Alumna applies innovative ideas to

Alumni

Whitney Brown Novak ’90 poses in front of Kazoo Toys’ well-stocked shelves.

Alumna applies innovative ideas to old-fashioned toy store

By Khette Plyler, Director of Alumni Relations and Assistant Director of The Trinity Fund At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while many of us were sheltering in place, overseeing our children’s virtual learning, and trying to combat anxiety and boredom, Trinity alumna Whitney Brown Novak ’90 and her husband, Joe, were literally bringing the fun! As the world around us changed, these small business owners of Kazoo Toys on Roswell Road in Atlanta quickly adapted their normal way of doing business, and Whitney attributes the foundation of her creative adaptability to her time at Trinity.

Whitney began her journey at Trinity at age two (for several years, beginning in 1979, the School had a two-year-old program) and stayed through the Sixth Grade. Most of her childhood memories take place inside the halls of Trinity’s former campus, where Atlanta Girls’ School resides today. Pinhole cameras, moving upstairs for Second Grade, Wagon Train, and making a chariot for

the Fifth Grade Olympics are some of Whitney’s most beloved memories, but it was in math class that she experienced her favorite “aha!” moments.

After graduating from Trinity, she attended The Westminster Schools, then Duke University. Initially wanting to work in robotics, Whitney began her college career studying electrical engineering. After a “boring summer internship,” she shifted directions and went into business instead. Her first job was a management training program focused on logistics; she loved the combination of math and problem solving.

With the discovery that business was about “finding a problem and solving it better than your competitor,” Whitney knew that she wanted to learn more. She enrolled at UCLA to pursue her Master of Business Administration. At this point, she knew that she wanted to own her own business one day, she just didn’t know what type. In the meantime, Whitney married and moved back to Atlanta while working for a franchisor, Mathnasium, in operations and business development. This opportunity afforded her the ability to learn the ins and outs of being a small business owner without any of the risk associated with it.

When Whitney and Joe decided to start a family, they were both ready for a career change. He had lots of experience in the toy industry, and she was ready to start her own business.

“With a baby on the way, and what appeared to us as a dearth in the Atlanta market for high-quality toys, we put the pieces together and decided a retail toy store was the answer,” she says. Keeping in mind the idea of an “oldfashioned” toy store, where kids can experience the fun and awe of toys, Kazoo Toys was born in 2012.

Being a business owner comes with some big benefits and some challenges. “When you own your own business, you are always on; your brain never really shuts off from thinking about it,” Whitney says. “When you work for a larger organization, you frequently take for granted that there is someone to call if you run into problems. In a small business, that someone is you.” Despite the challenges of always being on call, Whitney loves the flexibility and full autonomy over her work that owning her own business provides. Whitney and Joe like to give their staff input on products to sell and ways to make the business run smoother; with staff buy-in and care, they feel they can all better serve their customers.

Like most business owners, the biggest challenge Kazoo Toys has ever faced resulted from the pandemic. When the shelter-in-place order was first announced, they immediately went into problem-solving mode. First, they wrote to the mayor to explain how they too were an essential business and should not be required to close. “Birthdays were still going to happen, parents were going to need help occupying and entertaining kids, and we carry toys and games that can be used to support learning through all phases of childhood,” says Whitney. “The mayor agreed, and we received essential classification.”

While fighting to stay open as an essential business, they launched a subscription service. Based on children’s ages and interests and family budgets, Kazoo delivered a weekly wrapped surprise to families all over Atlanta through the end of the school year. The surprises gave families something to look forward to each week and to break up the monotony of being quarantined at home. That program was a big success.

Although most Atlantans are no longer required to shelter in place, many people are still hesitant to return to their previous shopping patterns, and families are not hosting large weekend birthday parties. So, Whitney continues to innovate. She and her team are working on making their inventory available online so that customers can shop with or without their assistance. They will also offer private shopping appointments outside of business hours for the holidays. “At this point, our goal is to continue to think creatively and serve our customers to help our whole society get through the pandemic,” she says. “We will grow our business back to where we were before the pandemic started, and beyond! We love our community, and we aren’t going anywhere. We will focus on making our business helpful and accessible to everyone, whatever their comfort level and ability to shop. Our goal is to seek out and offer the best educational and fun toys that will allow families to cherish childhood and cultivate a love of learning, just like Trinity’s basic tenets. And, when it’s safe to do so again, to offer a fun environment where kids can come and play and explore all of the fun Kazoo has to offer!”

Whitney says that her time at Trinity grew her confidence and allowed her to believe that she could accomplish anything she put her mind to. The School fostered her love for math, her sense of curiosity, and her ability to problem solve. Each of these characteristics, while honed throughout her career, first took root during her time at Trinity School and have led her down the path of business ownership. It is also Trinity’s special environment, where every child is encouraged to explore and flourish, that brought her back as a parent. Whitney’s daughter, Sierra, is a Third Grader at Trinity. “Sierra is a kind, empathetic, caring girl who loves art, reading, animals, and figuring out how things work,” says Whitney. “She has an imagination that never ceases to astound me and a constant curiosity about the world; natural qualities that are a perfect match for Trinity School and its ability to cultivate a love of learning and to cherish childhood every day.”