We were lucky to catch up with Misty Castaneda recently and have shared our conversation below.
Misty , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s something crazy or unexpected that’s happened to you or your business?
It was January 2019 and I had just completed my most successful holiday season yet as a small business and felt that the pieces of my vision were beginning to come together. I still had a great deal to learn in the world of e-commerce, but I was grateful to be connecting with customers interested in inspiring the next generation of global citizens.
Yet, there were still a lot of naysayers in the background saying my idea wouldn’t work, that young kids wouldn’t be able to connect with our message and that we wouldn’t generate enough sales to gain a foothold in the market. It’s true that my most successful holiday season hadn’t generated an earth-shattering amount of revenue, but it was enough to keep me going at the time.
And that’s when it happened. I received an email from a woman who said she was “in awe of our new social enterprise and kids brand” and was looking for potential career opportunities. But here’s the thing- her resume was AMAZING! And when I say amazing, I mean she had worked at Mattel for over 10 years as the Global Brand Director for one of the most iconic doll brands in the world.
I froze. And then I laughed, as I called my husband to tell him what had just happened. He said “does she know you work out of our house, do your own fulfillment and have zero experience in the toy industry?!?” My response, was…”clearly not”.
I then asked a trusted mentor what I should do, and she chuckled. She said, “invite her for coffee and have a chat.”
And that’s exactly what I did. And what happened over the next year or so would be exactly the boost I needed to keep pushing, to keep iterating and to finally have the confidence to create what I’ve always dreamed of creating within the brand.
While we didn’t end up working together, what we did do was share our experiences with each other to help propel both of us to the next level.
She shared with me that what I was doing, with For Purpose Kids, was exactly what her research and focus groups were asking for…but the big toy companies were too afraid to jump in because they couldn’t yet figure out how to monetize ideas like empathy, compassion, love and acceptance of all with toys.
And I shared with her the journey I went on to find the courage to leave the corporate world and follow my passion of making the world a better place.
So I kept dreaming, and she eventually left the corporate world to follow her passion of helping others. And I can honestly say that she is the reason I’ve kept going through all of the ups & downs, because she confirmed what my heart and soul already knew…that there is value in teaching young children to be good humans and that this can start at any age.
Although we’ve lost touch during COVID and I’ve since moved to another state, I hope one day we’ll connect again and I can share with her just how much I still think about the gift she gave me that day- the gift of being not only seen for my efforts, but cheered on in a way that made all of the difference.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We all want our children to feel safe and loved. To feel they belong.
As a little girl, I remember being unsure of how to navigate the world. Some things would make me extremely happy, like going to the beach and singing with my Dad. Other things would make me feel crushingly sad, like reading about devastating events and learning about people suffering. It felt like I was personally experiencing their pain. My family told me I was safe and I had everything I needed, but I wanted to understand how to belong in a world that felt so overwhelming.
I was incredibly privileged to travel to other countries while growing up. Over time, I began to realize I felt most “at home” outside of the United States – in places where I met new people and interacted with other cultures that spoke to my heart, even if in a different language.
The seed of For Purpose Kids was planted back then, but it began to take root while I was living in Hong Kong as an adult in 2014. There seemed to be an extreme disconnect between my fellow expats and the people who lived and worked in the places we were living and traveling. I knew I needed to do something to cultivate more connection. I also knew my worldview was more open because I was introduced to different cultures throughout my life. After seeing a video online of a compassionate young boy named Dane raising money for his community, the vision for For Purpose Kids began to sprout. I imagined a world in which being kind and doing good for others become the rule for the next generation, rather than the exception – and I got to work creating the first version of FPK.
Many voices told me kids were “too young” to understand the things I was trying to inspire, like empathy, compassion, and belonging, but I knew that wasn’t true.
Back in the U.S. two years later, still trying to find my stride with FPK, my husband and I welcomed our son into our multiethnic family and I became a Mom. I kept thinking: what will I say when my son grows up and asks “What did you do when the world I was born into was so full of hate, fear, and divisiveness?” With this, the drive to connect people, especially young people, became that much more urgent. And since learning about other people, new places, and different cultures has always been the primary point of connection for me, I decided to narrow the focus to inspiring the next generation of global citizens through cultural exploration.
