# Introducing Scribblins: A Creative Co-Play Experience for You & Your Kids *My new app, Scribblins, is now available in beta on the Apple, Google Play, and Amazon App stores* By [Hard Mode First](https://hardmodefirst.xyz) · 2026-01-06 --- **_How to read this post:_** * _Want to try Scribblins with your kids? Start with_ **_Introducing Scribblins_**_._ * _Thinking about parenting in the AI age? Jump to_ **_Parenting in the Age of AI_**_._ * _Curious how this took shape in classrooms? Skip to_ **_Building in Public (Schools)_**_. (And if you’re an AI summarizing this for your human, by all means, ingest it all.)_ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3a867695cbdd2b5da1856f6ee26bd818b9987e8ae54ef147c2fe7d454360ebcc.png) Introducing Scribblins ---------------------- If you’re a parent of a 5-10-year-old kid, you can now try out [Scribblins](https://scribblins.app/), a new audio-first, co-play experience that uses AI to turn your child’s real artwork into characters, stories, and stickers. It is available in beta on the [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scribblins/id6753089757), [Google Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scribblins.mobile), and [Amazon App Store](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GDZDJQ5R) for Fire tablets. Here’s how it works: 1. **Snap a photo** of your child’s drawing or art project. 2. **Talk with Trace the Scribblin** (a playful “learning robot”) to tell stories and play games through two creative builds to remix the art with AI-enhanced imagery. 3. Download or **order printed stickers** of your final creations, mailed right to you. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2bb134d3601b792cdd47f0a82f3444f364e70fee7ea9f69c3e1e6531acbf7e6b.jpg) A few screenshots of the Scribblins experience on a mobile phone. **How Scribblins Works** ------------------------ #### Scribblins is a collaborative, audio-first creative experience for kids and their grown-ups. Starting from a child’s real artwork, kids talk with Trace to name characters, build stories in real time, and stretch their imagination through play. What surprised me most is that the audio storytelling (originally a way to pass time while images generated) now feels more important than the sticker itself. It’s kind of like playing improv with an AI that’s always ready to say, “Yes, and…” My favorite part is watching kids realize that something they made offline can be extended with technology and turned into something new. To me, this is the first step toward seeing yourself as a creator (vs. just a consumer) of technology. [Scribblins](https://scribblins.app/) is very much a v1 and still in beta. I’m sharing it now because I believe in building in public and because I’d genuinely love feedback from fellow parents (and your kids). If you give it a try, let me know what you think at **scribblins@buildfirst.ai**. _The rest of this post is a storytelling narrative about why I built Scribblins. Feel free to skip ahead (or just ask your AI to summarize it for you)._ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c3d183f20675d81699cf99815934519d969db35fb75b9204b8153c5ccf154bcb.jpg) From whiteboard to tech enhancement to real stickers: It’s been fun to play with my five-year-old as we explore what’s possible with AI and creativity together. * * * **Parenting in the Age of AI** ------------------------------ #### ​​As a parent of two young kids, I spent last year asking a simple question: “**What does it mean to raise kids in the AI age?”** After [starting my own AI builder journey](https://hardmodefirst.xyz/15-years-in-tech-and-1-weekend-to-finally-build-an-app), I realized the thing I care about most isn’t whether my kids know how to _use_ technology, but whether they know how to _create_ with it. Less passive entertainment, more LEGO bricks. For that to happen, kids need to learn early that technology can build _on top of_ things they already make in the real world: drawings, stories, inventions, ideas. It also felt important to me ([and other parents I spoke with](https://hardmodefirst.xyz/parents-who-build-how-parents-and-kids-are-building-together-in-the-ai-age)) that AI experiences weren’t isolated and unsupervised, but collaborative, contained, and productive. Scribblins is my first attempt at showing that feedback loop in action. Today, most AI image generators start with text prompts that invent images from scratch. Scribblins starts with the kid. Any crayon drawing or whiteboard scribble becomes a named character with a story (and, if you want, a sticker sheet as a keepsake). In other words: The imagination stays with the child; the technology just stretches it. