Chapel Hill mom Alyssa Minshall was disappointed with the children’s toys already on the market — so with help from her own kids, she created a new one.
Minshall founded Sticker Farm in 2010 after looking for a sticker album for her daughter — and disliking the products she found.
To her, they felt overly commercialized, disposable and nothing like the memory-filled sticker books of her own childhood.
Wanting a wholesome and lasting toy for her children, Minshall decided to publish her own sticker book — an illustrated album for collecting stickers.
Minshall worked with her two children, then ages 2 and 4, to develop ideas for the book’s illustrations. They appear on its pages, along with their two dogs.
She told her children they could do whatever they wanted in the book.
Her daughter Charlie feeds a unicorn while her son Indie hangs out with his best friend Max, a real-life cow who lives at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham.
“I think one of the ways of having a successful business is actually knowing and understanding your demographics,” said Minshall, who bounced her ideas off her children — and allowed their own ideas to be included.
“With kids, you kind of figure out what’s freaky, what’s funny, and then you kind of get that perfect balance,” she said.
