Meet Alli, Jackelyn, and Julie | The POP Squad

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alli, Jackelyn, and Julie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alli, Jackelyn, and Julie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We knew we had so much to offer as teachers and parents ourselves. When we read to our kids, we know what to say, the questions to ask, and the extension activities we can do, but we realized this does not come as naturally to everyone. We wanted to share our knowledge gained over years in the classroom with parents. People are always looking for ways to keep children busy, entertained and engaged, but they do not always have the necessary time to prepare. We take the prep work out of it and provide you with everything you need to complete all of the activities in the grown-up guide, down to the glue for the art project.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We founded A POP of Literacy in the middle of a pandemic. We saw a need for parents and we did something about it. In the beginning, we found ourselves sitting six feet apart, masked, in a garage in Houston summers, or building our business via Zoom. The most gratifying aspect of our business has been watching ourselves, three teachers, with no business background, learn the ropes of starting and running a business all while doing what we love and helping young learners grow.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
No matter if they have kids or not, we would definitely take them for some Tex Mex. If they had kids in tow, we would take them to Galveston for the day, or to Froberg Farms if it was the right time of year. Without kids we would hit up the Trellis Spa at the Houstonian and go around to the different studios and other destinations for entertainment in Sawyer Yards.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our three four year-olds, or as we call them, the POP Tots, have been our inspiration behind this venture. During the beginning of the pandemic, even as teachers ourselves, we found ourselves crunched for time to pull together activities for our kids. We got to thinking and decided that parents could really benefit everything being ready for them. We wanted to create a product that parents could do with their children or that their children could do on their own. We found family and friends asking us for ideas and how to do things to better help their children. That’s when we knew we wanted to do something. We have heard and found that our POP Products can entertain children for hours upon hours and that children ask for their POP Boxes over and over again. Mission accomplished!

Website: https://www.apopofliteracy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apopofliteracy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apopofliteracy

Image Credits
Lisa Beth Photography