About Hōbi

A moment of kindness at the dinner table. A flash of courage on the playground. A quiet act of patience that nobody else saw, not even you. Your child's teacher watches them comfort a classmate. Their grandma sees them share without being asked. Their uncle catches them trying something scary and pushing through it anyway.

These moments are the truest evidence of who your child is becoming. And almost all of them disappear. They live in one person's memory for a few hours, maybe surface in a text message that scrolls away by morning, maybe get mentioned at a family dinner that everyone half-remembers. The most important data about your child's growth, the daily observations of the people who love them, scatters and evaporates before anyone can do anything with it.

Hōbi is where those moments finally have a home.

The adults in a child's life (parents, grandparents, teachers, aunts, uncles, anyone trusted enough to be in their Circle) log small moments of character they observe throughout the week. Not milestones. Not performances. Just honest, quiet observations. A sentence or two about what they saw. It takes seconds.

Each week, Hōbi reads across every moment from every observer and writes a Portrait, a living letter about who your child is becoming, drawn from the eyes of the people who know them best. The Portrait doesn't summarize what happened. It interprets who your child is growing into, backed by real evidence from real people who were paying attention.

No single person in a child's life could write that letter alone. Not even the parents. It takes the whole village seeing different sides of the same child, and something that can listen to all of them at once.

That's what Hōbi does. It gives the village a voice.

Hōbi is made by Storytailor®, a company built on one belief: every child deserves to be seen for who they really are.

Storytailor was founded by JQ Sirls and Herston Fails. JQ is a children's book author, illustrator, father, and an uncle. Herston is an uncle. They built Storytailor to turn real moments into imaginative stories that children and adults experience together. When a child has a hard day, Storytailor translates it into a story they can see themselves inside of. It meets children where they already communicate, through play and imagination, and helps the adults in their lives understand what they're really feeling.

Hōbi began when people would mention something JQ's son had done, something kind or brave or generous, and JQ would realize he would not have known about it otherwise. Those moments revealed parts of his son's character that might never have been seen unless someone took the time to share them.

Over time, that raised a bigger question. How many meaningful moments was he noticing himself that no one else would ever hear about? Every adult in a child's life sees a different side of who that child is becoming. Teachers, grandparents, coaches, neighbors, and parents each witness different strengths, different behaviors, and different signs of growth.

Too often, those pieces remain separate. They are not captured, they are not shared, and eventually they are forgotten. Hōbi was created from the belief that these moments matter and that they should not be lost. When they are brought together, they create a fuller picture of a child and the life taking shape around them.

Children are not content. Hōbi will never show ads to children, never sell family data, and never turn your child's moments into someone else's product. There are no follower counts, no likes, no public profiles. A child's growth is not a performance. We refuse to treat it like one.

Privacy is not a feature. It's a promise. We built Hōbi to use child data sparingly, keep Care Circles private, and avoid the engagement-farming patterns that turn family moments into someone else's product. No child names leave the app in shared content. No activity notifications reveal how often someone is or isn't capturing moments. We use AI providers to operate Portraits and related text-assistance features. We do not sell family data or use it for advertising.

Every child deserves a village that speaks. Most families already have people who notice remarkable things about their children. The problem was never a lack of love or attention. It was a lack of a place where all of that love and attention could come together into something the child, and the family, could hold onto.

Somewhere tonight, someone in your child's life noticed something extraordinary about them. Something kind, or brave, or generous, or funny in a way that revealed real emotional intelligence. And by tomorrow, that moment will be gone.

It doesn't have to be.

Questions, feedback, or want to talk to a person? Visit our Contact page or read the FAQ.