A conversation with Anna-Sophie Jürgens | Section: Visual Science Storytelling, Sequential Art & Illustrated Science Communication: Introducing a New Series
Abstract
This conversation introduces Dr Helen Hoang’s Economics for Kids learning framework, which turns economic concepts into visual stories, characters and playful scenes to make ideas such as scarcity, choice and incentives intuitive for children. Hoang emphasises that children remember images long after definitions fade: “Children laugh first, become curious next, and only later realise they have been learning economics”, underscoring the pedagogical power of visual surprise. The artistic core of the project blends a hand‑drawn, fairy‑tale aesthetic with real Canberra landmarks, creating a distinctive visual identity where imagination meets civic life. Illustrations operate as a parallel line of reasoning rather than decoration; as Hoang notes, a single image can articulate cooperation, value creation and perception more effectively than text . Beyond the books, games and EconLab workshops extend these artistic principles into movement, decision‑making and embodied experience. Hoang positions visual art-based storytelling as a rigorous mode of social‑science communication – one that reveals invisible systems, invites critical questioning and allows children to see and feel economics as part of their everyday world.
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Dr Helen Hoang, what a pleasure to welcome you to the online journal w/k! You are an economist, author, educator and founder of Economics for Kids, a learning ecosystem that introduces children to economic thinking through books, stories, games, EconLab workshops and practical learning experiences. Your work reimagines concepts such as scarcity, choices, trade-offs, value, incentives, money, fairness and future skills into child-friendly narratives and visual forms. For our w/k series on Visual Science Storytelling, Sequential Art & Illustrated Science Communication, we are especially interested in the artistic and visual concept behind your work: how economics, a social science often associated with graphs, markets, numbers and policy can become a world of visual characters, images, games and imaginative learning situations.
Lovely to be here!
By way of introduction, could you tell our readers what it means to “visualise economics” for children? What kinds of economic ideas become easier to understand when they are reconfigured into images, stories or scenes?
My dream is to make economics so engaging that every child can understand it. If I explain scarcity in the morning, a child may forget the definition by lunchtime. But if they picture an Ant and a Grasshopper outside Old Parliament House, with cockatoos overhead, one dancing while the other gathers food for winter, they may remember the scene long after the lesson. Children are naturally curious about the world, and something slightly strange or unexpected makes them look twice. Through that visual surprise, scarcity, choice and planning become things they can see. Children laugh first, become curious next, and only later realise they have been learning economics. For me, the best lesson is not the one memorised, it’s the one they can still picture years later, even after the words are gone.
Economics is often understood as abstract, mathematical or adult-oriented. What was your first artistic or educational intuition that it could become visual, playful and story-based for children?
At the Old Bus Depot Markets in Canberra, my son asked me a simple yet inspiring question: “Why can’t we have everything at once?” That question truly captures the essence of economics, scarcity, choice, and trade-offs. Children don’t need a graph to understand these ideas; they need a world they can step into. I started re-examining stories they already know, The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Golden Goose, and The Little Mermaid. The Ant and the Grasshopper explores saving, time, and uncertainty. The Golden Goose asks what happens when greed destroys the source of value. The Little Mermaid transforms desire, exchange, and sacrifice into an unforgettable bargain. I realised that economics already lives within childhood stories. My role was simply to reveal it, so children could see, question, and remember ideas that might otherwise seem hidden.
Who is involved in shaping the visual identity of your books, games and learning materials? How do you collaborate with illustrators, designers, educators or technologists?
I develop the economic concept, story structure, characters, tone, learning journey and the Canberra setting. Before an illustration begins, I share the economic lesson, what I want the child to notice or feel, and how the fairy-tale world might meet modern life. Illustrator Kim Hoang Long then interprets that spirit through composition, expression, colour and movement. Sometimes the artist finds a visual metaphor that says more than the text can. I think of the books almost as a storybook city tour: familiar characters wander through Canberra landmarks while economics is woven into the landscape. For the games, our game developers Hoang Bao Long, Hoang Bui Ha Chau, and Garth Vidler translate those visual ideas into systems: winter becomes a limited resource, summer becomes a window of opportunity, winter becomes a consequence, and choices open or close paths. The collaboration begins with an economic question rather than a request to “make it pretty”: What should the child notice first? What is changing? What can the image say without words? Sometimes an illustrator finds a metaphor that the text could not; sometimes a game mechanic makes a trade-off clearer than a paragraph. Educators, parents and children then help us refine the experience through schools, workshops, markets, exhibitions and community events. Economics provides the structure, art gives it emotion, and technology lets children step inside the idea.
