This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Javoris Hollingsworth and Arlene Hollingsworth, founders of Gracie’s Corner. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My wife and I started Gracie’s Corner out of necessity. We were both working as professors during the pandemic, and we were using every resource we had to keep our three kids occupied.
One of those resources was YouTube. But I noticed, there weren’t many characters who looked like our kids. In such a diverse world, it’s important that everyone feels seen.
I started working with my daughter Graceyn, who is 13 now, to create a fun, educational show with Black characters.
My wife’s private practice helped fund the show
At first, it was slow. That first year, we were just getting our grounding. I would write songs that Graceyn sang, recording them in a closet in our house. Our videos had like 100 views.
My wife was also a professor at the time and had a private practice as a psychologist. She took on more clients to help pay for Gracie’s Corner, and we also pulled from savings to make videos. We were hoping that we would be able to pay the production costs at some point.
Money wasn’t my primary driver; this was really a passion project. Still, I also wanted to feel like we weren’t investing our money into this black hole.
I left my professor position after going viral
The second year, in 2022, one of our videos went viral. That’s when things really started taking off. In the spring of 2022, I resigned from my tenure position to work on Gracie’s Corner. My wife videoed the moment when I left my office for the last time. It was momentous. I thought I would retire from academia, working my way up, and that would be my life story.
Leaving the security of a tenured job was a somewhat tough decision. At the same time, the purpose I felt made it easier. As a professor, I have an impact in the classroom, but only on a handful of students in front of me. With Gracie’s Corner, I could have an impact on a global scale.
My days involve a little creativity and a lot of business
The creative side of the business comes easily to me. I write the songs, and we now have a team of animators who bring them to life. We record with Graceyn every other week because we want her to have a good balance between Gracie’s Corner and the rest of her life.
The business side is much more demanding. Most of my time is dedicated to building that up, because the business acumen is what keeps you moving. I’m meeting with partners and overseeing the construction of a recording studio and office space we’re building.
I hope to leave the business to my kids
Working in academia was never a job that would make a ton of money. Now that my wife and I have both left academia to work on Gracie’s Corner, we’re comfortable. We’ve been able to reinvest a lot back into the company to help it grow.
Every time our content reaches families in their living room, that’s success to me. A major moment was our first NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Series in 2023. We were nominated alongside Disney and all these major platforms. That was a “we made it” moment for me.
I want Gracie’s Corner to be Sesame Street 2.0. Our goal is that, 50 years from now, we’ve created something global that can be passed down to our kids. We want to have an impact not only with our show, but with our story itself: we’re the family who started an animation empire. Who would have ever thought?
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