We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yujin Oh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yujin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The story behind Whimsy Art Club begins with a anxious kid who moved every three years.
Growing up as a military child, I was constantly starting over—Every 3 years my entire environment changed. Korea, Texas, the Philippines, St. Louis. Each move turned me from an outgoing kid into an anxious introvert, always wondering: *Will I fit in? Will anyone understand me?* You know that feeling of walking into a new place and hoping someone will just get you?

But through all that uncertainty, one thing remained constant: art class. It was my sanctuary—not because I was some art prodigy, but because art didn’t care if I talked differently or didn’t know the local references. I could just create. In those warm, welcoming rooms with kind teachers, I felt like I belonged somewhere for once. There was a connection there I rarely found anywhere else in school.

I followed the path many children of immigrant families take—work hard, aim high. After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, I became an architectural Designer in NYC, climbed the corporate ladder, made good money for 12 years. All the traditional markers of success were there, but honestly? I kept thinking about those art rooms. Something was missing—that sense of creative sanctuary I’d found as a child.

Then I became a mom, and everything clicked into focus.

I started paying attention to how we talk about creativity with children, and I was struck by how quickly we decide who’s “the creative one” and who isn’t. I’d watch art classes where kids were basically just copying examples, and I kept thinking—where’s the actual thinking? Where’s the curiosity? What if we actually treated kids like they have something meaningful to say through their art?

As someone who had been that anxious kid needing a safe space, and now as a parent watching my own child navigate these creative limitations, I realized I had to do something.

2024, I finally took the courage & left my job as a project designer in a real estate/developer company and found Whimsy Art Club. We don’t just teach art techniques—we explore big ideas through making. Instead of drawing a tree, we might talk about how trees actually communicate with each other underground, explore Indigenous symbolism, or discuss what it means to feel rooted in a place. Then we create art that reflects those deeper connections.

We use storytelling, guided questions, and open-ended materials to turn each lesson into a conversation. Our students aren’t just following steps—they’re discovering, interpreting, and expressing. Sometimes they build wearable art, sometimes they design inventions, sometimes they create protest posters. Every class becomes an experience with real-world context.

My mission is rooted in what I needed as a child and what I see kids needing now: a warm, welcoming space where every child—whether wild, shy, loud, quiet, or mischievous—feels seen and celebrated. Where they can explore their natural abilities as philosophers, problem-solvers, and dreamers through creative thinking. Where what they create has meaning beyond the page.

Because I remember what it felt like to need that space. And I know how powerful it is to be given room to create, explore, and just be yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Yujin & I’m the founder of Whimsy Art Club, and my path here has been anything but traditional. After 12 years as an architectural designer in NYC’s fast-paced corporate world, I found myself drawn back to the creative sanctuary I’d found in art classes as a military kid who moved constantly. That personal experience of needing belonging, combined with watching how early we label kids as “creative” or “not creative,” led me to create something different in children’s art education.

**What I Bring to This Work**
My background spans architecture, design, and education, but I’m also actively pursuing certifications in art therapy practice, STEAM education, and play-based teaching. This combination gives me a unique lens—I understand both the technical aspects of creative problem-solving from my design career and the emotional needs of children who might feel like outsiders. I’m not just teaching art; I’m creating experiences that help kids develop critical thinking, empathy, and confidence through creative expression.

**What Whimsy Art Club Actually Does**
We offer theme-based art classes for kids ages 4-12 that go way beyond traditional “follow the teacher” art instruction. Each class explores meaningful topics—like sustainability, mindfulness, science —through hands-on creative projects. Instead of copying examples, kids engage with real ideas and express their own interpretations through art.

Some classes explore environmental challenges and look at how innovative companies use design thinking to address them. Or we zoom in and out of the natural world—examining ecosystems before creating our own imaginative interpretations of what we discover.

**The Problems We Solve**
For parents, we solve the frustration of finding creative programs that actually challenge their kids intellectually while building confidence. So many art classes focus on technique over thinking, or they’re too structured to allow for real creative expression. Parents tell me their kids come home from our classes bursting with stories about what they discovered, not just what they made.

For kids, we solve the problem of feeling like they don’t belong in creative spaces—whether because they’re “not good at drawing” or because they process ideas differently. We create room for every type of learner and every type of creative expression.

For the broader education landscape, we’re addressing the gap between arts education and critical thinking. Too often, art is treated as decoration rather than as a powerful tool for understanding the world and expressing complex ideas.

