Photos: Kith + Kin Co
Entrepreneur Sarah O’Keefe creates an inclusive toy for young kids.
When Edina’s Sarah O’Keefe couldn’t find dollhouse figurines that represented her blended family, she didn’t just get frustrated—she got to work. What began as a challenge on behalf of her kids has blossomed into Kith + Kin Co., O’Keefe’s wooden-toy company that celebrates family diversity.
The journey started around 2017, when O’Keefe and her now-ex, Tony Nardi, were going through a divorce. Their children were young and attending play therapy. “I had noticed that both of my kids gravitated toward playing family with the dollhouse in the therapy sessions,” O’Keefe says. “I thought it was such a thoughtful thing to be doing at home, too.” She wanted to continue this therapeutic play but quickly discovered a problem: The dollhouse toy market offered limited family representations. “I just found the ‘nuclear family’ with a mom, dad, boy and girl. A white family,” she says. “I thought, ‘Well, wait a second. This just doesn’t work with modern families.’”
She wondered about families of all shapes and sizes not represented by traditional toy sets—adoptive and foster families; families where grandparents are primary caregivers; families with two moms or two dads; multiracial families; single-parent families; and so on. Determined to create change, O’Keefe embarked on what would turn out to be a complex technological journey.
Sarah O’Keefe
She envisioned an online shopping platform where her customers could customize each figurine for their family sets instead of purchasing a prepackaged group of dolls. She reached out to various tech firms to explore the possibilities and found it would be prohibitively expensive. So when one company offered to develop the technology pro bono, her dream suddenly seemed possible. “I knew that I had to move forward because I couldn’t pass up this opportunity,” O’Keefe says.
Next, she worked with illustrators to create layered digital illustrations that could then be printed onto wooden figurines. And her background as an interior designer influenced her vision for creating not just dolls but entire community settings. “I wanted the kids to set up their community, kind of like you set up a toy train table,” she says. (As of this writing, in addition to its people figurines, Kith + Kin Co. offers a bookstore, fire station, flower shop, ice cream shop, market and school in its Community Buildings line.) There are also nativity sets for families who celebrate Christmas.
After years of development, Kith + Kin Co. officially launched in December 2024. The wooden figurines are crafted from solid maple and printed in Minneapolis. But for O’Keefe, this is about more than just a business—it’s a mission of representation. “If you just look at all the studies out there, representation is about [what] makes a child feel included and seen and heard,” she says. “There’s the joy of a child saying, ‘This is me, and this is my family.’” Her family story continues to reflect the modern complexity she celebrates. O’Keefe and her ex-husband, Nardi, “… have a wonderful coparenting relationship,” she says. “We’re best friends.” She’s also now engaged to Jack Toal, who lives with her and her kids, Sam, 12, and Elsie, 11. “Everything is very modern and happy,” she says.
The response to Kith + Kin Co. has been validating, O’Keefe says. One happy customer is Liseli Radko, who owns Emery’s Playhouse children’s boutique in St. Paul. “We’re a vibrant melting pot,” Radko says of her family. She’s from Trinidad; her husband, Jacek Radko, is Polish. “Our little girl, Emery, 1, gets the best of both worlds,” Radko says. “I’ve purchased a few of the wooden dolls … I designed Jacek, myself, my mom and my sister. It’s been such a unique experience. Emery gets to see us represented in a fun way. Every morning, she rushes to her dollhouse, pulling out the dolls and excitedly saying, ‘Da,’ to the daddy figure. It’s such a special way for her to connect with our family.”
A Kith + Kin Co. dollhouse with customizable figurines comes in three distinctive designs: Cape Cod, Colonial and Tudor.
Looking ahead, O’Keefe plans to expand Kith + Kin Co.’s offerings. She’s working on adding more community buildings that offer a broader representation of where kids live and is also focused on creating figurines that show disabilities. “Because so many families are different today, they deserve to feel seen,” O’Keefe says. “That’s what I wanted to do with Kith + Kin; I wanted kids to have the opportunity to see themselves and their families and to bring them that joy.”
Kith + Kin Co.
Instagram: @kithkincompany
