Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Onionhead – For Children Who Need Help Expressing Their Feelings


This article highlights another product I learned about at A Time to Play Holiday Showcase in New York on October 1st. I had the pleasure of speaking with Lane Michel of Onionhead. This is a small company that specializes in “Teaching us what to do with what we feel.” The company has been around for fifteen years but their products have been marketed to psychologists and special education teachers and now they are beginning to market to the general public.


Onionhead is a line of products designed for children of all ages to help them identify and communicate about their feelings. The products include storybooks featuring a specific feeling, a set of magnets depicting the Onionhead character expressing a wide range of feelings and two Onionhead Feelings Dictionaries – for younger and older children. There also are greeting cards, a coloring book, and tee shirts. Onionhead received the 2009 Toy of the Year award from Creative Child magazine.

When you buy a product from Onionhead you can feel good all over. Their products are all made in the USA and they are proud of being ahead of all government regulations for safety and environmental standards. In addition they have an associated non-profit, Save the Rain, which teaches water deprived communities to catch and use the rain as a sustainable water supply. For every purchase of an Onionhead product, a certain percentage is donated to Save the Rain.

These products are not “toys” but if you know a child with issues about expressing their feelings, this is definitely a product line worth checking out. You won't find these products in stores but you can order them online at their website.

Onionhead website


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