INVENT 2023 Finalist Profile: Little Sunflower

Founder name: Sarah Gilbert

Little Sunflower is an early intervention animated, interactive, digital, emotional wellbeing program for children ages 4- 10 years.

What is your background?

I trained as a professional actress and voice artist and have worked in tv, film, radio and theatre. I have written and published a novel and produced award-winning radio drama and documentary. I am also qualified in holistic therapies and counselling.

What inspired you to start your business?

I taught children drama for years and I often felt that I was giving them a facade of confidence. I would watch them perform beautifully and then shrink back into the shadows when their time in the limelight was over.

I understood how they felt though, and empathised, as I was that child but I didn't know how to make it better for them.

It was then that the idea for Little Sunflower was born. Back then it wasn't called Little Sunflower, it was just me with a desire to help and make a difference, somehow.

When my son started school years later, I realised that things had become worse and set about combining my skills and accrued knowledge to develop what is now Little Sunflower.

What problem are you solving?

The Children’s Society says that children’s happiness continues to decline which is scary and yes, the statistics are steadily getting worse.

• 50% of mental health issues are in place by age 14 and 75% by age 24.

• 53% of parents take one day a month off work because of their child's mental health and 71% says that their child's mental health issues make their work day more stressful.

Mental health costs the UK economy £118 billion per year and by the year 2030 it is believed that mental health will be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality.

The UK Government says the most powerful childhood predictor of adult life satisfaction is a child's emotional health and that early intervention is key.

We need to put early intervention tools in place before children reach these vulnerable teenage years.

Little Sunflower addresses this with a cast of animated interactive characters who experience everything that children do and lead them on gentle emotional journeys that they can connect with and understand and learn how to navigate big feelings through shared awareness, compassion and then, self-acceptance.

Who and where are your potential customers?

Potential customers are parents and where they are spending time on social media platforms.

Also schools and private schools in the UK, Ireland and abroad.

Businesses who engage in Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Benefit platforms and for our product lines, online and high street retail outlets.

What do you think is the potential for your business?

Our children are our world's future.

With the current mental health statistics on the rise and the age of those suffering most becoming younger year on year, Little Sunflower has spent a couple of years being tried and tested and its future growth is by reaching as many children as it can from as young an age as possible so we can set them on the right path from day one.

This sizeable addressable market is currently £1.8 billion in the UK and Ireland.

We are training children with key skills and tools from the outset through fun and engaging characters that they connect with and understand and in turn guiding parents and teachers to gently encourage resilience, self-belief, awareness, compassion and then onwards to the healthy emotional growth that all our children deserve.

Where do you hope to be 5 years from now?

Poor mental health is impacting our children.

I am passionate about making change, revolutionising how we approach children’s emotional wellbeing and making their learning and development fun and building towards a future generation of emotionally healthy adults.

In five years, I want to see Little Sunflower with comprehensive resources, not just for children from ages 4 - 10 years but with resources for ages 0 to 4 and again from ages 11 to 14 years.

Little Sunflower is bursting with ideas for content, resources and products and we want to develop and collaborate in other areas with experts to create a new and impactful way to grow, one that is relevant in this 21st century world. To do that we need to increase our staff and focus on our research and development.

I'm very excited at the prospects that are ahead for Little Sunflower and feel passionate about being the go-to tool for all things emotional wellbeing.

Check out Little Sunflower’s website at littlesunflower.ie. Follow their socials on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Tickets for the INVENT Awards Night 2023 are on sale at invent23.co/awards – Thursday 21st September at the ICC Belfast.