Piecing Together the Friendship: Freshman Hattie Brooks and her mom grow close through their puzzle business

Whipped coffee, long walks and Netflix alike — lockdown activities got old for freshman Hattie Brooks and her mother Amy Brooks during the spring of 2020. They turned to puzzles to fill their time, but that too got old.

The mother-daughter duo soon realized it wasn’t the puzzles that were boring them, but the out-dated, bland designs. Instead of moving on to finishing a show, they decided to fix the problem themselves with creating their own puzzles.

Step one? Building a website.

For the most part, Hattie was in charge of the designs, while Amy began searching for potential artists and vendors for the girls to distribute their soon-to-be custom puzzles.

Step two? The name. 

They landed on “Pearl Puzzles” after debating numerous options. Pearl is Hattie’s middle name, making it personal to the soon-to-be business owners.

The vision for the business was to create puzzles with the designs of art from local KC artists. Whether it be one of Hattie’s former art teachers, illustrators from the heart of KC or glass blowers from Lenexa, they began to find artists willing to create the puzzle designs for them.

“We were hoping for a good relationship [with the artist] to grow their art business, while we grow our puzzle business,” Amy said.

Step three? Sales. 

After working with the artists, creating the box designs and producing the product, it was time to distribute.”Pearl Puzzles” have taken to the shelves at various locations around town including the Green Door, Brookside Toy and Science and Made in KC.

It was a priority for both Hattie and Amy to give the artists extensive credit for their work. The front of their box designs were typical, featuring images of the completed puzzle. The back of the box, however, is where things get interesting. 

On the back of each box is a mini biography of the artist. The artist gets most control over the back, and this has been one of their favorite parts of creating the business. 

“We get to meet a lot of new people, and see why they started their businesses, and why they do what they do,” Hattie said.

One artist that stuck out to them was Xaveir Gayden from Boxhead Arts. Gayden is not only writing a book that the Brooks’s got to learn about, but has an art fair where artists get to display their pieces. 

The two have become closer throughout the process. They’ve grown better at compromising throughout the process, as well as seeing what each other were good at, such as we design, communication, etc., and how they could improve the business.

“It brought a new dimension to our relationship,” Amy said.

They agreed it has added a professional aspect to their bond, as they have learned so much throughout the whole process. Neither of them had started a business before, so it has been a great learning process and created a stronger mother-daughter duo.