About Us
About Us — Ethel & Ivy
Ethel and Ivy are based on real women.
They were sisters, born in the 1920s, and they were the kind of people who made every room warmer just by being in it. Generous, funny, and deeply loving, they understood, without ever having to say it, that the people in front of them mattered. My grandmother, the inspiration for Ethel, was one of the most important people in my life. What she gave me was the feeling of being completely seen, completely safe, and completely free to be whoever I was becoming.
I named this store after her. And after her sister, the inspiration for Ivy. Because that feeling is exactly what I'm trying to give to every child who receives a gift from here.
Why This Store Exists
I have a BFA in Acting. For ten years, I ran a children's theater; writing plays, directing young performers, watching kids discover something essential about themselves in the process of becoming someone else.
What I saw, repeatedly, was this: when a child puts on a costume and steps into a character, something opens up. They transform. They learn. They grow into parts of themselves they didn't know were there yet. They develop empathy, by inhabiting a perspective that isn't their own. They learn to collaborate, to listen, to take up space, and to yield it. They create experiences for themselves and others.
This is what theater participation gives children. And it turns out; it's also what imaginative, open-ended, you-decide kind of play gives children.
That understanding is the lens I use to choose every single product at Ethel & Ivy.
Not just: is this well-made? Though it must be. Not just: is this beautiful? Though it should be. But: does this give a child space to transform, to discover, to learn, to become?
What I Want for Every Child Who Opens One of These Gifts
I want them to feel the thing my grandmother made me feel.
Seen. Encouraged. Free.
I want them to have experiences that build confidence quietly, without them even noticing. Moments that are entirely theirs. Stories they create themselves, with outcomes only they decide. I want them to develop empathy through play the way I watched hundreds of young performers develop it through theater — by trying on lives and feelings and perspectives and finding, every time, that they mattered.
Childhood is precious. It moves faster than anyone warns you it will. What I want —what this entire store is built around — is giving children as much space, encouragement, and support as possible to simply be, during the one time in their lives when being is the whole job
How I Work
Every product at Ethel & Ivy is hand-selected by me. I work directly with brands, attend industry events, and get my hands on products before they ever appear on this site. After nearly twenty years as a marketing executive, including as a Chief Marketing Officer, I know how to evaluate what's real and what's just well-packaged. I choose carefully. I'd rather carry fewer things that mean something than more things that don't.
If you have questions, want to suggest a product, or want to schedule a virtual personal shopping session, I'd genuinely love to hear from you.
Yours in play, Christina
Founder, Ethel & Ivy
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Ethel & Ivy is named in loving memory of my grandmother and great-aunt, two women who knew, instinctively, how to make a child feel like the most important person in the room.
Ethel & Ivy is committed to honoring and preserving the magic and necessity of play for children. We champion screen-free play as a vital complement to other ways children develop, grow, and learn.
Ethel & Ivy is committed to honoring and preserving the magic and necessity of play for children. We champion screen-free play as a vital complement to other ways children develop, grow, and learn.