Aussie lawyer making news each day with Lego
What: Feature on Lego Instagram, The Short News
Who: Yahoo News
Role: Story Pitch, Reporter, Writer
Sean Romero has found a way to make the news seem fun to those who would normally have little interest in it. That’s the short of it.
Every morning before work, the 33-year-old lawyer gets up early to present the news. But you won't find him on TV or in a newspaper.
You will, however, find him making Lego and delivering you The Short News with the help of a point-and-shoot camera and a lightbox.
Mr Romero picks out the news of the day and recreates stories with Lego, providing his audience with a different way to consume news.
His unusual, short and sweet storytelling has resonated with both kids and adults who love to get their daily dose of his creations.
Celebrating a year of Short News, Yahoo7 spoke with him to get the longer version.
"I'm coming up to the one-year anniversary," he said.
"It was a happy accident, I wanted to recreate the news but for legal reasons I can't use real photos.
"I was having a laugh with my wife and thought if I can't use someone else's photos, I'll make my own using toys."
To date, Melbourne-based Romero has recreated more than 575 news stories with Lego; from Shia LaBeouf's motivational video to Australia's onezie ban.
With more than 10,000 people 'tuning in' to read the short version on his Instagram each morning, the posts focus on offbeat, strange and light-hearted human interest news.
"If I can make light of it, I will," he said.
"I don't try and pretend that I cover everything as I can't. I pick a few stories each day that interest me and I think will interest others."
But there's certain subjects he wouldn't recreate.
"While a plane crash is huge news, it would be doing a huge discredit to the story to look like I am making light of a tragic event using toys," he said.
"I just want to give people a few things to talk about each day, using something else."
“I don't make money from this whatsoever."
As for his own personal collection, you'd think his house would be full of it - but Mr Romero said he didn't actually own that much Lego.
"I get lots of people who say 'you must have this mammoth collection’," he said
"Reality is, I don't have a huge collection, but I would like to...
"I'm resourceful, I maybe have 150 minifigures and a lot of different heads."
His lack of an endless Lego supply forced him to think outside the box.
"I like to mix it up with non-Lego, I'll mix traditional household items," he said.
"It's amazing what you come up with when you're forced to."
As for why he wanted to make the news short and sweet, Romero said he did it for his wife, Maria.
"I did it for her," he said.
"I always used to come home and talk to her about the news as I love it, but she doesn't share my passion for the news and hadn't read up on the stories”.
"I sat down and thought 'what if I can repackage this for people to consume easier.'"
Each morning he sits down and picks a few stories his wife would like and remakes them for her to enjoy.
"Now she goes to people and says 'did you see the news today'. She is the proof in what I'm trying to do.
While the couple is yet to become parents, Romero said the thing that made him the happiest was knowing he'd found a way for kids to get involved with news.
"A good proportion of my readers are 8-10 years old," he said.
"They're not only reading but they're commenting too.
"I feel like I've hidden the vegetable in the mince... it's like they're eating the bolognese, but they don't know all these carrots are in there."
Knowing this, he said he's achieved what he set out to do.
"There's no real age where kids should start learning about the world, but I don't think I ever wanted to talk about the news with an adult when I was a kid.
"The fact these kids are doing it, getting involved and suggesting stories is really mind-blowing."
Now back to The Short News... check it out at www.shortnews.com or via Instagram/theshortnews.