Could you describe the core artistic concept behind the Economics for Kids series? What should readers recognise immediately as part of its visual identity?
The artistic heart of Economics for Kids is where fairy-tale magic meets the real landscape of Canberra. Imagine the Little Mermaid rising from Lake Burley Griffin as the National Carillon rings across the water. She gives up her voice for the chance of another life, and the image immediately asks: Was it a fair exchange? What did she gain? What did she lose? I use a hand-drawn, comic-like fairy-tale style because it is familiar to primary-school readers, yet flexible enough to make a modern city feel magical. The abstraction is deliberate: an expressive line, an oversized object or an impossible encounter can focus attention on the economic idea while leaving room for imagination. A seashell can suggest value, a lost voice can embody opportunity cost and two shores can become two possible futures. Canberra is more than a backdrop; it is the bridge between imagination, civic life and the choices children are growing into.
What role do illustrations play in your books? Are they decorative, explanatory, emotional, narrative, mnemonic – or do they create a parallel layer of economic meaning?
They say a picture is worth more than a thousand words. In my books, one image can hold an entire economic story. Beneath Old Parliament House, the Grasshopper dances in the present while the Ant carries tomorrow on its back. Before a definition appears, children can already sense scarcity, preparation and consequence. I chose illustration rather than photography because photographs are wonderfully real, but this project needs the freedom to combine reality with the impossible. A photograph can capture Old Parliament House; an illustration can place a dancing Grasshopper, a working Ant and curious cockatoos in front of it or let a mermaid rise from Lake Burley Griffin. That slight strangeness invites children to look twice. The comic form can also compress time and exaggerate what matters: summer becomes winter, a reward changes hands, or an empty field reveals a missed opportunity. So, illustration is not a decorative translation of the words. It is a parallel line of reasoning – making economics visible, emotional and memorable.
Do you think an illustration can carry an economic argument? In other words, can a picture show something about value, fairness, scarcity or choice that words alone cannot?
Absolutely. In The Bremen Town Musicians, four animals who have been dismissed as old or no longer useful stand on one another outside a robber’s cottage; their voices and shadows become one surprising “monster”. Separately, they seem weak. Together, their different abilities become a new resource. The image makes an economic argument about cooperation, innovation and value: worth is not always fixed; it can be created by combining overlooked strengths. It also asks a more critical question about perception. The robbers see a monster because fear shapes what they think they see; the animals see a problem and use what they have to solve it. A single picture can therefore ask: Who decides what is valuable? What becomes possible when we work together? And how often do our assumptions hide the truth?
In children’s visual storytelling, characters often carry ideas through action and emotion. How do your characters – for example those on your covers – embody economic concepts such as wanting, choosing, saving, sharing or planning?
My characters do not explain economics – they live inside its choices. The Ant carries tomorrow on its back while the Grasshopper dances in the present. Little Red Riding Hood walks beside the Wolf through the machinery of the forest economy. The Tortoise and the Hare become two visions of growth: one steady and resilient, the other fast but fragile. In Volume 2, animals cross borders, a magician turns invention into progress, communities build public goods together, and AI enters the story of our shared future. A basket becomes saving, a bargain becomes exchange, a race becomes growth, and a bridge becomes cooperation. Economics begins to move, dream and become visible.
How do you visually represent invisible economic forces – incentives, opportunity cost, preferences, future consequences or social value?
I try to give invisible forces a visible trace. In Scarcity in the City, music and sunshine pull the Grasshopper towards the pleasure of the present, while approaching winter makes the future impossible to ignore. A growing store of food shows preparation; an empty field quietly records a missed opportunity. Rewards, changing resources and shifting landscapes make incentives and consequences visible. Social value can also be shown through shared stories. In Stone Soup, an empty pot slowly fills as each person contributes something small, showing how a community can create more together than anyone could alone. A library, river or playground may not generate private profit, yet the people who gather, learn, play and belong there make its value visible.
Is there an artistic challenge in making “choice” visible? A choice is not just an action, but also the path not taken…
Yes, because every choice creates two stories: the future we enter and the one we leave behind. In Scarcity in the City, children move through seven levels with limited time, energy and only three lives. They choose between work and rest, gathering and playing, saving for winter or enjoying the present. One path opens while another closes. The unchosen option may return later as lost time, an empty basket or a winter for which the player is not ready. That is opportunity cost made visible: not just what we choose, but the shadow of what we gave up.
