Supporting children's wellbeing with Molly Potter's Let's Talk series

Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?: A Let's Talk picture book to help children talk about the future

About Author

Who Will You Be When You Grow Up? is the latest in the Let's Talk series of books by Molly Potter which address a range of 'big questions' to explore with young children.

Molly Potter's 35+ books cover a variety of wellbeing topics. She has taught in both mainstream and specialist schools, helping children with emotional and behavioural difficulties to trust adults, develop self-esteem and learn to self-regulate.

Molly currently writes teaching resources, delivers training, speaks at events and gives one-to-one support to children with emotional literacy and supporting behaviour. Find Molly on X @PotterMolly and resources on her website, www.mollypotter.com.

Interview

May 2026

Supporting children's wellbeing with Molly Potter's Let's Talk series (Bloomsbury Education)

The Let's Talk series of books by Molly Potter, illustrated by Sarah Jennings, provide clear and simple introductions for children to often complex concepts around wellbeing and understanding themselves and their world.

This series of books covers a range of topics about understanding and managing emotions and supporting positive mental health and choices, as well as helping children understand their world better, from navigating friendship to exploring family life.

This month we hear from author Molly Potter about the newest addition to the Let's Talk series, Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?, helping children to think about and explore the kind of person they would like to grow into. Find out more in ReadingZone's indepth Q&A with Molly, below.

Molly Potter introduces her Let's Talk series and the latest book, Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?

"The value of these books is not just about the content, it's also the interactions
between children and adults that they initiate." Molly Potter

1. Thank you for joining us on ReadingZone. Can you tell us about your Let's Talk series, and what inspired this series of books? What is your own background in working with children?

I have worked in education for over three decades: as a mainstream primary teacher, PSHE advisor, teacher in a PRU (pupil referral unit), trainer and one-to-one mentor. As a teacher, I always preferred the 'soft' curriculum and the opportunities to support children with understanding themselves and navigating life's challenges.

Over the many years I have worked directly with children, especially with those who struggle to self-regulate, I grew to understand the importance of thinking of behaviour as communication, understanding the impact of emotions and sharing helpful information with children.

In my role as a PSHE advisor, one of the resources I produced set homework for children with the sole purpose of prompting conversations between the children and their adults at home. This resource was really well received, not just because of the material the homework covered (e.g. managing emotions, assertiveness etc) but because it provided the prompt for a meaningful conversation. The children reported loving this as a way of connecting with their adults! This resource planted a seed for the Let's Talk series which covers topics broadly under the umbrella of 'PSHE' (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education).

2. What kinds of subjects and questions do you cover through these books?

The books cover naming, exploring and understanding and managing emotions, habits for positive mental health, exploring the ups and downs of friendships, celebrating differences, what makes a family, why we might not always make the best choices when it comes to behaviour, the importance of consent, situations that might cause children to worry, death and the bird and the bees.

The format of each of the books is not the same and very much tailored to what I thought would work well for each book's purpose. Within the different books there are choices to consider, illustrations to get you thinking, questions to help you explore the topic, advice for consideration, comparisons to make and reassuring, age-appropriate information.

Extract from It's OK to Say No (Let's Talk series)

3. What is your aim for the children and parents sharing these books? Are you hoping as much for discussion between children and adults as raising awareness?

Yes, the value of these books is not just about the content, it's also the interactions between children and adults that they initiate. The focus with an adult on the social and emotional topics these books cover, promotes the importance of the topic for children, develops their understanding of it, creates quality time with an adult and often deepens and adult's understanding of a child's perspective.

My books sometimes trigger children to deliver delightful and incredible insights such as: excitement can be as uncomfortable as fear, that none of us get things right all of the time and we shouldn't expect to, that families aren't perfect but they're yours!

4. How do you make these books child-friendly, including the illustrations by Sarah Jennings?

I think my many years of teaching primary children meant I developed a very automatic skill for simplifying potentially complex issues and an ability to understand what might be useful for children to reflect upon. I think I can also personally remember the trials and tribulations of being a child quite well and that helps!

Sarah's illustrations definitely help deliver the 'messages' in the books. They also mean that non-readers will still engage with them and also give readers more to think about.

Extract from Who Will You Be When You Grow Up? (Let's Talk series)

5. Can you tell us about the latest Let's Talk book, Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?

Who Will You Be When You Grow Up? is a non-fiction picture book that simply invites young children to consider their future life as an adult. It does this by exploring aspects such as: what they think their personality will be like, what they’ll enjoy doing, where they might live, what unusual things they might try, what they might be good at, what they might achieve and much more.

The book gives several possible answers to each question asked, to prompt discussion. Children will end up considering things such as:

Will you be adventurous or prefer staying at home?
Do you think you will you ever perform on a stage?
Will you be good at looking after people?
In your job, will you prefer to be the boss or be told what to do?
Will finding things you love to do be important for your happiness?

6. The title is 'who' you will be, not 'what' you will be - can you talk about what you hope children will take from this book?

I remember as a child, frequently being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and understanding this automatically referred to the job I wanted to do. I might have been an unusual child (!), but I remember thinking, 'I won't just 'be' my job, I'm going to do other things too'.

This book encompasses the many more things we could do, be, achieve, enjoy, think and believe so that children will speculate about many more aspects of their adult life than the career they might end up with. After all, it’s quite healthy not to just identify as the person who does the job we do!

