Kate’s drive to focus on vital f irst f ive years of childhood

THE Princess of Wales today launches a major campaign to raise awareness of children’s development before their fifth birthday.

In an open letter published in The Mail on Sunday, Kate sets out her plan for ‘Shaping Us’, an ambitious long-term project in which she urges the nation to pull together to improve lives.

The Princess wrote the impassioned plea on her laptop as she was preparing for today’s campaign launch – to be followed by a week-long publicity blitz in which she will be joined by celebrities and influencers from the worlds of music, media and sport.

The campaign will include both eye-catching videos and social media messages.

A spokesperson for the Princess described it as ‘her life’s work’.

Kate gave a sneak preview of the Shaping Us campaign last night with a short video on social media.

In the 50-second film, her hands are seen opening a photograph album with a blank cover. Inside, next to a picture of an adult man she writes the question: ‘What shapes us?’ On other pages we see photos of families, an ultrasound scan and a pregnant woman.

When Kate removes a picture of a little girl from the album, it reveals the words: ‘Our early childhood shapes the adults we become.’

It is the start of what Kensington Palace is hoping will be a huge multi-media push to raise awareness of how our early years mould our lives.

The campaign is a bold, more public direction for the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, set up by the Princess, then Duchess of Cambridge, in June 2021.

Reports produced by the centre have revealed that the first five years shape future wellbeing more than any other stage of development, with our brains growing faster than at any other time. However, many people remain unaware of this fact.

Now the centre is taking its work to the wider public.

It also hopes to ‘break the cycle’ for parents who experienced difficult childhoods themselves.

Palace aides say the idea for the project began even before Kate became a mother.

The Princess explains in today’s letter that ‘as a society, we currently spend much more of our time and energy on later life.

‘I am absolutely determined that this long-term campaign is going to change that.’