Halkirk woman’s bid to help kids across the world with online book club
A Caithness model and actress has returned to the county after making it big in the Philippines to pursue her latest project of a children’s online book club called StoryTime With Karyn.
Karyn Johnston, from Halkirk, had previously worked in the Philippines hosting a television food show and has now returned to the village to work on a free online children's book club linked to her YouTube channel.
“I have a very special project I have been working on all year, that has finally come to fruition,” said Karyn.
This site is launching as www.youtube.com/@StoryTimeWithKaryn and aims to “offer much more to children all over the world”.
“We hope to celebrate and encourage little ones, including features like a carousel posting kids’ artwork, inspired by stories on the channel, videos of kids reading along to the channel, to an upcoming writing section where kids can share their short stories with our community – all of which will be safely filtered personally by me.”
Each YouTube video features a children’s book voiced over by Karyn and animated by her team. It also has a free worksheet that parents and teachers can download to further explore book themes.
“Growing up between Halkirk and the Philippines, I saw the huge educational inequality and, from an early age, it's been my mission to help uplift kids who deserve a better shot at education.
“This is why I partner with schools in the Philippines, helping them with educational initiatives, like sending school supplies, shoes and suchlike. I hope to do a lot more should this site be successful.”
After leaving school, Karyn applied to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow but didn’t manage to secure a place. After struggling to get work in Britain, she decided to spend a year in the Philippines before returning to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
However, she became such a hit there that she extended her stay and put the drama course on hold.
Karyn’s mother Dhayon is from the Philippines and lives with her dad Robert in Halkirk. They are delighted with their daughter’s success as an actress, model and television host in the Philippines when she lived there from 2012.
She started doing modelling work, fronted an ad campaign for a popular make of soap and then landed herself a high profile role in a soap on television called The Half Sisters which attracted around five million viewers. She played a friend to a rich spoilt kid in the show and had to learn the local dialect for the part.
Karyn said: “It was my first big TV project and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.”