Social media can be positive for kids, says ‘Australia’s Ms Rachel’

Welcome to CityChats, where Brisbane Times meets our city’s most interesting characters on our most iconic form of transport. This week we’re joined by Monica Ferreira – or Ms Moni, as she’s known on YouTube – who creates early learning videos for toddlers. She tells us how social media can play a positive role for children, the reality of working with her husband and how she feels being compared to Ms Rachel.

We meet Ferreira on a Tuesday morning at the South Bank ferry terminal, where she’s waiting with her husband Nelson and their son. Once our ferry arrives they head to the Riverside Green Playground to fill in the time.

You’ve been branded as Australia’s Ms Rachel. What are your thoughts on that?

Ms Rachel’s incredible. I think it’s quite an honour. For now, it’s the easy way to describe what I do. It puts me into that style of content, that face-to-face camera – the audience as well feels quite new, this style feels new.

So I think it’s an honour … but Ms Moni is her own. Our style is very much born from the love that I’ve developed through music — my love of early childhood, and my children, and watching how they play. I put the Australian in everything.

And you open every video with “G’day mate”?

Yep, “G’day mate”! I think it’s just a way to signal that, hey, I’m Australian. It’s there at the start so that they’re aware that this is an Australian speaking, and I’m not trying to be American or anyone else. It’s also a way to signal to the child like, “Hey, there’s Ms Moni,” that’s her little slogan. And it’s nice to also hear that there are kids overseas saying “G’day”.

What’s your journey been like to get to this point?

It’s been amazing, totally unexpected. I was pregnant with my first child, my daughter, and she started screen time when she turned one. People said, “go on YouTube, there are some great creators,” but they were all American.

I thought that she started to develop a bit of an American accent, singing in American, and I thought that just doesn’t resonate with me, so I said, “I could do something like that.”

I was always open to trying something new, I love learning. I very quickly learned how to edit a video. I had no experience, and I still edit them to this day.

Pretty soon after the second video, it just took off, and we thought, “Oh, I think there’s been a bit of a gap there that maybe parents want their kid to hear an Aussie voice.”

What were you doing before?

I was doing my own teaching at home, so I taught violin to kids and adults of all ages. Before that, I was working at a primary school on the southside as a music teacher. But then I had something called complex regional pain syndrome in my ankle. At one point I couldn’t walk. I’d go to school on crutches, and I didn’t know what was wrong. For a long time I wasn’t diagnosed.

I got some rehab, and it was really helpful, and then I thought, I just need to take some time. I left that job and worked for myself, teaching violin and working a little bit online. And then I found my feet again.

I think what’s been amazing is going from making a positive impact on a set amount of kids at a school to now the global impact that we’ve had. I would have never thought of that back then.

Social media gets quite a bad rap for kids. Do you think there’s underrated potential there for education?

Yeah, for sure. There definitely needs to be more of a light there to show the creators who are really making a positive impact and helping with education.

I’m getting parents saying, “my kids are learning so much from you, they’re ahead of their development before getting into school”, and so you go, “wow, this can really make a big impact on a child”. Or that they’re saying their first words – they’ve had a speech delay, and all of a sudden, they’re talking more because they’ve watched my videos.

What’s it been like building a career on YouTube?

At the beginning, you wear a lot of hats. You’ve got to figure out your “why”, think about who you’re serving and what you want to get out of it, what they can get out of it, too.

I gave birth to our second child, and YouTube doesn’t give you maternity leave, so you’ve got to keep going. But the joy of what I was doing was there.

You work with your husband, what’s that like?

It’s amazing! Nelson is a huge part of Ms Moni, he’s Mr Moni! There is no Ms Moni without him. Our skills complement each other in ways that I didn’t expect. I love it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’ve got lots of things going on: books, meet-and-greets … what’s your favourite part?

All of it, really. The books have been incredible. It was just the right place, right time moment with Scholastic. Someone knew me, and then we arranged a meeting, and it all just happened really quickly … Kids are learning words from these books, and they’re engaging with them off-screen, which is really important as well.

Meet-and-greets are incredible … you see the most beautiful moments, and then you see the heart-shattering moments. In Melbourne, we saw over 1500 kids in one day. There were line-ups for over four hours.

One girl had been brought to the front of the line, by Nelson, thankfully. She was quite ill, and I didn’t know what was wrong or what she’d been going through, but I obviously welcomed her warmly, and then hearing she was going through chemo – it just brings that perspective.

I’m lucky to have an impact on these children and families in what feels like a minuscule way, but to them, it feels like a lot.

What is your favourite word to teach kids?

I think it has to be “more”. I think it’s so powerful for a kid to be able to just sign it before they’re even saying it, that a parent can understand what’s going on.

Why is it so important for you to be inclusive and include Auslan in your videos?

It’s a way for kids to communicate before they’re able to with their voice. When you’re a new parent, it’s stressful, you can’t understand what your child wants. And if they’re able to communicate through sign, it’s incredible, it’s powerful, it’s like giving them a voice.

How has being a parent yourself influenced your career?

Oh, gosh, there’s so much! Just even watching the way that our kids play, the way that they communicate, what they find the joy in. It’s opened up a new world of how I look at things through a child’s eye, and then reigniting your own inner child as well.

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