The Kid Who Wouldn’t Stop Doodling: Why We Should Think Twice Before Telling Our Kids to Put Their Passions Away

There is probably something your child does that drives you slightly mad. Maybe they draw on every scrap of paper they can find, turn every cardboard box into an invention, spend hours building LEGO creations when they should be getting dressed, make bracelets for every person they have ever met or insist on baking something just as you’ve finally cleaned the kitchen.

As parents, our natural response is often some variation of, “That’s lovely, but can you please do what you’re actually supposed to be doing?” Particularly at 8.15am on a school morning when nobody has shoes on and someone has suddenly decided it is the perfect time to pursue their creative calling. But what if the thing we keep asking them to stop doing is actually the thing we should be paying more attention to?

At 16, Joe Whale has already worked with Nike and Disney and is preparing for his first solo London exhibition. Better known as The Doodle Boy, his distinctive drawings have taken him from being the kid doodling in class to building a career around the very thing adults could easily have dismissed as a distraction. For parents, though, perhaps the most interesting part of Joe’s story isn’t the global brands or the exhibition. It’s that before anyone knew where his drawing might lead, his parents recognised that their son wasn’t simply messing around. He genuinely loved creating, so they gave him the space to keep doing it.

When a Distraction Isn’t Really a Distraction

Most of us have been there. Your child is supposed to be doing homework, but the margin of the page has somehow become home to an entire civilisation of tiny characters. They’re meant to be packing their school bag, but instead they’re halfway through an invention constructed from a cereal box, sticky tape and something you are fairly sure they weren’t given permission to dismantle. It’s easy to see the distraction. Joe’s parents saw something else.

“My parents knew I wasn’t distracted, because they saw my passion for art wasn’t starting at. but overflowing, into the classroom. To back this, my parents (rightly) gave me another space to create without any resistance, meaning I could progress freely.”

That word, “overflowing”, really says it all. His creativity wasn’t something he switched on during an allocated art lesson and packed away afterwards. It was coming out wherever he happened to be, including places where perhaps he was technically supposed to be concentrating on something else. That doesn’t mean we suddenly abandon homework, routines and boundaries in the hope that the child drawing on the maths sheet is Australia’s next great artist. It does, however, make you wonder whether there are times we should look a little closer before dismissing an obsession as a phase, distraction or waste of time.

Joe himself knows how differently things might have turned out. “I often look back on my early progression as an artist and consider that I might never have gone further than classroom drawings. That’s the point. You never know where your creativity can take you, I definitely didn’t, and without the foundational support I got from people around me, I probably wouldn’t be in this position today.”

As parents, we don’t need to know where the passion is going. Sometimes we just need to give it somewhere to go.

Please Don’t Turn Every Hobby Into a Business Just Yet

There is a funny thing happening with the rise of the kidpreneur. We love hearing about children starting businesses, creating products and turning ideas into something bigger, and there is so much value in teaching kids confidence, creativity, money skills and entrepreneurship. But there is also a danger that the minute a child shows talent, we adults start thinking ten steps ahead. Your daughter makes a cute bracelet and suddenly you’re mentally designing her Etsy store. Your son bakes an excellent cookie and you’re wondering whether the local café would stock them. Give us half an hour and we’ve got a logo, Instagram handle and five-year growth strategy.

Joe’s story is a useful reminder that the business doesn’t have to come first. “I don’t think there was a certain point where I realised my artwork could become a business, never mind a career! When I was nine, art was a creative outlet that brought freedom, and nothing else. But as I’m growing, I’m becoming more intentional in the way that I approach my art. I’ve realised that my success has allowed me to do what I love full-time, and I want to use that opportunity to bring positivity to the world.”

At nine, he wasn’t drawing because he thought it would land him a Nike collaboration. He was drawing because he loved drawing. That distinction matters, particularly for parents. A child’s passion doesn’t have to prove its worth by becoming profitable. Sometimes the best thing we can do is let them explore it without asking what it will become. Joe’s advice to parents is refreshingly simple.

“If your child is obsessed with something, it doesn’t matter whether you see a ‘future career.’ If it’s giving them joy (and not harming anyone) why stop them? It’s so important when we’re younger that we can explore our interests, because I’d much rather make a career out of an interest than the other way around.”

It might become their career. It might become a side business. It might remain the thing they do on a Sunday afternoon because it makes them ridiculously happy. None of those outcomes makes the hours they spent doing it a waste.

When the Childhood Obsession Gets Very, Very Big

Of course, sometimes that thing your child loves does become something much bigger, and in Joe’s case, “bigger” eventually included two names most adults would be fairly excited to see land in their inbox: Nike and Disney.

“Both Nike and Disney were unbelievable collaborations that I still can’t believe happened! Both brands have been part of my childhood, so to work with them was amazing.”

There is something lovely about that full-circle moment. These were brands that were part of Joe’s own childhood, and suddenly his artwork was sitting alongside them. Yet none of it started with a grand career plan. It started with a child who wanted to draw and parents who didn’t require proof that all those hours of doodling were going somewhere useful. For those of us raising kids now, that’s possibly the harder lesson. We are so used to measuring progress. Reading levels, sporting achievements, school reports, awards and eventually career prospects all give us something tangible to point towards. Passion can be much messier because sometimes there is no obvious destination. Maybe there doesn’t need to be one yet.

What If Our Kids Don’t Fit the Traditional Path?

