Can we create a fairer inner world for children?

That is the question that Light Lens was built upon.

Every child deserves a fairer inner world

Not just children in certain schools, communities or countries.
Not only children surrounded by extensive resources or specialist support.
Every child, wherever they are growing up.  

Because across cultures, circumstances and childhoods, children are building a picture of who they are.  

The question is: what gets included in that picture?  

Children everywhere experience change, challenge, mistakes and messages from the people and world around them about who they are.

Sometimes those experiences and messages can begin to take up more space than everything else.  

Light Lens exists to explore a simple way of helping children build and hold onto a fuller picture of themselves.  
Their qualities.
Their interests and joys.
Their capabilities.
Their relationships and contribution.
Their values and what matters to them.
Their growth and change.  

So that wherever a child is growing up, the things they experience can be part of their story without becoming the whole story of who they are.  Every child deserves the opportunity to discover their Light - and adults around them who help them see it.

A second question

As the idea for Light Lens grew, another question emerged.

How simple can we make some of the things we already know help children, so that more children can experience them?

Simple enough to remember.
Simple enough to use.
Simple enough to become part of everyday life.  

What if building a child's picture of themselves didn't always require a separate programme or specialist intervention?

What if it could also happen through the small, repeated moments already taking place between children and the adults around them?  

That question shaped every decision that followed.

A language designed to travel

Designed to travel

Light Lens uses two simple visual ideas.

Light - who I am.
Stones - difficult things I experience.

Through simple language, embodied actions and repeatable routines, children can gradually notice, collect and build a picture of their qualities, interests, capabilities, relationships, values and growth.

And the adults around them can become more intentional about noticing and reflecting that Light too.

Because the core idea is simple, it can be adapted to different ages, relationships and settings.

Light Lens was developed by Angharad Davies, a children's author with a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Psycho-oncology and postgraduate training in Therapeutic Play.

The idea has grown from professional study, experiences with children across different settings and cultures, and one enduring question:  How can more children have access to the things that help them understand and see themselves? 

From a young age, Angharad was deeply aware that children's opportunities differed depending on where they were born.  In her twenties, she volunteered with organisations supporting children in Romania, Kenya, Mongolia and Mexico.

Across very different cultures and circumstances, one thing remained constant: children everywhere were growing, experiencing life and making sense of who they were within it.

Later, becoming a mother brought those questions into everyday family life. She became increasingly interested in the small interactions through which children build their understanding of themselves - what adults notice, what gets reflected back to them, and what children gradually learn to recognise for themselves.

Alongside this sat another, seemingly unrelated, part of her life. For more than a decade, she taught English as a Foreign Language and later ran an English immersion business.

Watching people acquire a new language reinforced something simple: language becomes usable through meaningful repetition and everyday experience.  

That idea became important to Light Lens.  Could a very simple language become familiar through repeated use - until noticing their Light becomes something children increasingly know how to do for themselves?  

Light Lens grew where those paths met: a simple language designed to help children build a fuller picture of who they are, through the ordinary relationships and places that surround them.

Limited Company Registration Number: 13163486

15 Neptune Court, Vanguard Way Cardiff, UK CF24 5PJ 

connect@lightlens.co