It’s clear that subscription box services have the ability to appeal to all demographics. From more vice-related deliveries like VapeCulture in Malaysia to those dabbling in more personal affairs like BlissyBox, subscription services are becoming more diverse, and in our opinion, more exciting.
But while most companies are trying to appeal to adults, this subscription box service is catering to a vastly different demographic — children.
My Messy Box, a company started just last year, is designed to draw children away from digital play to encourage the natural explorers in them. Unlike most subscription boxes that provide material rewards such as food or makeup samples, My Messy Box is focused on providing an experience. According to their website, it does so through encouraging sensory exploration, which one school of thought believes can improve motor skills, help in language acquisition, and raise awareness that children have of the world around them.
Sensory exploration includes activities like sifting through a box of beans, tearing paper, or scooping water, so Messy Box can indeed get messy. In fact, that’s the very idea.
Each box follows a theme, something like “Creatures of the night” or “Fun on the farm”, and comes with many different packs — the Active Pack provides specially sourced play materials and toys, the Creative Pack helps develop creativity through manipulation of craft materials, while the Explorative Pack helps improve motor skills through the manipulation of wet and dry materials. Signing up for a 6- or 12-month subscription also gets you a special toolkit with bonus materials, which will enhance the child’s experience.
Apart from offering children with new ways to play, My Messy Box also offers parents — also known as the people with the money — with new ways to interact with their children. Parents take on the role of facilitators, creating a story around the different packs and pushing their children to learn more as they play.
It’s an interesting change in the usual subscription box service — the kinds of experiences Messy Box offers are something children only seem to get in good early education schools — but My Messy Box brings the same level of curation and expertise into your home for more personal and engaging play. The fact that it is a monthly subscription service also means that both child and parent are in for a surprise.
Looking through the boxes, it’s clear that the children of this generation have everything they need. The fact that each mode of play is curated for their own personal growth and benefit makes them a very special (and pampered) generation. But that might just be my jealousy showing through — I never got a subscription box full of new toys every month.
Verdict: 4.5/5
At $34 per month, My Messy Box is definitely one of the more expensive subscription services out there, but with this level of curation for your children, perhaps it’s worth the price.