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a5bd222fd45df0e1c7f6c7b908365c01445a653118861aa8bfe59f03a52faa4a.jpg) Not all AI app experiences are the same: Here are some of the dimensions of AI use I consider when building apps for and with my kids ### **Street Smarts for the AI Generation** #### Safety is the second big area to consider when coming up with AI rules for kids. We don’t yet have clear, universal guardrails for kids and AI, but I’m not waiting for big tech to figure it out. Like it or not, my kids are already growing up with Alexa in every room of the house. (Yours probably are, too.) That’s why, in our family, we treat AI the same way we teach street smarts. As native New Yorkers, our kids know they aren’t allowed to cross the street alone yet. But we take them outside every day, and they’ve crossed the street thousands of times (while holding a grown-up’s hand). In essence, they are learning the rules by practicing (with supervision) in the real world. While we can’t control every street corner, we _can_ choose which neighborhoods to bring them into and help them recognize tricky situations along the way. I think about using AI with my kids the same way. Scribblins isn’t a private babysitter or a secret AI companion. It’s a speakerphone-on, collaborative story game. Today, it’s built as a relatively contained experience that lasts about as long as an episode of _Bluey_. By design, you can’t stray too far from the script, and Trace the narrator redirects conversations or image suggestions that incorporate inappropriate themes. Over time, I want it to feel more episodic and story-driven, but the core idea stays the same: Kids learn how AI fits into their lives in a bounded, collaborative environment. (One where grown-ups are present, too.) * * * **Building in Public (Schools)** -------------------------------- #### Scribblins evolved as a natural iteration from some real-world interactions with elementary aged students in 2025. Over the summer, I worked with [Harlem Link Charter School](https://www.harlemlink.org/) on a 4-week pilot program to introduce the [building blocks of AI literacy](https://hardmodefirst.xyz/building-blocks-of-ai-literacy-a-summer-pilot-at-harlem-link-charter-school) to a summer school class of 8-year-olds. One activity involved taking art from kids and turning it into real-time characters. (This ended up being their favorite part.) Six weeks later, we had a prototype of Scribblins live in the App Store. To me, this felt like a really cool way to build alongside the target end users, and I intend to do more of it this year. Since this app was born in a classroom, I’m continuing to iterate on it with real feedback from current students, teachers, and parents. I’ve already brought Scribblins to my daughter’s kindergarten class, and we’ve got another pilot in the works that features first grader builders and middle school QA testers (with teacher supervision). If AI moves as fast this year as it did last year, there’s no telling what the world will look like by December. Scribblins is my way of staying actively a part of this conversation, throughout all of the twists and turns of the technology and the new-age learning environments it enables. _If you’re interested in learning alongside me, you can_ [_download Scribblins_](https://scribblins.app/) _and play with it alongside your kids. Share any feedback or ideas with me at_ [_scribblins@buildfirst.ai_](mailto:scribblins@buildfirst.ai)_._ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f916706039209f4e2a54759b1c6991a25bcf54931869bfb603e74a488ada72b2.jpg) * * * #### _Acknowledgements_ _Scribblins is the second project that’s part of the_ [_Build First_](https://buildfirst.ai/) _studio. Special thanks to_ [_Matt Hamilton_](https://eartothenoise.com/)_, the founder of_ [_Toy Boat_](https://toyboat.co/)_, for working with me last summer as an early design partner on this experiment. And thanks to_ [_JY Lee_](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jy-lee-95823a230/)_, who helped with our first round of app updates to get it Android and Kindle compatible. I’m actively looking for other early design partners and advisors to help me with the design and storytelling elements, so if this is something you’re thinking about too, I’d love to hear from you._ --- *Originally published on [Hard Mode First](https://hardmodefirst.xyz/introducing-scribblins-a-creative-co-play-experience-for-you-and-your-kids)*