We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Humanizmo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Humanizmo below.

Humanizmo, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

A radiant smile spread across our business teacher’s face as she flipped through our book: Jill the Pill’s Healthy Heart Adventure. She explained to us what a great help having a book like ours that simplified the heart would have been to her and her son who was diagnosed with a heart defect at a young age. As a parent who didn’t have a healthcare background, she struggled to explain to her young son what the intricate vocabulary doctors and nurses used to describe his condition meant. Listening to our teacher’s story helped us realize that our books not only serve as educational aids for kids but also serve as vital tools for parents with sick children, helping them explain human anatomy to their children with colorful graphics, fun characters, and easy-to-understand explanations. Most importantly, the impact of Humanizmo extends far beyond the pages of our books. An introduction to the human body at a young age can empower children to take care of their own health and spark curiosity in much-needed professions such as healthcare, biomedical research, and public health. We donate our books to underprivileged communities that often don’t have the best access to healthcare. By doing this, we are contributing to the overall public health of our nation by encouraging children to take charge of their own health and understand what is happening in their bodies.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The goal of Humanizmo is to improve health literacy in underserved communities by creating, donating, and selling children’s books about human anatomy. By understanding what is happening in their bodies, children can be more receptive to understanding what they need to do to take care of them. Long term, this also improves public health in their communities since they know how to take care of their bodies from a young age. This support is sustainable since we are supporting the community from within and targeting a vulnerable population.

We have children’s books about human anatomy published via Kindle Direct Publishing. We currently have three books published: one about the brain, one about the heart, and another about the digestive system. These books include a tour through the system or body part with Jill the Pill and a special tour guide based on the book’s main focus. They walk through the whole section and the functions of each part. From there, the books ends with fun facts, common diseases, how to take care of the body, among other fun extras.

We are supporting both health education and literacy in underpriveliged communities. By providing these books, we are encouraging children to read. We are also increasing their knowledge base about what’s happening in their body. Often times, people in these communities have some of the lowest literacy rates, and health education often comes later in life. By introducing these to younger children, we are helping them get a headstart in life that they don’t always have the option of.

Our goal is to integrate childhood literacy with early exposure to public health education. While most elementary schools do discuss public health education superficially, we aim to enhance this by discussing information in depth. Early and in-depth public health education can significantly reduce health disparities by educating young children, who in turn can influence their families by sharing their knowledge, promoting healthier habits, and increasing overall health literacy within their households. Using characters like Jill the Pill, we aim to create captivating stories that teach children about their bodies in a fun and interactive way.

We are very proud of the positive feedback we receive from parents, teachers, and children who have told us how much they enjoy and learn from our books. Seeing children excited about reading and learning about their bodies is our biggest success.

Literacy is the lungs of knowledge. Effectively incorporating public health education into literacy early on can greatly change the trajectory of public health for the future.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We got the initial funding we needed via Hack+, another 501(c)3 dedicated to supporting other non-profit organizations in their journey. They provided us with a website and other resources to organize ourselves as we started out. We also prioritized using pre-existing software to create our books. Publishing through Amazon also supported us since it was a free process. We began to get income once we published our books. We sold both through Amazon and in our own communities for profit. We then used that profit to send our books to other communities for free, where they most needed it.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

One of the first projects we took on as an early organization was building a social media presence. We knew how powerful of a tool this can be for spreading our cause. We used it to attract other high school students who were looking for volunteer opportunities and other organizations that we could partner with. This ended up being a successful venture that led to a couple partnerships and several youth volunteers joining.
To those just starting to build a presence, I would suggest being regular, engaging, and intentional about what you post. Being regular gives you a better chance of remaining in people’s feeds and in their minds. Being engaging such as having vibrant posts will leave viewers with something they won’t forget. Being intentional about what you post ensures that you leave the right message in their heads when they view your content.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://humanizmo.org
• Instagram: @_humanizmo

Image Credits

All images from Arushi Gupta, Susritha Daka, and Sudhiksha Gummudhavelly