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'DrawTogether with Wendy Mac' doodles its way into children's hearts as a pandemic pastime

The pandemic has spelled loss and isolation for so many of us for the last two years. But it has also brought out a lot of beauty, and in the case of the show "DrawTogether," silliness.

"DrawTogether with Wendy Mac" has been described as part Mr. Rogers, part Bob Ross, part jumpy-castle party. The show stars Wendy MacNaughton, a New York Times best-selling illustrator and graphic journalist who also happens to be trained as a social worker. It teaches kids to draw and express their emotions in the process.

The show began on the fly — an art class on Instagram Live to help kids whose schools had just shut down due to COVID. But since, it’s grown to so much more.

DrawTogether Studio produces a podcast and has produced an entire season of the show that’s available on YouTube. And now they’re being used in 100 classrooms across the country as part of a pilot program for educators who want to use art to boost social emotional learning.

The Show spoke with MacNaughton to learn about the show and how the pandemic pushed her to do it.

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Lauren Gilger, host of KJZZ's The Show, is an award-winning journalist whose work has impacted communities large and small, exposing injustices and giving a voice to the voiceless and marginalized.