We are Chris and Alyssa, the creators of popular YouTube disability advocacy channel SBSK (Special Books by Special Kids). YouTube is currently censoring our community. Ask us anything!

Any plans to travel and conduct interviews in non-English speaking countries?

You interviewed my mom a few months ago. Just wanted to tell you thank you. It meant so much to her and it was a HUGE boost in her confidence <3

We have been talking about it for a long time but have not set and concrete dates. I can say that most likely our first trip to a non-English speaking country will happen in the next two years.

20 years from now, what do you hope the impact of SBSK will be?

Great question! It is hard for me to think of a "general" impact beside having people be more empathetic and nice to one another. When I think of impact I break it down into a few categories, some being children and educators. I hope that children with disabilities learn at an early age through our videos that they are welcome and accepted in this world. I also hope they learn that they are not alone. My goal is for children who do not have a disability to be introduced to the topic at an early age so that it becomes their norm. I believe through children we change the future and can create a more accepting and inclusive world. With educators, I believe we can become the number one resource for teaching about disability and neurodiversity.

Do you still have hope that YouTube will stop the censorship? What are you doing to continue fighting it? And is there anything else we can do to help? I've signed the petition and I love SBSK and I'd love to help more if there is a way to!

They have admitted they do not know of if it is permanent or temporary. I believe they will let the advertisers decide. I feel incredibly disheartened around the whole thing but will continue to fight. We are doing many things behind the scenes to make sure we leave no stone unturned.

What is your favorite thing about interviewing people? Thank you for doing what you do!!

I wish I had some deep philosophical answer but I just have fun meeting people! I get a lot of joy out of making new friends and hearing their stories. I feel close to every person I have met through SBSK.

How do you select which people to interview when you have so many requests?

I choose based on diversity. First I look at diversity of diagnosis. I look at SBSK as an encyclopedia so I want to include everyone to widen our impact. After diagnosis I look at diversity in terms of social class, race, age, gender, ect. Disability is an area that impacts people from all walks of life and I want to make sure that is reflected as accurately as possible.

Hey guys! I’m a parent to a cool deaf 6 year old boy. What a time to be alive , you guys are being censored, Betsy devos is slashing funding from the special Olympics. How do you guys feel about that?

We are both typically positive and carefree. I have been unable to leave a place of anger for the last two weeks and the slashing of funding for the Special Olympics only heightened this yesterday.

Hi Chris and Alyssa! I love your channel and support your mission. My uncle has Down's Syndrome and my grandparents made it their mission to make sure he was included as much as possible in the community. I feel like your videos are advocating for those without a voice and spreading positivity from those who do.

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My question is, are you ever affected by the hardships that you witness? Are there some interviews that "stick" with you longer than others in terms of dealing with that?

It's hard to know to what degree the stories we hear impact us. Personally, I know I am a lot more reflective and considerate of other people. I never feel sorrow or remorse for anyone, as I know that is not what anybody wants. I also do not think it is good to compare yourself to others as a means of feeling fortunate. I would say one certain effect is that I am a lot less judgmental than I used to be.

Can you describe briefly the process of creating an interview? Do you do research beforehand, such as talk to the parents if it's a child interview? Or do you just go with the flow.

The person being interviewed or their guardian fills out a form on our website. This includes just a little bit of information, such as name, age, location, diagnosis. Besides that, I don't want to know much. I want the interviews to be as if you are bumping into somebody in a social situation for the first time. I hope to model for the audience that friendships are easy to form as long as you are accepting of the other person as they are.

I hope see you and Alyssa soon since I filled out the form and email you. I would be great role model for young children.

I hope we get to meet too!

Hi Chris and Alyssa! It's absolutely heartwarming to see you interact with these kids. You two are an exceptionally kind soul and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. The only question I have is, what is the hardest part of conducting these interviews? And do you stay in touch with the children and the families? Thank you.

There really isn't a hard part of the interview process. It's absolutely heartbreaking when one of our friends passes away. Also, the YouTube censorship of our community has been hard to deal with as of late. But other than that we enjoy pretty much everything about SBSK.

My wife and I respect not only what you do, but how you do it. It's very clear from your videos that you both care deeply not only about each interviewee, but also about the message you are sending to the world: each and every person is special and important. I can't thank you enough!

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The question I have is as you build relationships with the community and create more awareness around the world, do you have plans to add more interviewers and helpers? With over 10K applications for interviews it would seem you could use some help! And if so, how would you go about screening people to help with such an important undertaking?

