Indigo children, according to a pseudoscientific New Age concept, are children who are believed to possess special, unusual, and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities. The idea is based on concepts developed in the 1970s by Nancy Ann Tappe, who claimed to have been noticing indigo children beginning in the late 1960s. Her ideas were further developed by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. The concept of indigo children gained popular interest with the publication of a series of books in the late 1990s and the release of several films in the following decade. A variety of books, conferences, and related materials have been created surrounding belief in the idea of indigo children and their nature and abilities. The interpretations of these beliefs range from their being the next stage in human evolution, in some cases possessing paranormal abilities such as telepathy, to the belief that they are more empathetic and creative than their peers. No scientific studies give credibility to the existence of indigo children or their traits. Some parents choose to label their children who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities as an indigo child to alternatively diagnose them. Critics view this as a way for parents to avoid considering pediatric treatment or a psychiatric diagnosis. Some lists of traits used to describe indigo children have also been criticized for being vague enough to be applied to most people, a form of the Forer effect. Origins The term "indigo children" originated with parapsychologist and self-described synesthete and psychic Nancy Ann Tappe, who developed the concept in the 1970s. In 1982 Tappe published a comb-bound which she expanded and republished in paperback in 1986 as Understanding Your Life Thru Color. In these works Tappe introduced the concept of "life colors", defined in Understanding Your Life Thru Color as "the single color of the aura that remains constant in most people from the cradle to the grave". The concept of "life colors" was popularized nationally by Tappe's student Barbara Bowers, who published What Color Is Your Aura?: Personality Spectrums for Understanding and Growth in 1989, and by Bowers' student Pamala Oslie, who published Life Colors: What the Colors in Your Aura Reveal in 1991. Tappe stated that during the late 1960s and early 1970s she began noticing that many children were being born with indigo auras (or, in her terminology, with indigo as their "life color"). The idea was later popularized by