Riese’s Team Pick: Kids React

“Kids React” is a funny show on the internet where kids react to viral videos, like “Friday” and apparently a thing with a pop tart kitten hurdling through space. Except one time they did a thing about Osama Bin Laaden’s death and I guess if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have just gotten born, like to have been a fetus when 9/11 happened, I guess it’s like this (IT’S FASCINATING!)
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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3279 articles for us.

42 Comments

  1. Fascinating indeed. That boy with the green shirt is smarter than a lot of adults I know.

  2. Lol “he’s a camper like on Black Ops”.

    Let’s talk about Bin Laden’s death but let’s not talk to kids in school about homosexuality. Lesson learned: don’t underestimate kids.

  3. I love hearing what kids have to say about big news stories. It shows how much pick up from home, school, and everywhere in between. I was just kind of wondering though…blue background for boys and pink for girls? Really?

  4. Word about the blue and pink -_-

    I want to be friends with the kid in the navy and green shirt! :)

  5. I’m pretty sure this is a perfect round-up of our bin Laden open thread, side note.

    • It really is. The boys sit in a room with books and a blackboard – tools and things you can use. The girls are with a cutesy painting and a stuffed animal – inanimate potentially comforting objects. I just don’t get it. There are plenty of other ways to change the background of the interviews without resorting to this.

  6. Best: “I don’t really know the reason but he wanted to kill everyone and he did something that was not correct!” Runner up: “They didn’t [just go walking in and go boom!], they tried handling it with words and it didn’t work.”

    William is seriously super awesome though, and I want to be his best friend.

  7. you can really see the effects of parenting by what these kids say…when one of the twins went, “they tried handling it with words” i felt a little rush of pride for their parents who you just know taught them that

  8. “If you were the President, how would you handle terrorism?”

    “I would buy a yellow canoe. It’s my favourite colour”.

    Thank God I’m not allowed to vote in American elections, coz that girl would be getting my vote. Fuck yeah, yellow canoes.

  9. “and i don’t know if this is correct — i mean, i’m ten, so.”

    #selfawareness

  10. Oh well ya know I’m one a those guys who don’t in particular ya know puke when they see a dead person

  11. William approaches a topic that he knows very little about with objectivity and honesty, a skill that many politicians who are dealing with topics in seriousness have not yet learned to do.

  12. I know this wasn’t the point of the video, but that led to another video and…I fucking love the poptart cat.

    • LOL, we watched their reaction to Nyan Cat after this one. My partner looked at the 6-year-old’s reaction and said she reminded him of me. :P

  13. oh man, people underestimate children; our society is so divided by age (and ruled by adults) I feel like adults forget that children are thinking people too. I remember when I was a kid and being so frustrated because regardless of how articulate I was it was so often cheek pinching ‘cute’ when I attempted to join adult conversations. one had to be in the correct situations (learning environment vs. simply partaking in conversation) to talk about more complicated subjects.

    A lot of people don’t know how to interact with children without feeling like they need to create a special environment for them.

    • I know what you mean. I pretty much forced adults to take me seriously by getting them alone and being generally belligerent. “Listen to what I have to say, dammit!” It worked out pretty well actually, at least with my teachers and the school librarian. I always told them that the world be better if they put kids like me in charge.

      I knew exactly how I would solve all the war and violence. I would tell people to share and use their words. I also wrote a letter to the president (Clinton at the time) when I was 8. I told him he should make laws to stop people from cutting down trees because trees make oxygen and if they keep cutting them down, no one will be able to breathe. I also invited him to dinner. He never came.

      • “I also wrote a letter to the president (Clinton at the time) when I was 8. I told him he should make laws to stop people from cutting down trees because trees make oxygen and if they keep cutting them down, no one will be able to breathe. I also invited him to dinner. He never came.”

        cuuuute. :)

  14. Seriously, kids are smart. They can be naive, but they are smart and incredibly aware of the world around them. I hate it when people patronise kids ’cause they /know/, dammit! These kids, especially that kid with the striped shirt–he is great.

  15. morgan ftw. 5:12-5:26 was the most adorable thing in the world maybe. also, i want to give william a hug. he seems so smart as well as incredibly sensitive to human suffering/life in general which will invariably lead to some serious feelings in his future. i always feel a little heartache for people with that particular combination of features. growing up is fascinating.

  16. Interesting when you realize that 9/11 happened before some of these kids were even born.

  17. at 0:33 Morgan has the most genuine reaction ever.

    Also, someone please give that kid William a college scholarship asap. kthanx

  18. Jack talking about Friday is singularly the best thing ever. “IT WAS HORRIBLE BEYOND MEASURE! MASS HYSTERIA!”

    All of them are so smart and eloquent. :) I love them all.

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