Multi-award winning educational toy brand
Hi, I’m Kate the Founder of Happy Little Doers; an award-winning, innovative, design-led children’s brand. Our mission is to inspire kids to reach their full potential by helping them discover their favourite way of learning through play. Happy Little Doers was launched in July 2020 – yes, during lockdown #1, when every parent was learning to be an amateur hairdresser and supply teacher. Life as we knew it, stopped and the most exciting day (when we were allowed to go out) was a trip to the garden centre!
I’ve never been one for sitting still and the thing I’ve always loved is helping people get to where they want to be. Since becoming a parent, one of my biggest drives has been to ensure my children really enjoy learning, to help them grow and to be happy and confident – as do most mums/dads/carers. With the unexpected luxury of time with the kids at home, I started making games to entertain my son Billy, who was two and a half at the time. I wrote the numbers 1-10 and matching dots on scraps of paper and made up some games to learn through play. The very next day, Billy asked to play with the numbers again. I was surprised he’d remembered it, let alone wanting to play with the scraps of paper again. That was my lightbulb moment – I could make learning through play fun, versatile and stylish. We noticed there wasn’t anything similar on the market, that counted higher than 10 or 20 (our cards can go up to 110), stripping maths right back to being simple, in both the design and concept whilst ensuring the cards have longevity. Learn by doing… Numbers was launched!
Sustainability is a huge part of our brand and we look for opportunities to make our products environmentally friendly. Everything we do is designed completely by us (myself and my husband, Ollie), and everything is made/printed in the UK.
We have since launched a range of brain training games and prints alongside our educational flashcards. Our mission is to help children reach their full potential by helping them discover their best way of learning through play.
Since we launched we’ve been stocked in over 45 independent and high-street retailers including Waterstones, both in the UK and internationally. We’re working on some very exciting new products, so we hope you enjoy our brand and follow us on our journey.
If you’re a female or mum reading this and thinking about starting your own business and asking questions like ‘Can I do it? Should I do it? Where do I start?’, I would say jump high and in with both feet. Never doubt yourself. Surround yourself with positive empowering people who will always tell you as it is. Use fear as a positive and get out of your comfort zone, things won’t always be plain sailing, enjoy the downs as well as the ups. Celebrate everything always and don’t always look for the next thing, enjoy the journey and stop and be in the moment, which is exactly what I am doing today, celebrating international women’s day doing a live with three fabulous female business founders.
