Millburn-Short Hills Magazine May 2018 | Page 40

Q & A Little humans help create idea Maplewood entrepreneur Gabriela Anggono creates beautifully designed children’s bedding to capture perfect photos INTERVIEW BY LAURA ADAMS STIANSEN WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND? Before starting Rookie Humans, I worked in marketing and advertising for 10 years. I worked on a wide range of categories, such as automotive, packaged goods, video games, and retail. My experience building other brands inspired me to apply those skills to build my own brand. WHAT LED YOU TO CREATE ROOKIE HUMANS? I put my career on hold when my first baby was born, and became a stay-at-home mom. As exhausting and overwhelming as those baby days can be, I remember feeling completely enamored at the sight of my babies sleeping. I took so many pictures of them sleeping in the crib that one day I realized that their crib sheets had become backdrops to a lot of wonderful memories. I set out to reimagine their sheets as whimsical backdrops that surround them with magical stories. Rookie Humans was 100 percent inspired by my experience as a new mom and the love I felt for my babies. I feel very privileged to be able to bring a little dose of whimsy and imagination to families around the world. > 38 MAY 2018 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE NAME Gabriela Anggono OCCUPATION Creator of Rookie Humans, a line of whimsical crib sheets AGE 38 RESIDES Maplewood GREW UP Montevideo, Uruguay and Porto Alegre, Brazil; moved to the United States when she was 17. CHILDREN Nicolas, 5 Matteo, 2 FAMILY FIRST Like many parents, Gabriela Anggono takes a lot of photos of her children, especially when they were sleeping babies. She realized their crib sheets were the background for many of her photographs, so she created Rookie Humans, a line of whimsical sheets used to inspire the imagination and capture beautiful pictures. PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY; big a