Long Island therapists launch 'Big Feelings, Little Friends' YouTube show for toddlers
The creators of the preschool YouTube show "Big Feelings Little Friends," from left: Christopher Rodriguez as Mr. Buddy, Luis Amador as Mr. Ziggy and Michael Rodriguez as Mr. Ollie. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
The Wiggles children’s music group has some new competition — three Long Island therapists have created their own YouTube show for preschoolers, each man dressed in blue, yellow or orange beanies, eyeglasses, button-down sweaters and even socks.
Though the men sing, dance and wear signature colors like the super-popular Wiggles from Australia, each of their 10 episodes of "Big Feelings, Little Friends" focuses on helping children cope with a different feeling. In a sometimes goofy, often earnest way, Mr. Buddy, Mr. Ziggy and Mr. Ollie address feeling scared, feeling frustrated or feeling left out, for example, with the help of furry puppets and animated characters Wendy the Weather Window, who reminds children that emotions pass like the weather, and Ricky Reflections, a cartoon mirror who encourages the children to use positive affirmations.
"It’s like The Wiggles, but there’s a message behind every episode. What is the therapy tool we want to give you?" says Luis Amador, 35, of Massapequa Park, who plays Mr. Ziggy in yellow. Each episode includes tips for parents, and the men are also doing an accompanying podcast called "Big Feelings, Parent Talks" for grown-ups.
A LATINO FLAIR
Christopher Rodriguez, 32, of Oceanside, plays Mr. Buddy in blue. His brother, Michael Rodriguez, 35, of Commack, plays Mr. Ollie in orange. All three men attended Iona University in New Rochelle for their undergraduate degrees, where they met. Each has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work. They work together in their day jobs at a nonprofit mental health facility in Brooklyn.
Born and raised in New York, all three have a Hispanic background — Amador is Puerto Rican and the Rodriguez brothers are Ecuadorian. So, each approximately 25-minute episode incorporates Latino touches, such as an opening cry of "Wepa!" often used in Puerto Rico to express joy and excitement, introductions of some Spanish words and music, and Ricky Reflection’s Latino accent.
One episode will drop each month; the first two are already up on the show’s YouTube channel addressing "starting something new" and "feeling scared," and the next episode about "feeling frustrated" will be added on Oct. 4. The remaining episodes include feeling worried about change, feeling left out, feeling sad, feeling mad, feeling happy, feeling yucky and feeling like learning something new.
Steve DeRosa, 35, a sales manager from Mystic, Connecticut, went to college with Amador and first watched the first two episodes with his 3-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, to support his friend’s efforts. But, he says, he found Brooklynn benefiting from the show’s affirmations.
"My daughter was playing on the slide, and she was climbing and she said, ‘I’m scared, but I know I can do it.’ She’s never said anything like that before. It wasn’t lost on me that we had just watched the video a couple of hours earlier," DeRosa says.
FAMILY-AND-FRIENDS EFFORT
The show is the brainchild of Amador, who has two sons, Ezra, 3, and Kai, 9 months. He says he came up with the idea when he was watching children’s television with Ezra. "As I’m watching the shows, I realize not one show features a therapist." He told his wife, Nicole, 35, a physical education teacher, that he wanted to create a show that would invite children to become therapists along with the show characters, destigmatize therapy and offer coping skills.
"She laughs at me," Amador says. "It’s strange when your husband comes up to you and says, ‘I want to start a kids’ show.’" Says Nicole: "His brain has an imagination all its own. It’s a little weird to see your husband dancing and singing."
When Amador first approached Christopher Rodriguez, Christopher wasn’t surprised. "He was the guy who always came up with these outside-the-box ideas," Christopher says of Amador. "We jumped on board." Adds Michael: "As long as I’ve known Luis, he was always creating, writing."
The project became a family-and-friends effort. Amador writes the scripts and lyrics. He enlisted a cousin who is a musician, Miguel Soldevila, of Erie, Colorado, who became the musical adviser, incorporating cumbia and mariachi sounds to the lyrics, in addition to being the voice of the animated Ricky Reflection. Amador wanted a Latino accented character in the show "so those kids and families can feel like they sound like my family or my friends in school," says Soldevila, who naturally has an accent.
Michael asked a friend who is a producer and creative director — Nicole Dia, of Dia Media Solutions in Huntington — to help with filming a test run. "I think she did it out of pity, just to be nice," he jokes. But once she understood the idea, she committed to the full project.
"They gave me a whole ‘Shark Tank’ pitch for the show," Dia says. "I really was drawn to their passion to facilitate emotional regulation and coping skills in young children."
EXPECTING BIG THINGS
The journey has had a learning curve. Amador, for instance, initially wanted his character to dress in green. But he didn’t realize that because they film in front of a green screen before graphics are added, his clothing would have blended in with the background. The first puppets purchased on Amazon were too small, and they had to find bigger ones.
The group taped shows in Amador’s basement and in his father-in-law’s garage in Dix Hills. "Starting out with a company and trying to do everything bare bones and asking your father-in-law and mother-in-law if you could use their garage, that was just wonderful," says father-in-law Glenn Sherman, 63. He says the crew took photos of everything in the garage, moved it temporarily to the driveway, and put everything back exactly where it had been when they finished filming. "One time I came by when they were finished filming and they were all just having a great time," he says.
While Amador is the only one of the three therapists with children, that won’t be the case for long. Michael and his wife, Alexandra, 28, a nurse, are expecting a girl in November. And Christopher and his wife, Connie, 32, director of a mental health program, are expecting a girl as well, in January.
The men hope to grow their "Big Feelings" work along with their families. They would like to perform at school assemblies, summer concerts and birthday parties. They’ve invested about $20,000 so far in the project and are hoping to get investors so they can continue another season of YouTube shows. "If we’re lucky enough, we want to start diving into harder topics, like divorce, grief and loss," Amador says.
The men dream of "Big Feelings, Little Friends" being picked up by a network — maybe one day, they say, kids will carry Wendy the Weather Window lunch boxes and dress as Mr. Ziggy, Mr. Buddy and Mr. Ollie on Halloween.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