**What Sets Us Apart**
Three things make Whimsy different: First, our thematic approach means every class has intellectual depth and real-world relevance. Second, my combination of professional design experience and deep understanding of what it means to need creative belonging brings both expertise and empathy to how we structure experiences. Third, we prioritize the thinking process over the final product—kids learn that the journey of exploration and expression is what matters most.

**What I’m Most Proud Of**
I’m proudest of the moments when a kid who thought they “weren’t creative” suddenly realizes they have important ideas to express. I’ve watched shy kids become confident storytellers, anxious kids find their voice through art-making, and kids who struggle in traditional academic settings discover they’re brilliant creative thinkers.

**What I Want People to Know**
Whimsy Art Club isn’t just about making pretty things—though we do that too! We’re about honoring kids as the natural philosophers, problem-solvers, and dreamers as they are. We believe creativity is a way of thinking, not just a talent some people have and others don’t.

I want parents to know that if their child has ever felt like they don’t fit the traditional “creative kid” mold, they’ll find their place with us. I want educators to know that art can be a powerful vehicle for deep learning across all subjects. And I want kids to know that their ideas, their questions, and their unique way of seeing the world are exactly what we’re looking for.

My ultimate vision is to help raise a generation of creative thinkers who understand that their voices matter and that art can be a tool for understanding themselves, connecting with others, and even changing the world. That’s what drives everything we do at Whimsy Art Club.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Coming from 12 years in corporate architecture where polished presentations and expertise were everything, I thought I understood what running a business would look like. I imagined spending most of my time creating curricula, designing beautiful class experiences, and teaching my students—the creative work I was passionate about.

Reality hit hard in those first six months.

Suddenly I was drowning in aspects of business I’d never had to think about as an employee: SEO, social media marketing, financial planning, pricing strategies, contract negotiations, legal requirements. Every day felt like drinking from a fire hose. My perfectionist tendencies from the corporate world made it worse—I felt like I had to master every single detail before I could move forward.

There were definitely moments where I questioned everything. Was I crazy to leave a successful career for this? Should I just hire experts to handle what I didn’t know? The learning curve felt overwhelming, and I was doing it all alone while trying to actually run classes and serve families.

Instead of seeing this as a barrier, I treated it like a massive learning project. I dedicated the first part of each day to studying one aspect of the business—spending weeks diving deep into digital marketing, then switching to financial planning. I approached it with the same systematic mindset I’d used in architecture.
What surprised me was how much this actually strengthened Whimsy Art Club. Understanding marketing helped me communicate our unique value better. Studying customer experience helped me design better parent communication and class structures.
Now, while I’m still scaling and definitely still learning every day, I realize I’ve built something much stronger than if I’d just hired out everything I didn’t understand. I have working knowledge across all aspects of my business, which means I can make more informed decisions, spot potential issues early, and have meaningful conversations with experts when I do bring them on.
As we are still growing, and I’m constantly encountering new challenges that require more learning. But the biggest lesson so far? Resilience isn’t just about pushing through—it’s about being willing to become a better version of yourself than you expected. I went from being a specialized expert in one field to being a scrappy entrepreneur who’s comfortable not knowing everything but committed to figuring it out.

My advice to other entrepreneurs: resist the urge to immediately outsource what you don’t know. Take the time to understand the fundamentals first. You don’t need to become an expert in everything, but having working knowledge of all aspects of your business will make you a much stronger leader and decision-maker in the long run.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve always known that art could be messy — I wasn’t unfamiliar with experimentation. But somewhere along the way, after years of working in structured design environments, I lost touch with that free-flowing side of myself. I became more focused on things being clean, polished, and visually “right.” I carried that mindset with me — even into my early days of Whimsy Art Club.

But watching children create… it broke that boundary wide open again. They don’t pause to question if their ideas make sense or if their drawing is “good enough.” They simply begin. They create without hesitation, without fear. And witnessing that reminded me of something I didn’t realize I’d buried — my own intuitive, curious, and playful approach to art.

Running Whimsy Art Club has been a continuous process of unlearning the pressure to produce something perfect, and re-learning — through the kids — what it means to create from a place of joy, wonder, and presence. Every class, they teach me to trust the process again.

It’s in those moments that I’m reminded: this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.whimsyartclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whimsyart_club/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573028365097
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yujin-oh-d-souza/

Image Credits

Headshot: Instagram: @damda.moments