Little kids did a ‘Walking Dead’ photo shoot and it’s everything you’d hope it would be

Breaking news: Not all kids want to be a princess or a superhero in a photo shoot. Sometimes, they want to be a zombie or a blood-covered surgeon or an escaped convict. That doesn’t mean they’ll grow up to have a blood fetish or break the law. It simply means they have imagination.

One photographer who knows this to be true has had to defend herself from critics who have slammed her Walking Dead-inspired photo shoot, which features the children in her neighborhood (including her own two kids) as the characters from the hit AMC TV series. All blood and wounds were added during the editing process, the weapons were from Toys R Us and the scenes were set on abandoned train tracks. 

After Alana Hubbard posted her pictures on Facebook, some users thought they glorified violence and the use of weapons and reported them. Hubbard was blocked from using the site for 72 hours until the company reinstated her account and apologized. 

“I don’t understand the huge controversy,” Hubbard told SheKnows. “I never imagined it would get this big. I would never put other people’s children and my children in harm’s way. We chose not to use the real zombie effects because there were young siblings there too. We didn’t want the kids to be scared. We wanted them to have a good time.”

And by all accounts, that’s exactly what they had. Parents of some of the kids featured in the shoot revealed they had so much fun they didn’t want to go home, so they went to the park and enjoyed Carol’s cookies. 

What a fabulous experience for the kids to be involved in. It’s no more gruesome or violent than good old-fashioned cowboys and indians (but with a zombie thrown into the mix). Luckily, there are plenty of people who appreciate what Hubbard has done, which will help her forget about the critics who have clearly forgotten what it’s like to immerse yourself in pretend play as a kid.