We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eunice Chen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eunice below.

Eunice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I have worked on is a set of the world’s very first Asian Heritage Wooden Magnetic Dress Up Dolls.

When I first embarked on this project, it was purely for my own enjoyment and to fulfill one of my childhood wishes. As a child, I wanted to grow up to be a fashion designer. And now working as a designer in the animation industry, I finally have the tools and skills to design an Asian princess and give her many traditional Asian clothing. Even though I spent my childhood years in Asia, I learned a ton while doing research for my project. I gained a deeper and more profound appreciation for the diversity and richness within the Asian community! For example, I learned that there are 50 minority groups in China alone, each with their own distinct style of traditional attire and customs!

I wanted to share what I designed as a free resource to the Asian community, so I made paper doll versions of my designs and posted them online. I wasn’t expecting much response, but it BLEW UP! I got thousands of likes and hundreds of comments, many of them thanking me and also asking me to make it into a real toy product. At first, my response was no because making into a real product wasn’t even on my radar. But people kept asking months later, so I thought to give it a try.

I had no idea how to develop a toy so I started with just plain old Googling. Somehow, I stumbled across the same supplier that makes wooden toy products for many US-based big name brands and worked with them to develop a prototype of my dolls. One thing led to another, and now I somehow have my own toy company that is ready to launch the world’s very first Asian Heritage Wooden Magnetic Dress Up Dolls!

This project has been deeply meaningful to me because I am increasing the visibility of our community in toys and have received so much feedback from Asian parents who said they wished they had these types of toys when they were children. Many people have told me that they appreciated how I included Southeast Asian and Indian representation (and minority groups!), which is so often overlooked in the discourse of Asian visbility. Now, the younger generation of Asian Americans will be able to see themselves represented in the toy industry!

Eunice, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

One interesting thing about me is I never thought I’d be working in the animation and design industry. I grew up in Asia and at the time, there were no successful role models in the arts to show us that it was possible to survive as an artist. Also, being the first born daughter of immigrant parents, I felt like I had to be responsible and choose a stable career. So I worked as an elementary teacher for many years before I decided to throw caution to the wind and pursue a career in the animation industry.

I worked full-time as a classroom teacher in the daytime and took art classes online at night. I barely slept for 2 years as I worked hard for my dream. Finally, I got my first big break in illustrating for a children’s book and also working part time as a prop designer for Disney Jr’s Pupstruction (the two projects are unrelated). Now, 3 years later, I am working full time as a designer on season 2 of Pupstruction and have illustrated 4 children’s books!

Somehow, through it all, I also started designing toys. This surprised me the most because it was something that wasn’t even on my mind. I’ve found that designing toys is my second favorite thing to do as an artist (first still being animation)! I love that I can design toys and small knickknacks that I wish I had when I was a child. And the cherry on top is that the Asian community loves them and tells me my toys are what’s missing on the market as well! I get to fill a gap that was a long time coming for my community.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing is to see something I make resonate with my community. It’s super healing and encouraging.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think because I started so late and from zero, I had no shame in posting really bad art at the beginning. I also didn’t know who was famous so I didn’t get star struck by famous artists, which I think helped me form more genuine connections with others.

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Contact Info:

• Website: www.eunicesketches.com
• Instagram: Eunicesketches
• Linkedin: eunicesketches
• Other: My toy company IG handle is staycurioustoys and its website is staycurioustoys.com