About
Duckling is a place to make and show documentary stories, and a community of the people making them. We work with storytellers directly, and with the schools and programmes that teach them.
The stories we share shape how we understand the world and each other. Most of the platforms that carry our stories reward speed and outrage, while documentary storytelling is slow, finished, and asks something of you. So it gets buried. Not because people do not want it, but because nothing was built for it.
Duckling is a global network of emerging documentary storytellers who learn, create and grow together. We build cross-disciplinary, self-driven groups where curiosity, compassion, and shared purpose guide the work. We have no managers or bosses. The people who lead do it as facilitators and guardians. Duckling is a registered social benefit corporation, and all revenue goes to the mission.
A Duckling storyteller is not a distant expert delivering a finished piece. They start something: they invite people in, and the work is made alongside the people it is about. We call it social documentary. Stories created between people, not just about them.
A photograph reaches you before you have decided what to think. The words come after, to give it context and weight.
We are constructive, evidence-informed, and fair. We bring unheard voices into the public sphere, and we show real life: the doubt, the dreams, the moments when things change.
Technology here exists to elevate people, not to hold them. No feed deciding what you see. No selling what we know about you. A story ends because the storyteller ended it.
We listen with empathy, respect and kindness. It is how we elevate people.
We ask questions and challenge our own views. It is how we shape the future.
We are fair, balanced and factual. It is how we build trust.
2012–2022
For more than a decade we explored new forms of storytelling, media, and technology. Storyplanet, Blindspot, and StoryFriend each tested how stories, community, and digital tools could help people understand the world and each other. Along the way, we pioneered ideas such as hashtags, swipeable story cards, and remixing. Bjarke Calvin Winding has been at the heart of that journey, with support from Izack Stjernberg, Joi Ito, Mohamed Nanabhay, and the Hatvany family, among others.
2022
A growing concern about social media and the future of journalism sparks an idea.
2023–2024
The idea becomes a project, and the first storytellers join.
2025–2026
Duckling becomes a platform, a community, and a school programme.
Duckling began with a question. The story is still unfolding.
Duckling is built by journalists, entrepreneurs, designers, technologists, and educators who share a belief in the power of storytelling. It began with an idea and has grown through the contributions of many collaborators, advisors, and storytellers.
CEO and Founder
Making Duckling’s heart pump. Product. Partnerships. Funding.
b@duckling.coEditor-in-Chief and Founder
Shapes our editorial vision and leads our editorial team in rethinking journalism.
k@duckling.coJournalist
Weekly editorial stories, and organising the community.
marie@duckling.coPhotojournalist
Driving the visual storytelling, and running the Duckling Seed Grant.
laura@duckling.coEverything is shaped by our community. The seed grant is where it's easiest to see. See the funded projects
Duckling has grown through the support, advice, and encouragement of people who believe in storytelling and journalism. In no particular order:
Duckling is still being built. We invite storytellers, students, schools, and anyone curious to help shape what it becomes.