Introduce yourself, your family and your brand:

My name is Misty Castañeda and I'm the Founder of For Purpose Kids, a social good brand that inspires young children to discover a world of global cultures with diverse characters and imaginative stories that build empathy, connection and belonging. Founded in 2016, we launched our first product in early 2017 and continue to find fun and unique ways to inspire the next generation of global citizens. Although recent residents of the LA area, my husband, Julio & I moved to Winter Park, Florida at the beginning of 2021 with our 5 year old son Matteo to be closer to family. We are lucky to have a large, blended family as my husband has 2 grown sons and one granddaughter, so Matteo is lucky to be surrounded by amazing playmates.

Do you have a big tip for parents who want to turn their passions into businesses?
There are two things that I think are important for me to share here. First- I must acknowledge the great privilege that I have had to pursue turning my passion into a business. My livelihood, and that of my family, is not dependent on the success, or lack thereof, of my business. That doesn't mean the journey has been easy, but it is a fact that I am very well aware of and is something I think we should talk more about. I have an extremely supportive husband and family who, most of the time, is completely supportive of my vision and has given me the space to bring it to life.

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Second, the path of turning my passion, and what I believe to be my life's purpose, into a business has not been linear. It has been full of twists and turns and had I not truly believed in what I was doing, I would have quit a long time ago. This is something I hear from most entrepreneurs, but the idea of the "overnight success" still seems to persist in so many spaces. The biggest tip I can share is for parents to find those few people who will be there to support you along the way, no matter what. This particularly applies to people trying to do something different, that are not driven by the idea of financial success. The naysayers are LOUD and you'll need people to lean on that you can trust to support you, no matter what.

What sparked the idea to create For Purpose Kids? What does it mean to inspire future global citizens?

After seeing a video in 2015 on Facebook of a six-year-old boy named Dane, using his artistic skills to “do good” for others in his community, I started imagining what the world might look like if we consciously raised kids to be more like him. Then I became a Mom, and I wanted my son to grow up in a kind & compassionate world- not the one he was born into, which felt so full of hate, fear and divisiveness. So the wheels started turning, and after recognizing a noticeable gap in the marketplace for resources that teach social- emotional learning in younger children, I decided to tackle the problem head on and launch the interactive learning program we now know as For Purpose Kids. From the beginning, our products have incorporated multicultural characters and stories to spark curiosity about people from different parts of the world and teach about global cultures.

With a background in early childhood education, I understand the benefits of planting seeds of empathy and compassion at a young age. And as a passionate global citizen that's been fortunate to have traveled and lived around the world, I also know the amazing things that can happen when we connect with people from different cultures. As we wonder, listen to and talk about each other’s stories, we come to understand that we are all much more connected and alike than we are different, regardless of borders, cultures, colors and religions. The sooner we start introducing kids to the idea of being a citizen of the world, the better. This will help them to build a foundation upon which their view and understanding of the world incorporates people and cultures from all over the globe and they learn to appreciate the things that join us together and celebrate the differences which make us unique. As they continue to build upon this foundation throughout their lives, they will see themselves as part of a greater whole and grow into becoming the global citizens of the future.

What was it like pivoting and launching a toy brand during the pandemic?

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.

Here's a bit more we'd like to share about the Global Kidizens:

- Each doll is beautifully hand-knit by artisans in Peru working within a certified fair trade organization and using non-toxic, sustainable,100% cotton yarn.

- Each character comes with its own digital story, which can be accessed as a simple download, but our ultimate goal is to publish individual books along with each doll in the near future.

- As part of our development process, we work closely with partners from each country to bring the characters to life, creating authentic, kid-friendly stories about their cultures and communities.

- For every Global Kidizen doll sold, we’ll make a donation to organizations chosen by our partners in their home country.

Name up to (3) small businesses that you admire.

Wow, there are so many- I'm not sure how to narrow it down!
1) Little Feminist Book Club & Ditto Kids Magazine- these two businesses inspire me based on the teams they've built. It's not about one Founder, but the collaboration of the team and partners as a whole, contributing to the shared mission.
2) Bellen's More Than Peach Project- a business founded by now 10-year-old Bellen Woodard that shows the impact one person's vision can have business Relationship Alliance (BRA) Network- a community built by one of the biggest supporters of womxn I've encountered in a long time
3) Uppercase by Janine Vangool, particularly Little U Mag- a publication that has helped me reconnect to my creativity and infuse that into the brand (thank you @Meenal Patel for sharing your feature so I could learn about this amazing publication.

Anything else you’d like to add?
The Kickstarter campaign will run for 30 days, from Oct.19 through Nov. 17, 2021, and a limited number of dolls will be available to purchase for delivery during the holiday season. For more information and to support the campaign, see below for links:

Kickstarter Campaign Link: https://bit.ly/2YkcdYD (will go live October 19 at 8:00AM EST)
Website: https://www.forpurposekids.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forpurposekids/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forpurposekids