This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Steven Cyr and Colton Cyr, founders of Cute C Toys. It has been edited for length and clarity.
About two years ago, my son Colton was playing with his little sister Ava. They were 12 and 8 at the time, and Ava loved soft plush toys. One day, after playing with Ava, Colton wanted to know “what makes toys so soft?”
He did a search online and learned about all the chemicals that give toys their soft, cuddly feel. Then, he came to me asking what all these big words — chemical compound names — meant.
I’m a physician who is very focused on clean living. I sell clean skincare and nutrition products, but I had no idea about the chemicals that could be in kids’ toys.
Now that we knew, I asked Colton what he wanted to do: raise awareness, maybe? But he wanted to create a better, cleaner toy that kids like Ava could enjoy.
Colton’s experience with allergies triggered his question
Although I’m a doctor, I’m not new to entrepreneurship. You have to think like an entrepreneur to be successful in medicine these days, and my wife and I run our practice. My two older children — who are 20 and 22 — are always starting companies.
I could see the business opportunity that Colton had discovered. I was proud of him: Colton always struggled with allergies, including food and environmental allergies that would leave him itchy, puffy, and sneezing. It made sense to me that he’d be more curious about the materials that went into toys, since he’s always had to be mindful of what he was exposed to.
I sat down with Colton, and we started sketching what we wanted our plush toy to look like. We settled on a chubby baby with big dimples. There’s nothing in the world cuter than that.
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Finding a manufacturer taught my son about perseverance
Courtesy of Steven Cyr
Originally, we wanted to manufacture the toy in the US, but a designer in our home state of Texas told us the doll would be impossible to make. A few other manufacturers told us the same thing, but we didn’t want to compromise on the image of our Dough Baby, as we had named it.
It took a long time and a lot of frustration, but finally, we found a manufacturer in China who could execute our vision. Luckily, Colton and I were steadfast in knowing just what we wanted, so we didn’t get annoyed with each other during the process. It was a good lesson in patience. Colton learned things might not work out the first or even the fifth time, but that doesn’t mean you should compromise on your dreams.
Colton worried about peer pressure after inventing a doll
Colton is a 14-year-old eighth grader. Like most teenagers, he worries a lot about what his peers think. He had some concerns that inventing a doll was going to detract from his cool-kid, athlete persona. He was hesitant to share his story and worried he might be ridiculed.
We talked a lot about taking pride in your work and not worrying about what others might think. Luckily, Colton had many adults in his life who told him how impressive his entrepreneurship was.
Recently, one of his friends got involved to help us promote Dough Babies. That has reinforced to Colton that he should be proud of everything he’s done to make play safer for his sister and other kids.
