Kimochis are not always happy. Just like the little ones who will love them, Kimochis have a full range of emotions from happy to proud to cranky and jealous. Kimochi Life Inc. was born as the collaboration of an extraordinary array of creative talents inspired with the purpose of creating something wonderful that would also do good in our world.

The Beginning

From the world of film production, long-time friends Nina Rappaport-Rowan and Meridith Brown joined forces and talents to bring life to Nina’s inspiration—plush, interactive characters with little feelings pillows that would help parent and child understand the child’s emotions.

Before they teamed up on their Kimochi project, Nina had produced Bunny, an animated short from Blue Sky Studio that won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Meridith calls Nina a "visionary."

Before joining Nina, Meridith also came from the creative world. Meridith had been Head of Production for Curious Pictures, a studio creating live action as well as animated films. Nina calls Meridith a "whiz kid."

Nina and Meridith each became mothers and confirmed the value of Nina’s vision of toys with feelings inside. But who would be able to execute their designs into actual plush dolls? The answer came to Nina as kismet. Walking past a store window she saw the most amazing plush dolls and she knew she had to find their creator. That’s how she found doll artist extraordinaire, Cody Thompson of Providence, Rhode Island.

Cody soon joined the Kimochi team. His design renderings gave the Kimochis the dimension Nina and Meridith envisioned—they found the "sensibility was right on." And, within four months of the decision to begin the creative process, the Kimochi Bear and Kimochi Square were “born”.

The Heart

Kimochis are now a successful tactile and interactive brand of plush characters that can help parents better understand what their kids are feeling inside. Each wool-rayon blend Kimochi character has a unique personality profile and comes with nine feelings to facilitate discovery and play—feelings such as happy, mad, sad, proud, sleepy, shy, jealous, loved and grateful.

Nina and Meridith have met their goal to create whimsical and elegantly designed toys that anyone will love; toys that will bring parents and kids together through puppetry and play.

The Highlights

We commend Nina and Meridith for their creativity and their dedication to making safe, educational toys that uniquely give parents an opportunity to explore those all-important "feelings" with their children. They are providing a rare opportunity for deeply meaningful parent-child play.

At Elegant Roots we fell in love with Kimochis when we first saw the prototypes, which were handmade by Cody Thompson. We loved the interactive and highly educational advantage of these interesting and beautifully handcrafted dolls. So we thank Nina and Meridith for working with us and doll-maker Cody Thompson to provide our customers the opportunity to own an exclusive USA-made, handcrafted limited edition of this exceptional toy. You will find other wonderful Kimochis that are factory-made and imported, but we are proud that the Kimochis available from Elegant Roots are collectible heirlooms personally handcrafted by Cody in his Providence studio, of materials exclusively sourced in the USA.

We aren't the only ones that love the adorble Kimochis. The Houston Chronicle Holiday Gift Guide 2008 (11/27/08) featured our exclusive, limited-edition Kimochi dolls too. Congratulations to Nina and Meridith! There simply is no other plush doll like this one!

Gifts with style and relevance from a socially responsible small business . . .