“Mom, why do I look different?” This is a question that Julie Haase, Child Advancement Network program manager at the Clinical & Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI), has observed parents and caregivers from earlier generations sidestep. Many were taught that differences should not be acknowledged and that discussing racial identity with young children is taboo.

But research tells us that our sense of understanding who we are, how we perceive others and how we experience the world starts well before we can speak. Science shows that by three months, a baby begins to notice physical traits, including skin color. At nine months old, babies begin to prefer faces that look like their caregivers. And by the time they’re two, toddlers are learning how to sort and categorize people by identifiers, including gender, and a year later, they are beginning to pick up on subtle social cues, like what it means to belong to a group.

Building on this research and interest from families and early childhood providers for expert-backed resources for talking about positive ethnic-racial identities, Bezos Family Foundation program Vroom gathered a panel of academic and research professionals, the majority of whom were of color, to cull the latest science of racial identity development in the early years to form positive perceptions of identity. The team rolled out research-backed Identity Tips in 2024 for parents and caregivers of children aged 0-5.

Defining Identity

For Vroom, the work began by focusing on central parts of identity, including self-concept, or how we see ourselves; self-esteem, or how we feel about ourselves; and future development, or what we dream of in the future. Being part of groups—family, community, and others—can influence identity through social responsibility, privilege, and bias.

Vroom convened a specific group of science advisors to explore and address these issues in an open dialogue focused on identity formation in young children, including Dr. Iheoma Uruka. “There’s no one perfect way to have this conversation,” It takes a willingness to observe, listen, mess up, and re-educate yourself,” Dr. Uruka says. “To explore who you are, who you want to be, and who you want your child to be.” These new and updated Vroom Tips, in addition to the Vroom Guide: Talking About Race with Young Children published in October 2022, are an outcome of that work.

Available in 19 languages, the two dozen tips are based on recent studies about how young kids learn about themselves and their world. These tips show how kids of all backgrounds build self-awareness and understand their role in their family, community, and beyond.

Vroom Identity Tips are designed to apply to children of all backgrounds and are threaded with Vroom principles of building positive relationships in everyday moments to help families become comfortable with engaging these once-taboo topics. Because talking about identity from a young age is part of building skills like critical thinking and working with others.

“These tips are an awesome way to help parents speak about identity at an early age,” Haase says. “It’s more about similarities than differences. To learn to say, ‘your hair is curly and mine is straight. I love that!’ Everybody we’ve talked about these Tips has been excited, welcoming and looking for ways to begin a conversation like that.”

Vroom partners in the US and Australia have begun implementing Vroom Identity Tips into their work, including Hannah West, Vroom statewide coordinator at Nevada-based Children’s Cabinet.

The Children’s Cabinet works to keep Nevada’s children safe and families together. The nonprofit serves age zero to age 22, including many children living in low-income communities. It helps subsidize childcare costs for families and provides education and support for childcare providers.

Their identity development class is offered as part of a series of five Vroom classes. The Children’s Cabinet knew from evaluation feedback that “there was a growing interest in having the conversation around race through that lens of identity development. That’s where it started for us,” West says. West introduced the Vroom equity brief to partners, who started incorporating info into trainings the organization conducts for early childcare providers. By starting to share tips with providers before reaching parents, West said her team “really started getting the conversation going around identity development and creating a sense of belonging in our classrooms.”

Equity and Social-Emotional Learning

To ground identity discussions, some Children Cabinet’s trainers began conversations with parents about equity as a key piece of social-emotional learning. Doing so helps parents “realize that it’s important at a young age to promote a healthy sense of identity,” West says. These provider conversations also included educators, who were asked to identify what it means to have a strong sense of identity in adulthood.

“In Nevada, we work with such a diverse range of families, and that diversity really varies across the state,” West says. “At first, some educators were a bit hesitant about tackling these tough conversations. But as we got into the workshops, it became clear that many of us were already having these discussions. The resources from Vroom just gave a more solid framework to make sure the work we’re doing really connects with the needs of the families that we serve.”

Meeting Parents Where They Are

Haase oversees Vroom as CTSI and began to populate the Vroom Identity Tips through a monthly meeting of childcare providers and advocates at the Milwaukee Childcare Alliance.

Haase says the CTSI team developed “Vroom Rooms” near nurseries in predominately African-American churches, including a local Church of God in Christ congregation, a Baptist Church and a United Methodist church. Vroom Tips are displayed on walls and materials, and coloring pages with tips go home with children to spark continued interest and brain-building. Parents and caregivers might use the rooms during a service with babies or children not participating in other programming or care. “We do very intentional and specific training for the workers in those Vroom Rooms around these concepts.”

“One of the biggest challenges from Milwaukee is integration. We are not successful in that area. I think any place where we can add Vroom Identity Tips to help that conversation in this city is really important, Haase says.” To apply its value for equity and inclusion, CTSI works with community partners, including the Milwaukee Children’s Museum, during free community access days each month, providing Vroom tips in English and Spanish.

Family by Family

Family by family, Vroom Identity Tips are launching conversations. Partners report that workshops on Identity have sparked meaningful conversations, underscoring the importance of early identity development in shaping children’s resilience and self-worth.

Haase recently used some of the new Vroom Identity Tips in English and Spanish at a recent event at the Milwaukee Art Museum in celebration of the Day of the Dead. West has hosted identity development workshops for early childhood professionals across urban and rural Nevada.

The feedback on Vroom content has been overwhelmingly positive. Many providers, especially newer teachers, have expressed a desire to learn more about fostering healthy identity development in young children. They have found Vroom Identity Tips and Guide for Talking About Race provide an approach that makes this work feel like they can make a difference.

In the discussions, West emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of belonging in the classroom and the role of teachers in supporting positive identity development. “Many teachers have highlighted many examples of how they plan to incorporate the tips into their work as a reflection tool for their practices and environment of their site,” West says, “in small conversations with students and staff, as activities during circle time, in social-emotional curricula, and as family engagement activities.”

“The work Vroom has done to create the Talking About Race guide and Identity Tips is already proving invaluable in the communities we’ve shared it with,” West says.

Learn more about Vroom and download Identity Tips to share.