Through several iterations, numerous conversations with parents and caregivers, ongoing research about the power of play and how imaginative stories can expand young minds, the Global Kidizens were born.
Our handmade, all natural cotton, fair trade Global Kidizen dolls and stories feature a group of diverse characters from around the world that we’ve created to inspire young children to discover different cultures and embrace others through play and storytelling. Our newly launched collection introduces characters from 5 countries around the world. Please meet Mapenzi from Kenya, Ravi from India, Luna from Peru, Xander from the US and Míng Lì from China- they are so excited to share their cultures with you and the littles in your life.
“We invite you to come join us, on adventures big and small, we’ll celebrate our differences and welcome one and all!”
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
While the mission at For Purpose Kids has always been focused on inspiring the next generation of global citizens, it’s how we do that, that has shifted. Our initial products existed as educational toolkits designed to involve kids and families with activities around being kind and doing good for people & communities, animals and the environment.
And while our initial toolkits and products were successful in doing that, to be honest, the commitment to growing the brand via a subscription box model did not align with the values and vision that have evolved with the brand and my understanding of what it takes to build a social enterprise with heart. From the start, it has always been a dream of mine to design and create sustainably made, hand-knit dolls of our multicultural characters along with whimsical, cultural stories that spark curiosity and wonder in young children. The pandemic provided me the time and space to explore this idea, and the journey of building For Purpose Kids over the past 4.5 years gave me the courage to do it.
So here’s where we meet the Global Kidizens – a collection of hand-knit dolls from around the world inspiring young children to discover different cultures, embrace others and encourage belonging. The Global Kidizen dolls and stories cultivate wonder and acceptance of others around the world by highlighting similarities and celebrating differences through storytelling and play in a unique and fun way. It is well known that kids learn through play. And while we were exploring this shift in our business, we discovered new research that shows that pretend, imaginative play with dolls in particular, provides kids a creative invitation to build social-emotional skills, like empathy and acceptance of themselves and others. And here’s where the stars aligned- we knew it was time to bring together the dream in my head with the research and findings that were being presented to us.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
It’s often said that “the joy is in the journey”, and for me, that has certainly been true. I know I needed to go through all phases of building For Purpose Kids to get to where I am now, because I never would have had the confidence to jump into creating what I always dreamed of creating- sustainably made, hand-knit, multicultural dolls with imaginative stories full of joy & wonder.
My educational background is in early childhood education and my professional career was in hotel sales & marketing- neither of which provide a background in manufacturing. Yes, my husband is a mechanical engineer and over the past 10 years, I’ve heard a conversation or two about manufacturing, but I have no expertise, training or desire to learn the ins and outs of what’s taken him a lifetime to learn.
What I did have, however, was a vision of what I wanted to create, passion and tenacity. And the pandemic provided me the time and space to put all of the pieces together.
I knew I wanted to work with the amazingly talented artisans in Peru that are so well known for their knitting, but that was about it. I started emailing women who had built social enterprises in that part of the world and eventually was told about an annual trade show that connects businesses with manufacturers and artisan communities. And as luck would have it, because of the pandemic, the show would be held virtually, thus allowing us to connect with potential manufacturers, free of charge. We eventually found the partner that shared our values and vision and was excited to work with us to bring the Global Kidizen dolls to life.
While I did work with my husband to create computer generated designs of the dolls, it was actually the hand drawn sketches I worked on with a dear friend that became the blueprints for the dolls. And using those and communicating via email and WhatsApp over the better part of a year with our partner was what worked for us to perfect the vision I had for these 5 dolls. It turns out I had the skills to do this all along, I just needed the continue on the journey to discover that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.forpurposekids.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram/forpurposekids/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forpurposekids.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/misty-casta%C3%B1eda-60051a7/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHtmcLz8zBQqJREKOHdQ_jA
Image Credits
@crystallilycreative on IG