Many siblings spend more time arguing than working together. Take us for example. This article is our first real attempt at a productive collaboration, and let’s be honest, it has not all been smooth sailing! The Kempe siblings are different. New to our St. Robert school community this year, Alexia, 3rd grade, and Seth Kempe, 5th grade, have worked together to take their cool idea and turn it into a brilliant business! They started their company, Hoodiepet™, two years ago when they were just seven and nine years old.

HoodiePet™ is an extremely soft and plush hoodie that has a stuffed animal attached  to the pocket with Velcro. Kids can take the stuffed  animals on and off and interchange them for a variety of different animals, each with their own biography and personality on the HoodiePet™ website. The stuffed animal can also be a finger puppet. Kids don’t have to worry about lugging around their stuffed animals anymore; they can just conveniently attach them to their hoodies!

The Kempes first came up with the idea at home. They were sharing a blanket with their sister Alba, who is now in K4, when they noticed how annoying it was when they had to move. The kids decided to make a hoodie out of the same material as the blanket and attach a stuffed animal to it. Their mother sewed the first HoodiePet™. When Alexia wore it to school for the first time, her friends immediately wanted some for themselves. The HoodiePet™ was so popular that they decided to make it a business with their parents’ help.

Soon, the business started to get a lot of attention and grew. The Kempes were invited to be interviewed on the Steve Harvey show in Chicago. They only had one day notice! More than a million people around the nation watched them talk about their product. Seth and Alexia were both very nervous to be on national television, but the attention felt good and their appearance on the show paid off. After the show, sales of the HoodiePet™ boomed. They were also featured on WTMJ-4 in Milwaukee. Last year, Seth and Alexia won the Tagie Award for Young Inventor of the Year. The Tagie is a prestigious award for toy and game inventors. This was a big achievement for Alexia, Seth, and the business.

All this success hasn’t come easy though. The Kempes have all worked extra hard on the business. Alexia designs all of the HoodiePets™, Seth tracks orders and runs the very professional, well designed website, and their parents provide lots of support. Seth said that he sometimes works four to five hours a week for the business and often doesn’t have much free time! Both of them agree that it can be hard to run a business and also go to school at the same time.

By going to their website, you can find out more information, as well as create, order, and play with your HoodiePet™. They are also sold at the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and Winkies. You will also be able to find a link to HoodiePets™ on the St. Robert School website.  Just go to the Current Parents tab, click on “Help By Shopping” and look for the HoodiePets™ link.  15% of every HoodiePet™ sold from this link will be donated directly to St. Robert School.

More products are on the way for HoodiePets™, but the Kempes’ lips are sealed!

All this success at such a young age might go to some people’s heads. But the Kempes are very calm and humble about their business. “It feels good, but I don’t really need this much attention,” Seth said. They have already accomplished so much as a business and as people. What does the future hold for them?

We can definitely learn from Seth and Alexia on how to collaborate as siblings. The two of us struggled to write this little article, so the fact that they created a whole business together is beyond us!