In this episode, I connected with Carolina Bongers, founder of Jungle the Bungle, who turned her experience with global brands and her own bilingual upbringing into a mission to give young children more possibilities through language, play and education.

Raised bilingually by her Spanish mother, Carolina describes speaking two languages as one of the greatest gifts she received. When she wanted to pass that gift on to her own children, she couldn't find a language-learning method that felt genuinely fun. That frustration eventually brought together her experience at brands like L'Oréal and Disney, her love of creating and a deeper drive for fairness. 

What started with two multilingual books she wrote and published herself gradually became Jungle the Bungle, a gamified language-learning app built around joy, diversity and helping children develop the confidence to become themselves. 

Deep dive talking points:

👉🏾 Helping children become themselves: why Carolina believes the essence of life is becoming who you are rather than living according to the dreams and expectations of others;

👉🏾 Creating opportunities through language: how her own bilingual upbringing inspired a mission to give more children access to languages and broaden their possibilities in life;

👉🏾 Turning frustration into action: from self-publishing two books to validating the concept, developing an app, crowdfunding and eventually leaving the security of interim work to focus fully on Jungle the Bungle;

👉🏾 Learning through joy instead of force: Why Carolina believes education should connect with children's interests and talents rather than forcing everyone through the same way of learning;

Signs of empowerment:

🙌🏾 Becoming yourself starts with awareness. Carolina thought she was already living independently until therapy helped her recognize how much she was still adapting to other people's expectations.

🙌🏾 You don't need to have the entire journey figured out before you begin. Starting with what you can create today can reveal where the next step needs to be.

🙌🏾 What looks like a lack of ambition can sometimes be a lack of connection. Carolina wasn't motivated by school herself but entrepreneurship revealed just how driven she could become when something genuinely mattered to her.

As Carolina firmly puts it: 🙌🏾 “There is always a way”🙌🏾 

Her story goes beyond building an education company. Her own process of becoming more herself now sits underneath her ambition to give children that possibility much earlier in life. Not by telling them who to become but by creating more space to discover their interests, talents and possibilities.

What might change if we stopped asking children to fit into the world we've already created and gave them more freedom to discover who they could become?

Connect with Carolina:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinabongers/ 

Website: https://www.junglethebungle.com/en 

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