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Rachel and I are the girls of many accents.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling. [ Spanish accent ] Hello?
[ Spanish accent ] How are you? [ Both laugh ]
Hello? Hello to you.
Sometimes I say, "Jello?" And sometimes we go...
[ Russian accent ] What do you want?
I don't know. We --
We're from many countries. We are from many countries.
We represent -- We are from the world.
I'm Rachel Coleman, and this is my sister, Emilie Brown.
Co-creator of "Signing Time!" >> We are the co-creators of
"Signing Time!", I know. So, that's Emilie.
Most people don't -- They go, "Where is this Emilie Brown?"
Yeah, this is Emilie Brown. She's my sister and my best
friend. I'm the shy one.
Oh, yeah. Definitely the shy one.
That's why you're not in the shows.
I know. No, that's not true.
So, 10 years old. We've been doing "Signing Time!"
for 10 years. It feels like our whole life.
It kind of is. I can't believe it.
I know. Because I'll tell you the truth.
Every time we filed, I was like -- In my mind, I'm like, "This
is it? Who could possibly want more
than three volumes?" And then we did three more.
I was like, "This is it, because who could possibly need more
than six DVDs?" And then when we hit 13 --
Really, truly, every time, in my mind, I was done.
Yeah, there's topics we haven't covered, but really.
Come on. 13, I was like, "And we're done.
It's a wrap. This has been really great."
And then 26 DVDs of "Signing Time!", plus --
"Practice Time," "Sing & Sign Story Time."
>> I finally, like, stepped into, "Okay, this is what I'm
doing with my life when I grow." This is when I grow up.
I'm Rachel Coleman. I'm Rachel Coleman from "Signing
Time!". That was when we filmed volumes
3 and 4 "Baby Signing Time!". So it took me about eight years
to stop resisting. But the cool thing about that is
-- I wasn't even supposed to be in the show.
Alex and Leah were gonna carry the show.
Yeah, except for that they were barely 3.
We actually started filming the day before Alex's 3rd birthday.
Yeah, and Leah was 4. I don't think we realized how
difficult it would be. How young they were.
Well, would take home video, and they'd play together and all
kinds of stuff, but they weren't actors.
And what 2- or 3- or 4-year-old is, you know?
Yeah. And then you add the fact that
Leah couldn't hear the instruction.
We had to sign everything. And that Alex wouldn't listen to
the instructions. So, yeah, it was --
It was interesting. We bit off more than we could
chew, kind of. However, as we continued to film
lots of other kids for all the different, you know, pieces and
"Signing Time!", kids, you know, zero to 3 for "Baby Signing
Time!" and all the way up to 8 for regular "Signing Time!",
I've actually gotten a tremendous appreciation for how
good Alex and Leah really were, how directable and well behaved
they really were. Yeah.
I had an idea for a project, and, you know, Rachel was a
singer-songwriter. And I called Rachel and I said,
"Hey, I want to do this children's video series."
I had been inspired by an episode of "Blues Clues" that I
thought was just phenomenal. I thought, "Ooh, there's
something unique that we could do."
Mm-hmm. And Rachel said, "That's great,
but --" I said, "Yes and no."
You called and said, "Do you want to do a children's video
about music?" Yeah.
And I said, "Yes and no." I said, "Yes, I want to do a
children's video, but it needs to be about sign language,"
because where we were in our life with Leah, she was 4, and
we could see she was becoming more and more isolated because
nobody could communicate with her.
The cool, hip L.A. moms were getting into the "sign with your
hearing kids" scene, and so it was kind of the perfect
opportunity to answer -- You know, to resolve and solve what
was going on, what we needed for Leah and what our family and
friends needed. I just really -- I was really
looking to solve a problem that we were having.
I was really trying to figure how to expand Leah's world and
get more people signing with her.
And so I really did think if we just made 100 copies of this
video and gave it away, that would fulfill my mission.
But not mine. [ Laughs ]
See? [ Laughs ]
That's why there's partnership. Exactly.
We all bring something to the table.
It was very personal for Rachel and personal for me, too, 'cause
it was my niece. However, when we had this idea,
when Rachel said, "Yes, we'll do a video, but it does need to be
sign language," and I went "Yes."
It's like a whole world opened up, and I could see the impact
that this could have. We talked about, "Wow, this is
powerful," because, you know, people were signing with hearing
kids at that point and people were signing with deaf kids at
this point, so it's not like this was something we invented.
But I don't believe there was a way that was as effective as
what we've developed to get sign language out there.
I can guarantee there wasn't. Oh, we know now there wasn't.
'Cause we watched everything. You know, Leah was deaf, and we
bought every series, everything available, and it was so boring
that it was painful. And so, with our production
background, music background, just thought --
Friends and family. Yeah, resources.
We could make it interesting and fun and entertaining.
It doesn't have to be painful to watch.
And what I loved about it is -- it was organic because it grew
out of that true need. There's always been a
personalness to this project. And real.
It's real. It's our families and it's our
life, and here it is. And there's something about
that, I think, that has made it special to us and, I think, to
you or to the viewers. I think it carried the show,
because I think if somebody said, "Oh, let's cast a singing,
signing lady and a deaf girl and a hearing boy --" But even
before we shot one second of "Signing Time!", we sat down and
went, "Oh, my gosh, we're every parent."
Like, Leah's deaf. Lucy has physical disabilities
and delays. Alex is the kid who's been
signing, who's typical, but signing before he can speak.
And we can really stand for this and unapologetically deliver
this to families. And say it's for every child.
There is something in this project for every child.
Yeah. And, yeah, it's been neat to
watch that vision unfold. It's been really neat.