The Things Kids Carry Campaign

Every school day, kids carry more than books. Behind the zippers and straps are worries about friendships, pressure to perform, trouble at home, and feelings they don’t always know how to name.

When the Crisis Prevention Institute launched a new training product to help educators support students through those moments, I was tasked with finding a creative way to make that invisible weight visible. The photoshoot, directed by my talented teammates, captured kids walking to and from school with their backpacks on. My challenge was to show what was inside.

The concept was simple: place words directly over the backpacks, each one naming something kids deal with every day. The result turns an ordinary back-to-school image into a quiet reminder that every student is carrying something, and that the adults around them can help.

Take a look at how the campaign came together.