8-year-old Isis McFadden's 'Little Regalia' pillows were inspired by her first protest

Most people can only dream of starting a successful business, let alone a business empire. But Isis McFadden was able to do that. Even more remarkable: Isis is just eight years old.

This week’s edition of the Joy Beat will celebrate McFadden. She already has a promising pillow empire under her belt and a moving story that will inspire generations of kids to come. She and her father, Joshua McFadden, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to tell the story of Little Regalia. This transcript has been lightly edited.

Arun Rath: So, tell us about Little Regalia. What inspired it?

Isis McFadden: My first protest. So, we made a book called “My First Protest,” and it’s about, well, my first protest! Then [for] all of the characters in my “My First Protest,” we made a pillow, and that was the start of the female pillow. And then, we made a male pillow to accompany the female pillow.

Josh McFadden: The whole premise was for her to strike confidence in herself. She was a little nervous about her experience at the first protest. She was five at the time; this was back in 2020. When we went home and recapped exactly what she did, she said she wanted to create a book to shed light on her experience but then, to also let other kids know the process so they wouldn’t be as nervous.

Originally, the plush pillow had a cape and a crown just to strike more confidence, but we ended up with just, of course, the face with no facial features so other kids can see themselves in the product.

Rath: I’ve got to say, I was looking at the pictures of them, and they’re pretty adorable. So when a kid lays their head down, they’re sort of wearing the crown, right?

Josh: Exactly. Or, if the pillow is on the wall, they can actually see themselves as regal and as royalty. So it strikes more confidence and just affirms and inspires the kid as well.

Rath: That’s brilliant. I’m a bit more curious to hear more about what that experience was like because I have young kids, and I remember what the times were like in 2020; it was an intense period of time. What was it like to go to that first protest?

Isis: It was exciting, but also I was a little nervous, but I knew the protest was for the better. Of course, at that time, I was wearing a mask because COVID was big then. But I was always happy to know that people were still not afraid to go out there and protest.

Rath: With this company, in this project with Little Regalia, you’ve had amazing success. Tell us about the road to get there. What was the hardest thing about it?

Isis: The road was bumpy. The hardest thing to get there was probably getting it into other companies. A few companies did not get back to us, but I know after hearing this, they might.

Josh: Hopefully. But once you hit the road head-to-head, I think it takes persistence to get some of the brick-and-mortar establishments. We did have success with a couple; [the bookstore] More Than Words was the first one, and so I think they’ll probably be the cosigner on that. That’s probably the most challenging part.

Rath: But you just kept at it.

Josh: Exactly. Persistence is key. And this is new for the both of us — definitely new for her. It’s her first business, so again, persistence is key. We marked these up on our iPad together three years ago and sat on the idea, and we’re now getting out there and bringing it to life. It’s been bumpy, but it’s been fun.

Rath: There’s also a part of this where the idea is to inspire other young creators to pursue this kind of dream. Both of you, talk a little bit about that.

Josh: Yeah. I think originally, we knew that this was kind of bigger than us. So whatever we do, whether it’s clothes or other manuscripts or books, we kind of want to give back. Whatever experience that we have, we want to make sure we lay the foundation for others to follow if they choose to, or to see what it took for us to kind of navigate this process, but ultimately to inspire other young people is the goal with Little Regalia.

Rath: Isis, we talked a little bit ago about the challenges of getting to success. Tell us about what it feels like to have this success. What’s been the best part of this for you?

Isis: The best part was probably how we got it on the iPad from 2-D to real life. It was exciting. There was a lot of unboxing and a lot of pillows. We had to get big bags.

Rath: Yeah, I mean, that’s amazing to see your idea go from two dimensions to actually getting it out of the box. That is super cool.

Isis: Thank you.

Rath: So, what do you think is up next?

Isis: I think we’re going to make more books. And I hope that there are going to be different types of pillows. We’re thinking of making the pillows different skin colors and making the pillows more diverse. I think we wanted to do the most underlooked and underrepresented colors first.