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

Alright, Jess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

lil gremmies was born out of an idea I had while on maternity leave with our second son. I was trying to order clothes for both of my boys online and I just couldn’t find anything that I liked. There are so many cute options for little girls clothes but boys really have no good options and I got tired of buying black/white/grey. I have spent over 15 years of my career in apparel operations, working for e-commerce businesses, and I figured I already had the blueprints to make this happen so I may as well give it a shot. My husband is a creative director at a branding agency and so I looked at him one day and said “We’re going to start a children’s pajama brand. And we’re going to launch it in three months”. Given that we both have full time jobs and had just added a second baby to the mix, it was a wild idea, but I knew we could do it. We’ve always wanted to build something together and three months later our first collection launched!

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

I have worked in e-commerce operations for apparel and accessories businesses for my entire career so I’ve had tons of experience operating other people’s brands. I have always felt that boys clothing leaves a lot to be desired, but my new role as a mom opened my eyes to all of the chemical processes and toxins used in textile creation. I knew I could use my expertise to source materials that made me feel better about my kids wearing it, and I knew my husband could knock the prints out of the park.

I grew up in a family of medical professionals. My father is a Psychiatrist, my mother was a nurse, my brother is an emergency room doctor and my sister is a pharmaceutical scientist. To say that I was the black sheep of the family would be an understatement. Forging my own path with nobody to turn to for career advice was scary but my parents are so incredibly supportive. They have always rallied behind me and given me the confidence to know that I CAN do anything. When I told them about this crazy idea they immediately said “we’re in!!! let’s do it!!” and, thus, our family business was born! My mom has been instrumental in making this happen and I’m so proud that we’re building this together.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I was working at a shoe company managing their direct-to-consumer operations and was clearing out my sample closet at the office. I asked my peers in the neighboring cubicle area if anyone wanted any shoes and Dustin, our designer, came to grab a pair. He emailed me to thank me for the shoes and ask me to lunch. I told him that was unnecessary and moved on, but slowly but surely he started hinting that maybe he had a little more of an interest in me outside of the workplace. After dodging multiple requests for dates and ditching him on his 30th birthday, I finally went out with him. Almost 10 years later and we’re married with 2 kids and now operating a business together. A creative director by day and a pajama designer by night, I sure am lucky I took a leap of faith on that date. Never would I have imagined we’d create a brand that is so fun and meaningful. We hope to continue to foster it’s growth so we can do it full time.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

lil gremmies is still our side hustle but it grows every single day. My dream is for it to continue to grow to the point where it can support us full time. Considering we started this company on a whim, I am so excited about how much traction we’ve gained and the feedback we’ve received. We have several customers who have told us that their children won’t wear any other pajamas. My favorite story is from a mom who has a young child with terrible eczema. Our bamboo fabric is the only thing that soothes his delicate skin and it makes me feel so good to know that our products are not only super modern and cool looking, but they are helping soothe sensitive skin. Many of my friends remind me all the time that their kids won’t wear any other pj’s and it really validates that we’re on the right path.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lilgremmies.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/lilgremmies
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilgremmies