Making Bath Time Lots of Fun

Move over, Rubber Duckie – there’s a new favorite bath toy in town!

By Emily Daniels

To say 2020 has been a difficult year would be a major understatement. What started as a new decade of hope and promise for many changed in an instant, as a pandemic loomed over the world like one giant raincloud. Families were forced to isolate, schools were closed, events and travel were banned and longtime businesses were forced to find new ways to operate or close their doors for good. But “sunny days are sweeping the (COVID-19) clouds away” for one small Mississippi business.

Starkville-based company Glo® far exceeded its Christmas 2019 sale numbers – which had already been a record-high – this past Easter, due to their hot-selling product Glo Pals®. Oh, and they also recently secured a partnership with your favorite children’s show, “Sesame Street.”

But first, a little backstory.

Glo was established in 2015 by then-students Kaylie Mitchell and (current CEO) Hagan Walker through the MSU Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach (E-Center). Initially created as a class project, Glo Cubes – liquid activated, light up drink cubes – became an instant hit with bartenders and partygoers alike. Alumna Anna Barker joined their team as Vice President of Business Development in 2017, and soon they expanded their reach to glowing bath bombs and light up sensory bath toys – Glo Pals.

Glo Pals were inspired by a child with autism who was terrified of taking baths. The child’s mother had received a Glo cube in a drink at a restaurant. As she gazed at the twinkling light in her glass, she thought of her son, who was severely autistic and terrified of water. Nightly bath routines had become a real struggle in their household, as they had tried nearly everything to overcome his fear. When she returned home, she had the idea to toss a Glo cube in the bath water, and as she did, the entire tub lit up with bright, vibrant colors. Her son was instantly mesmerized and turned his focus to this new magical “bath toy.” It was the first time in weeks that her son had taken a bath without crying.

The mother, a California resident with no ties to MSU or Mississippi, researched the Glo company to tell them how much their product meant to her family. After hearing her story, the team quickly realized that maybe their tiny, sparkling party cubes could have a much bigger presence than they had first imagined.

“We learned that for a lot of children and adolescents who are on the autism spectrum or have sensory processing disorder, baths can be a real nightmare. They’re confined to a small space, it’s loud, [water’s] touching them all over, and it creates a sensory overload which can lead them to panic,” Barker explains. “Children love light, and research has shown that children on the spectrum can be especially attracted to light sources. Glo only works in the water, and because it must be in the water to play with it, it creates a redirection of their senses. They begin to associate an activity such as taking a bath as a positive experience.”

The Glo team got together to brainstorm ways to package a product geared toward an entirely different market – children. Barker led the efforts, sketching a couple of ideas on the back of a piece of paper.

“I drew these little characters who could each have a different personality, color and backstory, and they could represent the individuality of almost every kid!” she shares.

The first four they designed were Pippa, who glows green; Alex, who glows yellow; Lumi, who glows purple and Sammy, who glows red. Each of their first initials spells out “PALS.”

The team introduced Glo Pals at market in January 2018 and started shipping in March of the same year.

“In the first half of 2018, we picked up 400 retailers across the United States and Canada,” says Walker. “By the end of that year, we had picked up 600 more. We now have 17 employees in a much larger building [The Rex Theater in Downtown Starkville], but back then we had a small team of three full-timers and five part-timers who were working overtime to keep up. Things got so busy during Christmas that we had family and friends sitting on the floor packaging boxes because we were out of space!”

Image courtesy of Glo

Glo Pals are sold by retailers such as Nordstrom, Ulta, Macy’s, Urban Outfitters, Learning Express, Uncommon Goods, Kaplan Early Learning and Target online. Additionally, they are available for purchase at nearly 1,200 small retailers across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Six months after launching the first four “Pals,” Glo released a blue Pal, Blair, named after the Blair. E. Batson Children’s Hospital, to raise money to support the 150,000 children who are treated there each year. Now, a portion of the proceeds from each Glo Pal purchase is donated directly to Batson Children’s Hospital and Children’s of Mississippi. Patients come to the pediatric center from all of Mississippi’s 82 counties to receive comprehensive medical care for everything from common or chronic childhood illnesses to serious or life-threatening trauma.

“After our first year of sales, we were able to donate $10,000 to Children’s of Mississippi and Batson, and we were able to double our donation in the second year!” exclaims Barker. “We looked at other organizations that are all, of course, very worthy, but the partnerships with the children’s hospitals in Mississippi really aligned with us. Hagan and I were both planning to go out of state for jobs after graduation, but we decided to stay, in part to try to play a small part in the startup culture that the E-Center has created in Mississippi. It only made sense to us to first show our commitment to the well-being and the health of the children of Mississippi – our future.”

In October 2019, while showcasing the Glo Pals at the Dallas Toy Fair, they hit it off with the Senior Director of Licensing for Sesame Street, who was so impressed by their luminescent sensory toy that she requested they meet with her team to discuss a possible partnership.

“When we met in Dallas, I was discussing how autism research had influenced our decision to produce the Glo Pals,” recalls Barker. “We met with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street in New York, where they told us about Julia, a Muppet they introduced a few years ago, who is autistic. They’ve been very protective of licensing her to anyone because of what she represents. With Julia, they didn’t want to throw that license out to just anyone because they wanted to know that it was being handled with the kind of care and consideration she needs.”

When they got back to Starkville, the Glo team continued having calls with the Sesame Workshop representatives to discuss different projections and Glo Pal mockups. Before New Year’s Eve they had secured a deal, and the contract arrived the first week of January 2020.

Sesame Street gave Glo its blessing to release Julia and her friend Elmo first and eventually release an entire line of Muppet character “Pals.” The anticipated launch date is in January 2021.

“What’s so cool about Sesame Street is that it can take a topic like autism that is incredibly complex, and often difficult for adults to understand, and break it down to this very rudimentary level that a child can comprehend,” says Barker. “We’re really excited to bring all these characters that people have loved for decades into the Glo Pal world. To merge a young company like ours with Sesame Street, which has such a global presence, is an amazing opportunity, and I don’t think we could be where we are today without the support of the Starkville community and the MSU Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach, who have been cheering us on every step of the way.”

In early March, Anna Barker and Hagan Walker (second and third from left) made a contribution to Children’s of Mississippi and Batson Children’s Hospital from proceeds of Glo’s second-year sales, doubling what they were able to give the first year.

Photo courtesy of Glo