We get asked this constantly by teachers and parents: "What do children actually write about when you give them complete creative freedom?"

The answer might surprise you.

Across 465 children in 9 UK schools, we've documented something remarkable. When we ask "What story do YOU want to tell?" and genuinely listen – without templates, without prescribed structures, without limiting their imagination – children create across every genre imaginable.

We've had crime thrillers. Horror stories. Murder mysteries. Police investigations. Quests of self-discovery.

We've had fantastical beasts and creatures that exist nowhere else in literature because a child invented them that morning.

Sometimes children choose to step out of being themselves entirely, becoming a mythical creature as the protagonist throughout their story.

The insight: Here's what the research shows: children don't need us to narrow their choices. They need us to expand their permission.

They can create worlds in which anything is literally possible.

All they need is to be given the permission to share their imagination.

December Story 4/31 drops this afternoon. Another child. Another world. Another proof that when we stop prescribing and start celebrating, engagement becomes universal.

What story do YOU want to tell?