What are your earliest childhood memories? Chances are, your answer will take you back to a playtime session with family and friends. However, a recent global study conducted by the LEGO Group found that, on average, children are spending just 2% of their week (equivalent to 7 hours) playing, with one in three (32%) spending less than three hours each week enjoying play. In comparison, the average adult spends 26 hours a week scrolling on their smartphone, which is an average of more than 3.5 hours per day.
To address the global lack of play among children, the company has launched a new campaign called “Play is Your Superpower.” It aims to inspire families to reprioritise playtime, emphasising its critical importance in childhood development and the role it plays in bringing fun to families around the world. To launch the campaign, the LEGO Group has enlisted the help of a group of leading cultural figures, each of whom attributes the skills developed through childhood play to helping make their dreams come true. The Play Squad, including Tan France, Naomi Watanabe, Bindi Irwin, and Stephanie Beatriz, will share the unique superpowers that play has given them and why they believe it should be a priority for every child.
Here, we sat down with the comedian, actor, and social media star Naomi Watanabe to discuss how the power of self-expression instilled in her through childhood play has impacted every aspect of her life.
Read the full interview…
Talk us through the origins of your new collaboration with LEGO – how did that come about?
I have always really loved the idea of playfulness and LEGO asked me to be part of the Play is Your Superpower campaign because they were looking for someone fun and playful. I’ve always had a passion for being playful, ever since I was a child. Play is something that I’ve always enjoyed and I’ve always loved the LEGO brand, so that’s why I wanted to collaborate with LEGO and be a part of this campaign. I am always looking to inject more playfulness into my work so I’m really excited to be working with LEGO on this campaign.
What is the campaign all about?
The Play is Your Superpower campaign is all about encouraging children to play more, and encouraging adults to prioritise play for children which I think is so important. Play helps to build essential skills in kids and I definitely believe that play has helped me to build new skills and transform them into superpowers.
What’s your first memory of playing with LEGO?
My first memory of playing with LEGO is from when I would visit my friend’s house, and their older siblings would be playing with LEGO. My first opportunity to play with LEGO was at my friends’ houses. I remember the older kids showing me how to play and being really proud of their LEGO builds. I was absolutely fascinated and this fascination then led to me wanting to play with LEGO myself and have the opportunity to create my own builds.
Your superpower is self expression, what does that mean to you?
I think that it’s really hard to express yourself if you don’t truly understand what is going on inside your own self first. For example, when you eat something really delicious or you experience happiness, if you don’t know how to express that to the outside world and how you feel in that moment then you can’t truly share that experience. What I do in my job as a performer is all about expressing myself in order to entertain others and sharing my experiences with my audience, and that’s why self-expression is something that’s very important to me.
In what ways does your self-expression come to life?
I am someone that is genuinely very expressive all the time. If I were to pick an area of my life that brings this out of me the most, and that I really treasure, is in my role as a comedian. That is all about re-experiencing the funny moments that I’ve lived in my life. It is down to the way that I express myself that I am able to bring those funny moments to life. In my comedy, for example, I might talk about when I met someone funny on the street, and I’ll want to share this experience with the audience, so I’ll bring it to live by mimicking the person’s behaviour and acting out the scenario. In those instances, I really use self-expression so that people understand the funny moment that I lived through.
How would you describe your fashion style?
I’m someone who loves fashion and I don’t want to be a person that avoids certain colours or patterns because I’ve always been told it doesn’t look good or that there are certain rules to follow. I have a real passion for challenge and I like to show that through my fashion. I like to challenge the fashion rules and create looks that feel unique to me.
How do you juggle your creative disciplines and succeed in all?
There are three things that I most treasure in my busy life that enable me to juggle everything – one of them is being so passionate about my work and another is having alone time and taking that time to myself to re-charge, that is very important to me in my day-to day life. The third is prioritising meeting and interactive with interesting people – spending time with fun and interesting people adds more juice to my life! My schedule has been so busy recently, I’ve spent a lot of time on planes and in those busy moments I try to prioritise doing something that makes me happy – like eating something that I love.
You’ve just finished a US comedy tour, how was that?
My US tour was amazing. It was incredible because for me everything is my first time. I got to go to some amazing places like Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, Atlanta and DC.
Any standout shows?
I loved it everywhere but Chicago particularly is so good. Chicago is comedy town. I didn’t know that before but now everyone is telling me that I should move to Chicago! Everyone is saying to me, “Naomi, come stay in Chicago, learn more English and do shows for us here”! The comedic energy in Chicago is very high.
What’s next for you?
I really want to learn more English. I also have a lot of work that involves Chinese so now I’m taking the time to learn Chinese. My brain is filling up with Chinese right now but once I feel I’ve made good progress with learning Chinese then I plan to get back to studying English again! My ultimate next step would be to do stand up comedy in the US.
Find out more about the campaign and watch the Play is Your Superpower film here.