The discussions the book initiate do a mix of clarifying what children have already considered about their future but also raises their aspirations through exploring further possibilities. When children clarify what they do or don't believe to be part of their future, exploring the reasons why can consolidate their values but also shine a light on any barriers they perceive there are. In turn, these barriers can usually be challenged.

Overall, this help children have a more expansive attitude to their futures. On the last page of the book there are questions a child can answer about their future which could be reconsidered every now and then as a child gets older to see if their preferences change or not. I can imagine it would be a delightful thing to read when you did eventually become an adult to see if your speculations came true!

Extract from Who Will You Be When You Grow Up? (Let's Talk series)

7. Can you suggest ways to share this book with children in the classroom, and any follow-up activities?

I have explored the whole book with several children by asking them to draw pictures (in response to each page) that they think will represent them as an adult. Leaving the activity very open like this was great fun because children would 'run' with the choices that they were most drawn to. This was fascinating in itself. It also made me realise how younger children quite often naturally interlink fantasy and reality - which is delightful! In the same sentence one five-year-old elaborated articulately about his future as an architect while also explaining he was going to play volleyball in his free-time with his cat and his banana!

Also, as each of the 12 two-page spreads explores one aspect of what you might be like, think or do as an adult, it could be explored with children one turn-of-the-page at a time. For example: What will you be like? explores personality.

Aside from looking at the speculations on the page, I might be tempted to explore further ways in which we can be different from each other - and how great it is that we are not all the same. It's also quite interesting to explore children's perceptions about how adults' personalities are different from children's. One child I read the book to was insistent that adults had to be serious and children were the only ones capable of being silly!

What will you do to stay healthy? could easily lead to lessons on healthy choices but also why they might sometimes be hard to make.
What unusual things might you try? and What adventures might you go on? could invite children to create a 'bucket list'-type poster.
What might people say about you? Could be used to explore the idea of compliments and how powerful they can be. It can also loosely be used to consider values and what we might think it's important to be valued for.
What kind of job will you have? deliberately does not list careers. Once children have answered all the questions (e.g. whether they will prefer to work indoors or outdoors, a job fixing things or a job in the same place or a different place each day etc.) they could try and imagine a job that would fit their answers.
What will make you happy? lends itself to a lot of discussion and helps children reflect upon what is important to them. As 'lots of money' is one of the choices, it was interesting to hear why most children had decided this wasn't essential for happiness.

8. Will parents learn as much as their children through these books? How do you support parents and adults in using these books with children?

As over time, we progressively fine-tune our understanding of respectful interactions, emotional intelligence, and promoting mental health more and more, there always seem to be new concepts to get our heads round! I think my books provide an easy way for parents/carers and teachers to stay informed with these new developments alongside children. My books definitely play a role in putting certain social and emotional issues on the agenda! Aside from digesting the content of each book, the ensuing conversations will also teach adults about the concerns, insights and inner worlds of children!

In the back of my books, I also provide succinct notes for adults giving tips and advice on how to approach the topics each book covers. These aim to help adults feel more confident to talk about the topics but also often give advice beyond the scope of the book.

7. How do you make sure that the books are accurate in their advice? How do you go about researching each of these areas?

I approach researching the content of each book in the same way I approached new topics as a teacher and trainer: I cram myself with information from books, websites, read relevant research papers (when available), have exploratory conversations with others who work with children, find out as much as I can and draw on what I already know from working with children, to consider the relevance and usefulness of each thing I absorbed. I then embark upon the process of distilling this down to what would be useful for children. I absolutely love this process!

8. What other kinds of resources are available for the series?

For some of the books, I have produced support packs with activities that will complement understanding of the contents of the books.

Link to these titles to download the activity pack:
The Same but Different
It's OK to Cry
What Makes Me Do the Things I Do?
Lesson plan on Consent for It's OK to Say NO
How Are You Feeling Today? has a sticker and activity book that adds to the engagement of its contents!
I also write regular blog posts on my website about issues that relate to emotional intelligence, parenting, behaviour etc. which many people seem to find useful. It's aimed mostly at informing adults but there are also ideas for use with children if you search its back catalogue.

9. Who would you suggest would benefit from the books - early years settings as much as homes?

The books can be used in any setting where adults work with young children, as well as home. I have received feedback about how much they have been loved in both settings. Having said that, I also think some of the books are more likely to be revisited by a child independently at home because of the even greater accessibility of the content such as:
• How Are You Feeling today?
• How are you Feeling Now?
• Will You Be My Friend?
• What's Worrying You?
• It's OK to Cry
• The Same but Different
• What Makes You Do That?

10. Do you have other books planned for this series? What are you writing currently?

I love writing now. (I totally hated it at school!) I am always writing: blog posts, educational resources, website content etc. but my next book in the series is about when parents split up. I intend for this book to be very direct support for young children who are experiencing this situation.

Molly Potter introduces her earlier Let's Talk books (Bloomsbury Education)

It's OK to Say No This book is all about asking for, giving, and not giving, permission, which is usually called consent. Using child-friendly explanations and colourful illustrations by Sarah Jennings, this book helps you to teach children that it's OK to say 'no' when they feel uncomfortable, and that they should respect when others say 'no' to them too.

What Makes Me Do The Things I Do encourages children to think about why they behave in certain ways, to consider how their actions affect others, and to effectively manage their emotions. But it's also about encouraging children to think about their own responses. Molly Potter says, "What Makes Me Do The Things I Do? doesn't look at behaviour from a child development point of view as much as being another tool for self-reflection."

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