don’t want to experience their media in silos. In today’s interconnected world, the best experiences flow seamlessly from one platform to the next. If we want to meet them where they are, our content strategies need to reflect that fluidity.

The main goal of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is for kids to make sense of the world around them and help them build the tools they need to thrive

With that in mind, I explored how Mister Rogers could show up that felt authentic to each platform, without losing the heart of who he is. Because at the end of the day, I imagine a modern day Mister Rogers wouldn’t care about the medium or where the biggest revenue opportunities are.

He would care most about the message and making sure it reached kids in a way that felt safe, sincere, and deeply personal.

In this reimagining exercise:

👉 YouTube would be the central hub. It’s the most consistent and accessible space for kids and families, anchoring the brand with regular content that feels fresh, familiar, and human.

👉 Other platforms from series and games to podcasts, would each offer a unique lens into the Neighborhood. They wouldn’t just replicate the show; they would extend the experience.

👉 And for traditional media? All of this content could be repackaged into a 30-minute magazine-style series for public television or streaming, offering a curated, linear window into a much larger, flexible world.

The YouTube Channel: Mister Roger’s Neighborhood

This is the front door to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The YouTube channel is the heart of the brand and the entry point for most kids into the world and what keeps them coming back - it’s where the relationship is built.

On the channel, Mister Rogers hosts several recurring conversation based mini-series uploaded weekly. These bite-sized videos introduce core ideas and spark curiosity, laying the foundation for deeper engagement across platforms:

• “You Asked” – Mister Rogers answers real questions from real kids like “Why do I cry when I’m mad?” or “Do fish sleep?”

• “Meet My Neighbor” – On-location visits with local helpers (a bus driver, a baker, a crossing guard) to show kids how their communities work and who helps make them run.

• “Let’s Talk About…” – Quiet reflections on big feelings or small but meaningful moments, like “What to do when you're scared,” or “How to say goodbye to a friend who’s moving away.”

As When You Wonder, You’re Learning reminds us in Chapter 3, kids don’t just need more information, they need to be heard. That’s why the defining feature of this channel is its fourth wall break. The host speaks directly to the viewer, eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart. The goal is simple: to help kids feel seen. And in doing so, to model what a caring, respectful conversation looks and sounds like.

The Animated Series: The Land of Make-Believe

Through story, character, and emotional arcs, the animated series helps kids process and internalize the big ideas shared on the channel. During Mister Rogers’ YouTube Videos, he often mentions the characters or uses examples from his favorite episodes. The series is where these lessons come to life, helping kids make meaning in a way only narrative can.

The Land of Make-Believe is a silly, colorful, unpredictable world where the rules of logic are tossed out the window and anything can happen. Gravity might take a day off. King Friday might declare that everyone speaks in rhymes. The trolley might turn into a flying banana. And underneath all the absurdity? Real feelings, real friendships, and real emotional stakes.

The Land of Make-Believe animated series brings the beloved puppet characters from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood into a new storytelling format: short, 5–7 minute character-driven slice of life stories with a surreal twist.

Kids are sophisticated emotional thinkers and deserve stories that reflect the layered, messy, joyful reality of being human. The episodes may not always have a clean beginning, middle, and end and there may not be a clear resolution and lesson. The goal of the animated series is to create entertaining stories and narratives that kids can see themselves in and help them make sense of the world.

The Interactive Experience: My Neighborhood

In an interactive world, kids get to experiment, testing ideas, making choices, and learning through play. This is where concepts shift from abstract to experiential, letting kids explore at their own pace.

My Neighborhood is a slow-paced, open-ended role-playing experience (either as a standalone app or Roblox world) where kids can take on meaningful roles in a gentle, cooperative community. Players might choose to be a mail carrier delivering letters, a baker experimenting with recipes, or an artist decorating the town square.

The goal of the game is for kids to help neighbors (both Mister Rogers and other players) solve small everyday problems and contribute to a shared world. There’s no leaderboard. No rush. Just helping, creating, and exploring at your own pace.

A bonus feature “Make-Believe Mode” transforms the world into the surreal, dreamscape from the animated series where imagination takes the lead. Kids can customize there own imaginary world where trees can talk and the sky is pink - making the game even more unexpected and entertaining.

Today, most digital play rewards competition or consumption. This game centers around cooperation, contribution, and creative role play - a safe space where kids can practice what it means to be part of something bigger. If on Roblox, kids would get to work together with other players on the server, including their friends.

My neighborhood let kids rehearse real-world skills (empathy, decision-making, self-regulation) through joyful, low-stakes play in a world that feels just like theirs.

The Podcast: Conversations with Mister Rogers

Slower, more reflective, and often more parent-facing, the podcast creates space to go deeper. Whether it's Q&A or expert interviews, it helps kids (and their grown-ups) connect the dots.

Conversations with Mister Rogers would be a cozy, audio-first series focused on empathy. Each episode features a real conversation between Mister Rogers and a kid, local hero or celebrity. The series would explore questions like: “What’s something that’s been hard for you lately?”, “When did you feel proud of yourself?” or insight into the talents of people they look up to like “How To Write A Song with Olivia Rodrigo”

The tone is gentle, curious, and honest. It’s an opportunity to highlight engaging and empathetic conversations. It’s a series about listening and invites kids into someone else’s emotional world and helps them practice understanding another perspective—an essential building block of empathy. And, in the end, parents might learn something too.

How It All Connects

While each platform stands on its own, they’re all connected by a shared purpose: to help kids build the tools they need to thrive. Each format plays a distinct role in that journey.

The YouTube channel is where kids learn, the most accessible and consistent entry point that introduces core ideas.
The animated series is where they make sense of those ideas through storytelling, emotional arcs, and familiar characters.
The game is where they try and explore, putting ideas into practice in an interactive, choice-driven environment.
The podcast is where they understand, offering space to reflect, connect, and deepen their thinking and spark conversations with trusted adults.

Together, (if done correctly), they would form a connected, kid-centered experience that builds the kinds of skills we can’t always teach directly.

Final Thoughts

If you read along with me this month, I’d love for you to take a moment and reflect either on your own, with your team, or with fellow readers in the comments using these questions:

• Which of the five tools (curiosity, creativity, connection, appreciation, and resilience) is most underserved in today’s kids’ content landscape? What would it look like to build more intentional support for that skill?

• Fred Rogers saw media as a tool for emotional and social learning. What would shift in your own creative process if you treated your content as a tool instead of just a show, series, or campaign?

• If Mister Rogers were your IP to relaunch today, what platform would you lead with? What would you cut or reimagine entirely?

👋 Before You Go...

If you found this article interesting, please like, comment, share, or re-stack! It helps connect us to more creators, educators, and curious minds!

Working on something for kids and families? Let’s connect! I’m open for freelance and consulting work. I help teams develop original kids’ series, build character-driven worlds, and bring stories to life across TV, digital, and emerging platforms. Learn more about my work and reach out to collaborate here 👉: www.julietmenz.com

If you have thoughts, ideas, or feedback on this newsletter, hit reply or DM me @kidsmediabookclub here or on IG. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for being part of Kids’ Media Book Club ✨ Stay tuned….We’ll kick off June’s read later this week!