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For Wonder Crew’s start, I went with adventures that were already popular in boy culture. My goal was to show that emotional connection and kindness fit in with all types of play, including the kind that's stereotypically masculine. And since I ultimately want to bring Wonder Crew to the mainstream, I knew it was important to look like the “blue aisle” – familiarity to both parents and kids goes a long way. Our motto is “Go anywhere. Be anything”, which means we’ve got a lot of adventure territory to cover! Speaking of which, want to see what’s cooking for one of...

  After the initial inspiration to create Wonder Crew,  I set out to make the vision a reality.  3 artists and 108 drafts later, Will, our first Crewmate was born.  I wanted Will to embody a mix of adventure, kindness and fun – he had to be best friend material.  So many decisions were made about lips and mouth expression (the aim was sweet and playful, yet versatile and NOT blank – a personal pet peeve when it comes to dolls), eye shape/color and hair was actually one of the biggest challenges, it’s not easy to construct hair knowing that it’ll be painted...

Where are the toys that encourage emotional connection and empathy? The pink aisle.

Boys grow up with cultural messages about masculinity that tell them feelings and emotional connections make them weak. As boys get older, research shows that acceptance of these hyper-masculine stereotypes has a direct correlation with stress, depression and lower rates of overall mental health. Imagine a world that encourages social and emotional connections to be part and parcel of “boys being boys.” That’d be awesome, right? Well, that world starts with child’s play.