Zaida Brooks continues sharing her positive message
Courtesy of Omar Brooks
Zaida Brooks appears to be pondering her next question.
Courtesy of Omar Brooks
Zaida Brooks, right, star of the “Zaida’s Positive News” podcast, with her younger sister Waverly
Courtesy of Omar Brooks
Zaida Brooks at the typewriter, while younger sister Waverly observes
Courtesy of Omar Brooks
Zaida Brooks, of North Franklin Township, hosts Zaida’s Positive News.
In a world in which there seems to be a lot of negativity, a North Franklin Township girl continues to spread her positive message.
Zaida Brooks, 7, wrapped her third season of “Zaida’s Positive News,” on Dec. 31. It’s a podcast that shares inspirational stories, encouraging messages and an abundance of positive. When it’s in season it comes out on Mondays on the Zaida Positive News Facebook page. To date, Zaida has done nearly 40 interviews.
“It’s a positive way to start the week,” said Omar Brooks, Zaida’s father. “The idea being when grownups fail to be positive and be kind to each other, the kids would step in.”
Brooks said the show has reached more than 250,000 people. “Zaida’s Positive News” has been seen throughout the United States and in Africa, Ireland and Australia.
“It’s a family-friendly show to bring positive, inspirational messages to adults and kids,” he said.
A season consists of seven shows with the next set to begin in March.
Now they want to take their media presence a bit further with a Zaida Positive News book through HBG Publishing that includes illustrations by Lottie Patterson of Canonsburg.
“The book is the backstory behind her current positive interview show for Facebook,” Brooks said. “It highlights our beginning and kind of where we’re headed.”
To gauge possible interest in a book, a GoFundMe page has been started.
“We have started a GoFundMe to get her positive messages out to more people,” Brooks said. “Not really for the money, just to see if the support is really there.”
The initial seeds of Zaida’s Positive News sprouted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Zaida watched YouTube videos such as Ryan’s World, a children’s channel featuring YouTube sensation Ryan Kaji and family members.
“She would say, ‘I want to be like Ryan’ or some of these other people she would watch,” Brooks said of Zaida. “She wanted to be a YouTube star. I took her up on the challenge. I told her, ‘We’ll try to keep it fun and whenever you want to stop, we’ll stop.’ We’ve been doing it since.”
Brooks said he has a background in multi-media and figured this was something the two of them could do.
“There was a lot of negative things going on in the world,” he said. “The show was a way to fight back against some negative things. “
What really got the podcast going was an interview with the 2020 Mrs. Pennsylvania American, Catherine Sloane of Claysville. The interview added a whole new life to the videos.
“Before that, it was just her talking about positive things,” Brooks explained, which led to a whole slew of interviews. “Those were really just to get her started, just to get her used to talking with people.”
Since then, the guest list has included Wanya Morris of the musical group Boyz II Men, Disney Channel stars Ramon Reed and McKale Jude Bingham and Miss Montana of 2020, Anna Nicole Haslund, who is deaf.
There also have been guests such as author Fred Fleet, a Washington County native. That video had about 12,000 views. Another guest was Olivia Martin, Miss New Jersey for America 2019, an advocate for Feeding America, a charity for which the podcasts have raised money.
There also have been shows featuring youngsters such as Jazlyn Presley, the star of the Jaz’s World blogs, and Shyon Clark, a 12-year-old piano prodigy in California.
“It’s not just a Washington County family making videos,” Brooks said. “She’s in Pennsylvania, Jaz’s World is in Illinois, and they’re connecting through the internet. It’s an umbrella world of positivity. That’s the best part of the show – we’re reaching other people that are inspirational.”
Zaida’s younger sister, Waverly, 3, is involved as well, especially with the intro and outro segments. There’s others episodes where she is seen pecking away at an old-school typewriter.
“She can be seen in the interviews saying, ‘Bye-bye,'” Brooks said. “We try to include her as much as we can.”
Questions are delivered enthusiastically and also quite adorably. They may include, “What’s your favorite food?” “How are you doing today? or “What’s your favorite color?” and of course, “Why is being positive so important?”
Guests are permitted to promote their charities, causes or projects anything positive that’s going to help the community.
Zaida’s favorite videos actually involve her and Waverly playing with toys.
But when asked if she does enjoy the podcasts and are they fun, she answered, “Yes.”
Why does she like them?
“They make people feel positive,” she said.
What would she like people to get from her show?
“To like it and subscribe,” she said.
The response from those who watch the podcasts, for the most part, is indeed, positive.
“We’ll hear, the world needs more people like this,” Brooks said. “This is great parenting, the way you’re teaching your daughters to be positive.”
The editing is slick with a musical bed enhancing each podcast.
“We never understand the impact that we create,” Brooks said. “She’s going to be doing this long after I’m gone, because she loves it.”