We recently connected with Jana Anderson and have shared our conversation below.
Jana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
The Lollipop Fairy Birthday Tradition began when my oldest child was born. Growing up in a loving but chaotic and often times unpredictable household, I knew I wanted my children to live in a home filled with a strong foundation, love, and traditions that they could carry forward to their own families. That’s when The Lollipop Fairy was born. Every birthday eve, my birthday boy would excitedly plant his “lollipop seeds”, go to sleep, and immediately wake up and run to see what lollipops had grown. It didn’t matter where we were, she always showed up with seeds (one for each year the child is turning) and all sorts of lollipops arrived on their birthday morning. Seventeen years later, we are still carrying out the tradition albeit in a more “teenager” fashion.
Two significant events led me to finally write The Lollipop Fairy, A Sweet Birthday Tradition. In the course of three years, we lost 8 direct significant family members young and old, and it became so clear that we don’t always have the time we think we do. Memories are what remains…not things. Those sweet memories and the love we shared helped my boys and I get through one of the toughest years of our lives. I wanted to write this book for the next generation of my family. The second event occurred during COVID lockdowns. My heart was hurting daily for what I was seeing my students and my boys going through and I felt this need to try and put some sweetness back into the world. I work in a smaller charter school as a reading specialist and many of my amazing students struggle with reading but are gifted artists, musicians, designers, story tellers, and more, and I would talk to them about my ideas for the book and they not only encouraged me but started creating their own stories and characters. For the next year, I would share each stage of my book and run things by them to get their perspective on characters, scenes, etc., and their excitement kept me going all the way through publication. A few of them are now working on publishing their own stories:).
Some important elements of the book for me. personally are that the characters are diverse (In my years of teaching, I often struggled to find children’s books with characters all of my students could identify with), the story has personal elements dedicated to my children and family lost, and that it is promoting a simple, economical, heartwarming family tradition that is accessible to anyone. Children love the magic of the moment, the excitement of what’s coming, and that someone loves and cares about them enough to make their birthday special. The types of lollipops or seeds used have no bearing on the joy or memory. Some years, the Lollipop Fairy went all out and some years not but all my children remember is that every year, they woke up excited on their birthday morning. Every time I hear back from a family that has carried out this tradition and I see the pictures and videos filled with smiles and joyous screams of delight, my heart is full and I know my mission is complete. My Youtube channel shorts have a series of stories from families if would like to see more. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2QkfwtDRIlOFTgCGWEPOaw
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Being a Special Education Reading Specialist, I’ve always . After creating the Lollipop Fairy birthday tradition after my oldest child was born, I would share the tradition with others, and it was always a huge hit. Several life events led me to finally write and publish The Lollipop Fairy, A Sweet Birthday Tradition in March, 2022. After four months of searching back in 2020/21, I was incredibly fortunate to find Riley Helal, my illustrator, who managed to take my stick figures and ideas and create a bright engaging masterpiece that showcased the tradition in pictures. Riley and I were both committed to creating characters that were diverse so that every child who read the book felt they were important to, loved by , and connected to The Lollipop Fairy. I spent many years in my teaching career struggling to find children’s books with characters all of my students could connect to.
My greatest hope for this book is that it brings families together across this country, keeps the magic of childhood alive for children, and provides a simple accessible economical annual tradition for any parent, teacher, or caregiver to begin. Some traditions can be overwhelming and seem out of reach but most anyone can find something to represent “Lollipop Seeds” and lolliops can be readily found. I feel our communities are yearning for more sweetness and joy and positive moments that we can count on. Traditions are the heart of our communities and families and this is the perfect time to start new ones. In fact, I’m currently writing my second book on ten simple traditions that bring families together and am hoping to publish by the end of the year.
The Lollipop Fairy, A Sweet Birthday Tradition is currently available in hardcover, and in a gift set that includes an official Lollipop Seed bag that mirrors the one in the story, Lollipop Stickers (to cover advertisement on the larger lollipops and keep the magic alive), and a custom dustbag to keep your heirloom book protected during the year until it comes out again at birthday time. For more information on the history of the tradition or to order, please visit www.lollipopfairy.com, and don’t forget to follow us @lollipop_fairy_birthday
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
One of the greatest inhibitors for me to self-publish my book, was the cost involved. I had to work past all the comments and concern about how I was going to pay for a trademark for products related to the book, the illustrator, the printing, and everything in between. One night, I was sitting outside and a memory came back to me. At twenty-two, I was working full time and going to night school and knew I couldn’t afford to go to college full time. I was starting to get discouraged when realizing it was going to take me years and years to earn a bachelors and masters in education. During that time, my uncle shared how he wished he would have just started at some point in his life but he never took the first steps. His encouragement to be patient and take one step at a time was the impetus for to finally finish both degrees at the age of thirty.
From that night on, I started making small goals I knew I could accomplish that would lead to larger goals. I created a vision board on where I wanted to be and developed a framework plan with realistic and pie in the sky goals. I set a little aside each month for some of the bigger costs and educated myself on how to find a quality editor, illustrator, etc. at a price I could afford at some point, watched YouTube videos on how to develop a website, find a printer, how to apply for a trademark, how to create a logo, and more. I joined blogs and networked with other self-published authors, business owners, and influencers to learn as much as I could. Two years later, my book was finally published, and I’m still taking steps each month to learn more about the marketing process, distribution, etc. I did all of this while working full time, being a single mom of two busy teenage boys, and usually working into the wee hours of the morning night after night. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Patience and not being tied to a particular fixed outcome are key and when you are putting something back into the world that makes the world a better place, it’s easy to stay on course and believe in your work. Life is about having no regret and if you never take that first step…you’ll never really know if it would have worked out or not.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
This is an interesting question because I have had so much kind feedback regarding this “creative” tradition I brought to life, etc. and I literally never considered myself creative but perhaps I am a bit creative but not in the traditional sense. In fact, I don’t think there’s any such thing as a “non-creative”. We all have our own gifts and strengths we bring to the world and although a person may not be able to write stories, draw, paint, write music, design, etc. , they may be incredibly gifted at creatively bring people together or communicating an idea, or even in selling a product. Perhaps it’s simply creative to surround yourself with individually talented people that can help you be more creative.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lollipopfairy.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/lollipop_fairy_birthday/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077522555500
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lollipop_bday
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2QkfwtDRIlOFTgCGWEPOaw
- Other: Store: www.lollipopfairytraditions.com TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lollipopfairybirthday