Joe is also refreshingly candid about whether young people are given enough opportunity to imagine a future outside the traditional school, university and career pathway.

“I don’t think that young people are taught enough about turning their creativity or what they love into a business. The current school system pushes kids (from a young age) into learning that feels the same for everyone, rather than letting them find out for themselves who they are, and what they want to be.”

That’s Joe’s experience and perspective, and naturally not every child wants or needs to become an entrepreneur. Plenty will thrive following more traditional pathways, while others will take a route their parents couldn’t possibly have mapped out for them at nine. Perhaps the more useful question for us isn’t whether our children should become entrepreneurs, but whether we’re leaving enough room for them to discover what they’re genuinely good at and interested in. The kid forever filming ridiculous videos might discover storytelling or filmmaking. The one constantly rearranging their bedroom might have an eye for design. The child who negotiates absolutely everything, including bedtime, may one day make an excellent salesperson, although admittedly that knowledge is of very little comfort when you’re still negotiating at 9.30pm. And the kid who covers every available surface in doodles might become The Doodle Boy.

The Part of Creativity AI Can’t Do for Them

There is another challenge facing this generation of young creators that Joe didn’t have when he first started drawing at nine in quite the same way: AI can now do an enormous amount of the creative heavy lifting for them. Ask for an image and it can appear in seconds. Ask for an idea and you’ll get twenty. Ask for an answer and the uncomfortable part where you actually have to sit there and think can disappear altogether. For Joe, that’s exactly what worries him.

“When asking AI to do the heavy lifting, young people don’t seem to realise the consequences of their actions. While AI can provide a ‘quick fix,’ it makes obsolete the crucial functions that every human needs to develop. The use of creativity, independence, problem solving, even moral integrity is lost. AI makes it harder for young people to discover who they are, because they basically stop looking to themselves for the answers.”

Whether parents agree with every part of that or not, there is a useful reminder buried in it. Sometimes the frustrating bit of creating something is actually where the learning happens. It’s the picture that doesn’t look right and has to be redrawn, the LEGO tower that collapses, the cake that looks absolutely nothing like the Pinterest photo and the business idea that sells precisely three products, two of them to Grandma. Our instinct can be to jump in and help, but figuring out what went wrong and trying again is part of learning to create. I asked Joe whether AI could produce something that looked convincingly like a Joe Whale doodle. His answer gets to the heart of why the finished product isn’t the whole story.

“AI could probably produce something like a Joe Whale artwork visually, but never back it with the value that makes each one special. Behind every piece I create there are inspirations, ideas, stories, and challenges, each creating a unique connection with the viewer. This would all be missing with the surface level creation that AI could present.”

That’s worth remembering the next time your child proudly hands you something that objectively looks slightly questionable. The value isn’t always in whether the finished creation is brilliant. Sometimes it’s everything that went on inside their head while making it.

Growing Up When Everyone Knows You as The Doodle Boy

Joe is now dealing with something most teenagers don’t have to think about. The identity he created as a nine-year-old is known around the world, but the person behind it is still growing up.

“There is difficulty that comes with change, and for me, that difficulty is staying true to myself. At 16 I’m always changing, and naturally, I want to reflect that change through my artwork. Being ‘The Doodle Boy’ will always be part of my story, because that’s how people all around the world first discovered my work. But as I move forward, I want to have more intention with what I produce, to use my art as a vehicle for positivity, creativity, and connection.” His new work explores emotions including rebellion, individuality and unpredictability, with Rebellion the character he says feels most like him right now.

“The character of Rebellion is currently playing the biggest part in my life. As I navigate my teenage years, I’m always deciding what to embrace, and what not to. I want to be normal but unique, free but responsible, and wise but humble. The Rebellion character represents this conscious journey which all of us are on.”

It’s perhaps the most relatable reminder in the whole story. Behind the global collaborations and extraordinary achievements is still a 16-year-old figuring himself out. That’s what children are supposed to be doing, and their interests are often part of how they get there.

Before You Say “Stop Doing That”, Look Twice

None of this means every child with an obsession is sitting on a future multimillion-dollar business idea, and perhaps that’s exactly the point. Encouraging their passions shouldn’t depend on whether we think they’ll eventually be successful at them. They should be allowed to draw badly before they draw brilliantly, write terrible stories, invent things that don’t work, kick a football without being the best player on the team, dance without becoming a professional dancer and start a little business that may or may not make any money. Our job doesn’t have to be identifying the commercial opportunity. It can simply be noticing what makes them come alive and finding ways to give them more opportunities to explore it.

When we asked Joe what he would say to another nine-year-old who was constantly drawing, inventing, building or creating something the adults around them didn’t quite understand, his answer was simple.

“I would tell that kid to do what you love, as much as you can. If what you do makes you happy, do it every time and everywhere!” His message for the parents of that child might be even more important. “I would tell their parents that every kid has a gift, and as parents, you have the power to help them find it.”

So perhaps the next time you’re about to tell your child to put down the sketchbook, stop building, pack away the beads or quit tinkering with whatever mysterious creation has taken over the dining table, have another look first. You don’t need to know whether it will become a career. You don’t need to know whether they’re exceptionally talented. You certainly don’t need to launch their business by Friday. Just notice what they can’t seem to stop doing, give them room to explore it and see where it takes them. As Joe’s story shows, sometimes a childhood passion really is just a childhood passion, and sometimes the doodles in the margins are only the beginning.