How We Got Started

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or, in our case, thousands of words. Because these pictures, and the reaction they capture to a letter from Bumblefee, one of our tooth fairies, show why we want to write them.

But first some history.

Letters from a Tooth Fairy was conceived by Kaci Bower after her daughter (pictured above) lost her first tooth at school. With only hours to go before morning rolled around -- and with it an expectation of money and a note from "The Tooth Fairy" -- Kaci knew she had to put something together.

Unfortunately, after a long day of doing other things and thinking about other things, she was creatively sapped. And it showed. The note she wrote was lame and forgettable. "Thank you for your tooth. It's so white and shiny. I can see you take good care of your teeth. I can't wait to visit you again soon. Love, The Tooth Fairy"

The dullness of her note depressed her, especially since a visit from the tooth fairy seemed like a perfect opportunity to have some fun. 

And so she turned to her father, Arland, for help. Arland had introduced her youngest sister to a tooth fairy, Rumfumlnanzidargo, some 20 years ago. She learned that Rumfumlnanzidargo had retired, but her protegee, Bumblefee, was on duty.  And, as luck would have it, Bumblefee had been assigned to Gia’s case. 

Bumblefee, our first tooth fairy to write a letter

Bumblefee, who'd only recently completed the tooth fairy training program at The Tooth Fairy Company, had never had a solo mission before; this was to be her first. She was beyond excited -- tweeting, posting, and pinning all about her preparations leading up to the big day.

Alas, when the big day came, it didn’t go quite as planned. Not at all, in fact. To put it bluntly, she messed up big time. Traditional standard operating procedures for tooth fairies dictate that a tooth fairy fly the shortest route to a child’s house, make no pit stops along the way, procure the tooth without any fanfare, leave the full amount of ToothLoot in place with a standard boilerplate letter, arrive and depart quickly and quietly, and, under no circumstances, make more than one visit per tooth per child. Not adhering to these guidelines creates inefficiencies, threatens the long-term financial viability of a tooth fairy operation, and is grounds for termination.  

Well, Bumblefee didn’t follow any of these rules. Nope, not a one. En route to Gia's house to collect and cash out her tooth, she took a detour to fly over a donut shop. Unable to resist the smell, Bumblefee stopped to buy one, spending most of the dollar – the one earmarked to pay for Gia’s tooth – on a frosted donut with sprinkles.

Too late to return to The Tooth Fairy Company to get more ToothLoot, she made a bold decision to do what no other tooth fairy had ever done before: she scrapped the boilerplate copy and wrote a letter in her own words to explain why she hadn't left a full dollar for the tooth. Anticipating a negative reaction, she also reassured Gia that she would be back the next night with the remaining change.

When Gia awoke the next morning and read the note from Bumblefee, she was thrilled to find out that Bumblefee would visit again so soon. The fact that she didn't get all her ToothLoot upfront didn't faze her in the least. Bumblefee was astounded. This little girl not only didn't mind the unexpected twist, but actually seemed to prefer it.

With this newfound knowledge, Bumblefee decided to go all in and make a game of it. Over the next three nights she took three more trips back to Gia’s house to hide more letters and quarters around her bedroom. Gia loved the extended encounters, loved her part in them, and, most of all, loved Bumblefee, her donut-loving, poor speller of a tooth fairy.

And that's how Letters from a Tooth Fairy came to be

Seeing how completely taken Gia was with her tooth fairy and the visit -- and realizing how much fun she and her husband had when Gia crashed into their room every morning with a new letter to read -- Kaci started thinking about how she could create these experiences for other families.

She particularly felt inspired to do so when a good friend mentioned that their son's tooth had fallen out. But after a long day at work, they also had no time or creative energy to do anything but put a $10 bill under his pillow with a quickly written generic tooth fairy note. They talked about how a major milestone of childhood had been reduced to a tiny marker, one that would be easily overlooked when recalling this period of their son's life. 

It's moments like those for which we created Letters from a Tooth Fairy. Our desire is to help you take advantage of opportunities to play "make believe" with your kids, and, in doing so, make memories that you can fondly recall for years to come.

Let our tooth fairies get you started. Your kids will take it from there.

Our name

We chose the name of our company - and ultimately the business model -- based on the available domain name. That might sound backwards, but, ironically, doing this is what positioned us to move forward.

When Kaci started looking for a domain name, she couldn't find anything fitting or affordable with "the tooth fairy" in it. She changed the article to "a", as in "a tooth fairy." And that's when it all came together in her mind. "Letters from A tooth fairy" could be so much better than just "letters from THE tooth fairy." More fairies meant more quirks, drama, and hilarity. More fairies also meant she could think about all of them -- herself, her father, and the fairies -- working together at this company. Was this totally ridiculous? Absolutely. Would it work? That's to be seen. But would it be fun and rewarding to try? Without a doubt.

One last thing

Not counting tooth fairies, the company is small. Just Kaci and her father. But a huge group of people offered support along the way in various capacities. For that, we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.