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God bless! Keep up the amazing work you do!!

pplications for interviews it would seem you could use some help! And if so, how would you go about screening people to help with such an important undertaking?

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We have the means to do it but haven't truly considered adding more people to help with the filming/interviewing/editing. We do EVERYTHING from filming to editing and giving up that control is a bit scary. Having spent years as a teacher to children with disabilities and now having done SBSK for four years I believe we have experience that would be hard to duplicate for someone new to this world. Maybe I need to open my mind a bit when it comes to this!

Have you thought about choosing another platform besides YouTube to host your channel and videos?

I don’t know what else could have the scope and name recognition as YouTube (probably nothing), but if enough people with popular channels defect to other platforms perhaps YT will start to play ball fairly.

Thanks for all you do. You’re a real human being and play a role in making our world a better place.

Of course we have but from a funding viewpoint it just seems impossible. YouTube is a monopoly.

Hope i’m not too late but hey!

I’ve loved your videos for over two years. You are definitely the modern day mister rogers.

either way, my questions are: how is your day going? and what’s your hope for SBSK in the future? How do you plan on expanding and creating a greater platform to allow for more to know about your amazing work. Thank you!

My day is fine! Editing tomorrow's interview. How's yours? We have been working on a few things behind the scenes that will allow us to expand our mission in the near future. We are hoping that they can be announced soon :).

I simply love your channel. It adds positivity to my day and makes me introspect about all the things I've been cribbing about regarding myself. All I wanted to ask you is a slightly personal question. 1)How do you make a living out of this wonderful endeavor of yours? Is the Patreon and AdSense enough for you to carry out these interviews as well as pay the bills? 2)Has the recent YouTube censorship of your channel affected your channel in way? (In terms of reach as well as revenue) Cheers!

1. The money from Adsense/Donations to SBSK goes to the nonprofit. We use a portion of the Adsense to pay ourselves a salary while the rest goes to creating the videos/grants for families we meet. I also have a side career as a public speaker which pays more than our salary from SBSK. 2. It hasn't affected us number wise as of yet (I believe it will once this momentum dies down) but it has affected Alyssa, our community and me emotionally. It is incredibly draining and this battle takes away from our true mission.

Hey Chris, why did YouTube decide to disable all your comments on every video? Isn’t that how you connect with people?

They did it because there were pedophiles on the Internet (not connected to us in anyway). So because bad people exist we cannot have good things. Yet, YouTube is selective in their decision making and only decided to disable comments on certain channels. I find this disturbing because YouTube is participating in the sexualization of minors. Also, they have disabled comments on our interviews of adults without an explanation. It really makes no sense.

What's your relationship with your guests after an episode airs? do you keep in contact with them, and if so, for how long?

Like any other relationship in life it varies. I typically follow up with everybody after their interview airs to make sure they were happy with how they were represented. Sometimes we become close friends and touch base often, other times that's the last time I talk to them. Between Facebook and YouTube we have interviewed about 1000 people so it would be impossible to maintain close contact with all. But I am always happy to hear from people we have interviewed!

I love your channel! How do you find and choose the lovely people to interview? Is there a way to apply or suggest someone? Thanks! 😁😊

Hey! On our website sbsk.org there is a page titled "request an interview" (or something like that). I will tell you that we have over 10,000 requests at this point and are working hard to interview as many people as possible.

Oh I'm sure there are many who would love to have their voices heard, so that makes sense. You've found some really great people so far and I love how you give everyone the full freedom to simply tell their stories without censoring the tough stuff.

u give everyone the full freedom to simply tell their stories without censoring the tough stuff.

I believe it's important to show the tough stuff so that those in a similar situation know they are not alone. We cannot censor the world to make it more ad-friendly or else our society will have a major identity crisis as true humanity is not portrayed through media.

Hi! Absolutely adore your interviews. Do you have a favorite person that you've interviewed? If so why are they your favorite?

Nope! I enjoy everyone's company equally.

Hey guys! Absolutely love your channel, people like you guys make the world a better place and everyone you interview makes me and my friends smile. Mg question for you is: would you ever come to Canada to do an interview? I have a friend with cerebral palsy who does public speaking, and if the oppurtunity ever presented itself, I think you would get along amazingly with her!

We've been to many countries including Canada to interview. On our website there is an interview request page that you can fill out! We do our best to interview as many people as possible.