Kid President has a vision for America, one of ferocious positivity. And corn dogs. Robby Novak — now 11 years old — and his older brother-in-law Brad Montague created the character in 2012.
In a series of YouTube videos, Robby appears in a suit and speaks to America from a cardboard Oval Office. He extolls the virtues of corn dogs, interprets Robert Frost, and delivers pep talks to America. The videos quickly became an Internet sensation, garnering tens of millions of views.
Now, Robby and his brother-in-law have co-written a book that comes out next week: Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome. "As much as it's been exciting for us to see the audience connect with the things we make online, you just can't hold that in your hand," Montague tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "We're really excited to sort of see how this might activate our audience to do good."
Interview Highlights
Montague on his collaborative conversations with Robby
We would go and eat lunch together and we would talk about different topics like hunger, or helping your neighbor, or different heavy things, and that's how we make the video — that's how we do everything. It's the result of a conversation between a kid and a grownup.
Robby on living with brittle bone disease
It's when some people break easier than other kids — like I've broken over 70 bones, which is pretty crazy ... but now, I don't break as much because muscle protects bone, and I have a little bit more muscles now.
Montague on where the pep talks came from
The original pep talk just came from a natural place in our relationship where we just encouraged each other regularly. And I wrote that first one at a time in our lives when my son had just been born, and that was really exciting, but I was tired. And Robby had just had some major breaks, and we just, we were having a rough time, so that was something that sort of came out of needing to encourage each other.
Robby on what he's proudest of in the book
[It's] "This is life, people!" This is a picture of cats, leaves, sunshine, heart raining, hands, eyes, noses. If we didn't have all that, we couldn't do nothing! Life is sometimes not fair, but we can make it fair, by making the world more awesome.
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Transcript
ROBBY NOVAK: The world needs to stop being boring. Yeah, you. Boring is easy. Everybody can be boring, but you're gooder than that. Life is not a game people. You got air coming through your nose. You got a heartbeat. That means it's time to do something.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In case you hadn't already guessed, that ferocious positivity comes from Kid President, a character created in 2012 by now 11-year-old Robby Novak and his older brother-in-law Brad Montague. In a series of YouTube videos, Robby appears in a suit and speaks to America from a cardboard Oval Office. He extols the virtues of corndogs, interprets Robert Frost and delivers pep talks to America.
His videos quickly became an Internet's sensation, garnering tens of millions of views. Now Robby Novak and Brad Montague have co-written a book that comes out next week. It is called "Kid President's Guide To Being Awesome." They joined us from the studios of WKNO in Tennessee. Hey, you guys. Thanks for being with us.
BRAD MONTAGUE: Absolutely.
ROBBY: Hi, this is awesome.
MONTAGUE: Yeah, hello.
MARTIN: (Laughter) So the title of your book is "Kid President's Guide To Being Awesome." And the two of you together came up with this idea that you needed to take all these videos and put it into a book.
ROBBY: Yeah.
MONTAGUE: Yeah. As much as it's been exciting for us to see the audience connect with the things we make online, you just can't hold that in your hand. And we're really excited to sort of see how this might activate our audience to do good.
MARTIN: Is there something in the book that you're really proud of, Robby?
ROBBY: Yes. It is - this is life people. And this is a picture of cats, leaves, sunshine, heart raining, hands, eyes noses. If we didn't have all that, we couldn't do nothing. Life is sometimes not fair. But we can make it fair by making the world more awesome.
MARTIN: (Laughter) Life is sometimes not fair. And, Robby, just even in your young life, you suffer from something called brittle bone disease, right?
ROBBY: Yeah. Pretty much, it's a condition called OI, and it's when some people break easier than other kids. Like, I've broken over 70 bones, which is pretty crazy.
MARTIN: That's a lot.
ROBBY: Yeah, but now, I don't break as much because muscle protects bone. And I have a little bit more muscles now.
MARTIN: You talk a lot about pep talks in the book and in your YouTube videos. How did you get so good at these things?
MONTAGUE: I wrote that first one out of a time in our lives when my son had just been born, and that was really exciting, but I was tired. And Robby, had just had some major breaks. And we just - we were having a rough time. And so that was sort of something that came out of our relationship of needing to encourage each other.
MARTIN: So as Kid President, Robby, you've gotten to talk to a lot of famous folks. You've talked to Beyonce, Nick Hornby.
ROBBY: I kissed Beyonce.
MARTIN: That's pretty amazing. Not a whole lot of kids can say that.
MONTAGUE: It was pretty amazing.
ROBBY: Most kids can just say, I kissed my momma.
MARTIN: Yeah, right. You kissed Beyonce.
(LAUGHTER).
MARTIN: So what was cooler, meeting Beyonce or meeting the president of the United States?
ROBBY: Both were awesome. I don't understand that question.
MARTIN: Oh, does everyone ask you that?
ROBBY: Because both of them are equal.
MARTIN: Robby, as you know, presidents are only allowed to have two terms in office. What about Kid President? Do you think he's going to step down any time soon?
ROBBY: Well, we don't really know when we're going to end yet.
MONTAGUE: We know like...
ROBBY: Maybe when we're 13, when I'm 13. I don't know.
MONTAGUE: It's a self-appointed position.
MARTIN: (Laughter) Robby Novak and Brad Montague. They are co-authors of the book "Kid President's Guide To Being Awesome." Thanks to both of you.
ROBBY: Thank you.
MONTAGUE: Thank you very much.
ROBBY: You're awesome.
MARTIN: You're awesome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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