Taking Stock at The Informed Perspective
Fourteen months in, progress often feels slower than we’d like. But as we celebrated our successes at our Christmas party, reflecting, for instance, on the money our Tweens have helped raise to redecorate their space, we realised just how much has actually happened. It’s clear that we are making meaningful headway, even when it doesn’t always feel that way.
As we approach the end of the year, we’re reflecting on our ambitions for the year ahead at The Informed Perspective:
Deepening our connections with schools and local communities
Piloting Tween Talk® and Are You Really Listening? in the UK
Transforming our Tween Talk® space into a warm, welcoming place where young people belong
Hosting more speakers specifically for tweens, not just teenagers
Using our space to support other small businesses and community-led initiatives
Inspiring more adults to get involved in their communities, in ways big or small
Continuing to connect home, school, and third spaces—because we achieve more together
Our Story
The Informed Perspective was born out of concern, first for our own children, and then for the wider disconnect we were witnessing across generations. Devices are everywhere, yet meaningful connection feel increasingly absent. Community spaces are few and far between. We are meeting in person less, with conversations increasingly avoided or outsourced to screens.
Our mission became clear: We wanted to help create third spaces, outside of home and school, that are exciting, welcoming and relaxed. Spaces where children and young people can truly be themselves. Where they want to put their devices down, because being present feels more compelling. Over time, we also came to realise that community doesn't have to be permanent. Events, too, can create a powerful sense of belonging, even if only for a few
This vision led to the creation of Tween Talk®.
We recognised that tweens, those at the start of secondary school, were slipping through the cracks. This is an age of enormous transition: a growing desire for autonomy from parents, alongside a very real need for guidance and support. It is also the age when many receive their first smartphone, begin navigating social media, and are exposed to an increasingly complex world.
Crucially, this is also an age when we can still reach them.
Rather than waiting until adolescence, when patterns may already be entrenched and harm may already be done, we believe these conversations need to start earlier, in age-appropriate but honest ways. Tweens are far more aware than we often assume. They need tools, language and confidence to protect themselves, to think critically, and to grow into responsible, inclusive and respectful members of society.
From these conversations emerged: Perspectives, our podcast. Through conversations with inspirational individuals who are making meaningful change, we found ourselves listening deeply to perspectives different from our own. At a time when the world feels increasingly polarised, it felt essential to create space for curiosity rather than certainty, listening rather than shouting, and nuance rather than division. The podcast became a way to share these stories, insights and lived experiences with our local community, helping people make better-informed decisions and see the value in difference.
But it didn’t stop there.
The stories we were hearing felt too important to remain behind microphones. We wanted our children, our tweens and our wider community, to hear them in person. This led us to knock on the doors of schools, sharing what we were hearing directly from tweens themselves: where they felt unsupported, unheard, or overlooked. We began advocating for stronger collaboration between home, school and third spaces, believing that only by working together can we reduce loneliness, prejudice, and disconnection.
Engaging international schools in Poland has not been easy.
The barriers are real.
But the urgency is greater.
That urgency became the catalyst for us to host our own event in November: “Are You REALLY Listening?”
With the integrity, warmth and energy of our speakers, Jeremy Indika and Matt Smith, we brought parents and teenagers into the same room. This alone is rare. Yet it should not be. The response was extraordinary. The honesty, interaction and emotional resonance on the night proved just how much remains unsaid in a world full of distraction.
It affirmed what we already believed: we are struggling, as a society, to truly hear one another.
“Are You REALLY Listening?” is not a one-off. It is a model we want to grow and roll out in 2026, supporting open, intergenerational conversations around the most relevant and pressing themes facing young people and families today.
And at the heart of it all remains Tween Talk.
We want to start this holistic education earlier, within schools, within communities, and within spaces that feel safe, warm and human. Spaces where tweens can simply be, and be heard, where they can connect with peers outside of their usual networks. Space for young people to be independent, bring ideas to life, places perspectives can be explored. We know youth spaces are needed and we don’t want this to be a one-off here in Warsaw.
This work matters.
The conversations matter.
And we are committed to continuing –listening, learning, and building—together.
One thing is for sure Jennie and I will keep on informing our own perspectives in 2026!