Your Economics for Kids ecosystem extends beyond books into games, workshops and EconLab experiences. How does the artistic concept change when economics moves from the page into play, movement, decision-making and simulation?
The artistic language changes at every stage. On the page, children see a choice. In the game, they make it. In EconLab, they test it in the real world. A book illustration can suggest movement, emotion and consequence; a game needs an entire visual system. Characters move, stories become mechanics, and time, energy and resources can be spent, saved or lost. The game art must show not only what the world looks like, but what is changing and why it matters. The ecosystem follows a simple journey: read the story, play the game, apply the lesson. EconLab brings those layers together through role-play, economic challenges, objects, discussion and real-life decisions. The aim is not only to teach economics, but to let children see it, play it and use it.
EconLab presents economics as something children do, not only something they learn about. What visual or spatial elements help children experience economic concepts physically – through roles, objects, resources, tasks or game mechanics?
EconLab turns the room into a living economy where children take on roles, manage limited resources, trade, save, negotiate and respond to changing situations. We also use the space to bring ideas to life. For instance, distance can represent unequal access, tokens make scarcity something children can actually see and handle, and events like a storm, a price increase or a new technology challenge them to adapt and make new decisions. So, instead of simply teaching economics, EconLab creates an environment where children can explore it, test their ideas and see how their choices shape the outcome.
w/k is interested in the interfaces between art and science, including visual science storytelling and illustrated science communication. Do you see Economics for Kids as a form of visual communication for the social sciences?
Yes. I see Economics for Kids as visual communication for the social sciences because it makes invisible systems visible – and open to question. Children encounter economics long before they meet a graph: when they share, wait their turn, choose what to buy, respond to a reward or decide how to use their time. Stories, illustrations and games reveal the forces beneath those everyday moments: scarcity, incentives, fairness, power and consequence. Visual storytelling does more than simplify. A picture can ask who has access, who benefits, who pays and what has been left outside the frame. A game can show how one choice changes not only the player’s outcome but the wider world. In that sense, art is not separate from social science; it becomes a way of examining it.
What can illustrated storytelling communicate about economics that a graph cannot? And what can a graph communicate that a story cannot?
A story gives economics a face; a graph gives it scale. An illustrated story can show why the Ant prepares, why the Grasshopper chooses music and what winter feels like when those decisions arrive. A graph can step back and reveal whether one character’s struggle is part of a wider pattern – how resources are distributed, how many people are affected or how choices accumulate over time. Stories help children meet the person inside the economy. Graphs help them recognise the system around that person. The richest understanding comes when we move between the two: from human experience to pattern, and from pattern back to human life.
What would you like economists to understand about visual storytelling as a serious form of knowledge communication?
I would like economists to see visual storytelling not as decoration, but as a serious form of economic communication that can stand beside graphs, models and data. To turn an economic idea into an experience, we still ask rigorous questions: Who chooses? What is scarce? Who benefits? Who pays? What remains outside the frame? A graph can reveal the pattern; a story can reveal the action within it. Bringing the two together matters for public understanding because economics shapes daily life, yet the subject can still feel distant or technical, especially for children. If we believe economic knowledge can be a game-changer for the next generation, then communicating it clearly is not an extra. It is part of the work.
If you could create one large-scale visual economics project for children without limits of budget, format or technology, what would it look like?
I would love to create an open-world economics game with the freedom and imagination of platforms like Roblox, but built around stories, choices, and real economic ideas. The world would be filled with stories and scenarios that players can access on their own terms. Players might travel to the North Pole to experience The Enchanted Christmas Adventures seen in my book Elfonomics. In the book, children help Santa’s elves manage scarce resources, run Christmas markets, trade, save, share, and make decisions that affect their world. The first Elfonomics project was launched in December 2025 with input from 16 young people aged six to 18 across Australia, Vietnam, and the United States. I’d love to keep that spirit of creating with children, not just for them. Each festive season could introduce a new realm: an Easter egg hunt about scarcity and incentives, a Lunar New Year market about saving and exchange, or another celebration focused on cooperation and shared resources. The dream is an ecosystem where children read the story, enter the game, and then recognise the same economics in real life. They wouldn’t feel like they’re studying economics; they’d be exploring a world and discovering how their own works.
Thanks for this wonderful conversation!
Header image above the text: Economics for Kids book collection. Source: Economics for Kids.