Our Story

Kidara grew up on a block in Philadelphia.

The advice came on repeat through childhood: ask every adult you meet what they do for a living — there are endless ways to make money out there. So he asked. The woman who ran the corner bakery. The carpenter down the street. His friend’s mom at the bank. He built a map in his head of how the grown-up world actually worked.

The founder of Kidara, as a kid on a Philadelphia stoop

That curiosity stayed with him. As he grew up, he kept asking — the barista who owned the cafe, the carpenter who built decks on weekends, the woman who turned a hobby into a small business. Adults love being asked what they do, and most have a longer story than you’d expect. The world is full of people figuring out how to make a living in surprising ways. He thinks more kids should get to see that.

Kidara exists so the next generation of kids gets the gift his dad gave him — framed the way he wishes it had been framed for him. Cinematic picture books about the real work behind a dream: listening, adapting, the small smart change. No hustle. No shouting. Just stories worth growing up on.

The first one is Mama Malia’s Sweet Bread. More on the way.

Read Mama Malia →Meet the cast