17 parents, 29 books and the questions that are hard to answer
ABCs of Growing Up Foundation, which publishes as WHYIA, makes illustrated books that give parents and grandparents the words for conversations young children need. Each one takes four weeks, more than 200 reviews and more than 40 illustrations drawn for it.
Citrus Heights, Calif. Sooner or later a young child asks something a parent has no ready answer for, and the conversation stalls on an awkward pause. ABCs of Growing Up Foundation has built its work around that pause. It publishes illustrated books that a parent and a child read together, each one about a single part of growing up that is hard to explain.
The foundation publishes under the name WHYIA and was recognized by the IRS as a public charity in 2023. Its books come three in one: a story, the illustrations that tell it and pages for the child to color. Personal Borders is the 15th title in its ABCs of Growing Up series.
The aim, as the foundation puts it, is to put parents and children on the same frequency, so that a hard question turns into a conversation instead of a silence.
Made by parents, for parents
More than 25 people in eight countries make the books. Seventeen of them are parents, and the team includes grandparents, child psychologists, authors, illustrators and education specialists. They are also the readers: parents working through difficult conversations at home, and grandparents who want to stay close to the children in their family.
“Real parents creating answers for real parents.”
Four weeks a book
Each title takes about four weeks. It goes through more than 200 reviews before it is finished and carries more than 40 illustrations made for it alone.
Twenty-nine subjects are finished and more than 250 are planned. The foundation wants its books on the shelves of reading corners at home and in classrooms.
About this story
501c3.help wrote this story in its own words from material ABCs of Growing Up Foundation sent on Sept. 28, 2026. Our editors approved it on Sept. 28, 2026. Stories in The Nonprofit Herald are free, and nothing is asked in return. Editorial rules.
Disclosure: Dmitry Bocharov, the foundation's president, also runs 501c3.help, which publishes The Nonprofit Herald.
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