Happy Crayon Studios didn't start in a boardroom. It started at a kitchen table, with a big brother who wasn't so sure about sharing the spotlight.
When our eldest's little sister arrived, he loved her - but he was also starting to notice everything that came with her: less attention, more noise, a lot of change for a little person to process. We didn't want him to see her as something that had happened to him. We wanted him to see her as his.
So I started drawing - simple pages of the two of them having the kind of adventures we hoped they'd actually have together. Not a book about a new baby. A book about him, and the little sidekick he was about to get to know.
It worked better than we expected. He carried that book everywhere, proud of every page, and started looking at his little sister a bit differently - less like an upheaval, more like a playmate who just hadn't caught up to him yet.
That's how Our Big Day Out was born - and looking back, we realised a book like this would have been just as useful before she arrived too, in those strange in-between weeks of waiting and wondering what having a sibling would even feel like. That's what became Our Story Starts Here.
That's the whole idea behind Happy Crayon Studios. Every book is made for a specific sibling combination, so a child sees themselves on the page and feels celebrated for exactly who they're becoming. Big feelings, big change, one calm crayon at a time.
It's a small family studio, and every title is made with the same care as that first one. Thank you for being part of the story. 🖍️