Interview with Kelley Blank of Thinker Toys!

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Kelley: In addition to recently becoming a small business owner and mother of 3, I’m also a design professional and science lover. I’ve spent most of my professional career in retail and residential design but I have a degree in neuroscience and that love for the hard sciences has never left me. I guess you could say I’m a science nerd who likes pretty things. 

You're a family of five now – does that feel complete?

Kelley: It does! Then again, it felt complete after my first and second children too. I’ve had this experience after each kid was born. They come into the world and it’s like, “There you are!” It suddenly becomes very strange and surreal to imagine life before them. Although, this feeling took a little longer to kick in with my first.  People often ask what kid transition was the hardest and for me personally, going from zero to one was by far the hardest. Becoming a mom kind of wrecked me, but now I’m a pro! 

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Kelley: There is not a lot of that these days. Since we’re coming to the end of the newborn phase, I’m just now starting to have some moments to myself and I’ll often use an app like Substack to read a short story or peruse a fashion article. This is usually in the morning while I’m nursing the baby. My husband brings me a coffee in bed (yes, he’s that kind of husband) and I’ll read something from Jess Graves, Rachel Cohen or Gumshoe which are some of my current favorites. My body is constantly in flux these days so it’s been hard to find things to wear that check all the boxes. I find a lot of inpso in these columns, plus it's light, easy reading unlike the news. 

I’m also finding time to just play more. My two older kids are in such fun stages right now. One is very creative and one is very active so I try to nurture those instincts through play. Since owning the store, I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about ‘play’ which is helping me understand our products better and making me a much better parent. 

Is there anything you did before becoming parents that you’d like to focus on again?

Kelley: There are things we enjoyed that we’re looking forward to doing with the kids once they’re older, like longer hikes and rock climbing trips. One thing I truly miss though is long, still, quiet afternoons. Those just are not going to happen in this season of life and I’ve finally come to terms with it. They’ll come back again I’m sure. Like free time, there are very short moments of stillness and I enjoy those moments and then I move on. At this point in my life, what’s needed is endurance and motion and the ability to simply keep going. My mindset now is, just keep going. 

We’ve already seen some fun new ideas at Thinker Toys, like the lemonade stand that kids can book to sell their creations. What’s your vision for the future of the store?

Kelley: Oh I could talk about this for hours so I’ll try to be succinct. My vision for the future of the store is for it to be a place where people of all ages find things that help them engage with the world. This is directly inspired by the legacy the former owners and our current team have created. It’s called Thinker Toys for a reason. Thinking, as a skill, is really important but it can feel daunting, especially for kids, to then use those thoughts to engage with the world. We want to offer products and opportunities to help people through that in a way that’s low pressure, low risk and ideally really fun. The Kids’ Business (lemonade stand) is one such opportunity. When we took over the store, Zach was spending all his time learning how to run a small brick and mortar store and we noticed that our kids were super interested in everything he was doing. They kept trying to sell stuff, mostly painted rocks, to anyone they saw. Our neighbors can attest. So we thought, we should create an opportunity for them to have a business too and that’s how the Kids’ Business was born. Now it’s something that any kid in the community can use to explore and build their business ideas in a low-risk, fun way. We’re dreaming up more ideas for 2025 so stay tuned! 

What’s your family’s favorite spot in Portland? What do you recommend tourists see when they visit?

Kelley: If you love exploring cities on foot, I’d go to Powell’s, pick up the Portland Stair book and a Powell’s tote, then head Northwest. Walk past Providence Park, where the Thorns and Timbers play and head to Prince Coffee to refuel. Then head for the hills and find as many staircases as you can. If you have young kids, come visit us in Multnomah Village! This neighborhood is kind of a hidden gem in my opinion and it’s perfect for families. What we’ll often do is grab lunch at any of the amazing restaurants here, use a trip to the toy store to incentivize good behavior and then we’ll bring them to the store to browse, play in the play area and meet new friends, and then we’ll head back out to do some window shopping or pick up some local goods from Indigo Traders or JP General. If no one has melted down, or if EVERYONE is melting down, we’ll then head up the street to Dairy Hill for an ice cream finale. It’s not a long, still, quiet afternoon, its something even better.