Genna Rosenberg – Growing Up With Cabbage Patch Kids In The Toy Industry

Claudia Henock 0:06
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Your Most Precious Thing, the show that talks about the stories about items we hold near and dear to our hearts. I’m your host, Claudia Henock, and let’s meet our guest for this week.

Claudia Henock 0:21
Genna Rosenberg is an almost 30-year toy and licensing industry executive focused on the intersection of Social Impact and Consumer Products. She is the CEO of a global PR and marketing agency GennComm, and Chief Ideator at the Company’s licensing and product development think tank, GennComm ImaGENNation. With an intentional lens toward empowerment, diversity, inclusion and social responsibility, she has been a trusted thought leader and industry innovator. Both she and GennComm have been advisors and storytellers for many of the top entertainment and gaming studios in the world, including Paramount, SONY, NBCUniversal and The Jim Henson Company, American Greetings Entertainment, and hundreds of top beloved brands including Care Bears, Cabbage Patch Kids, Pokémon, Disney and Marvel brands, SpongeBob SquarePants, and countless more. She is on a mission to attract diverse talent from underserved communities into the Toy Industry through her Careers in Toys curriculum, and she actively mentors several young executives and students. In 2021 she was named by The Toy Association as an Official Genius of Play Ambassador, charged with sharing-out to the world the incredible benefits of play on society, and she has served in several capicities foe global non-profits, including Women in Toys, Licensing and Entertainment (WiT) and others.

Claudia Henock 1:49
Hi, Jenna, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Genna Rosenberg 1:53
I’m great Claudia, thank you so much for having me!

Claudia Henock 1:56
You’re welcome, and I’m excited to have you on. So to start, what would you say is your most precious thing?

Genna Rosenberg 2:04
Well, I think my most precious thing is my Cabbage Patch Kid collection from throughout my whole life, really. I love them so much.

Claudia Henock 2:16
That’s, that’s really awesome. Do you remember the first one you ever received when you were a kid?

Genna Rosenberg 2:21
I do. Her name’s Alma Bridget. And she has blonde braids. And she wears a real diaper. I got her when I was about eight years old. She was my first original Cabbage Patch Kid. And she’s so special to me. I actually keep her and my precious toy collection, right in front of my desk where I work. And I look at them every day.

Claudia Henock 2:47
That’s really awesome. Would you say that your first Cabbage Patch Kid was your introduction to the world of toys essentially?

Genna Rosenberg 2:56
I really think in a big way it was. The Barbie movie is coming out this week, and it’s going to be larger than life. And I definitely had Barbies growing up and loved them, but my Cabbage Patch Kid was really something very special for me. I adopted her, and raised my right hand, and then had her birth certificate. And it really seemed like something that I was responsible for nurturing. I remember I used to love to buy her different baby, like real baby clothes, and change her outfits all the time, and put real diapers on her, and ended up getting other ones. And then later in my career, I ended up doing public relations for some of the most classic, incredible brands in the whole world. And I was blown away when I had the opportunity to do that for Cabbage Patch Kids as well.

Claudia Henock 3:55
That just sounds really cool, like working for your dream company that produced the toys that you had since you’re a kid.

Genna Rosenberg 4:02
Yeah, it was amazing. Cabbage Patch Kids were created by Xavier Roberts, and around the 20th anniversary, and I think the 25th anniversary, and the 30th about 35th anniversary, a few different touch points. I actually was working with the company and got to plan on some really, really cool events with them and for them, and meet the founder.

Claudia Henock 4:26
What would you say was your most favorite event you’ve done with Cabbage Patch Kids?

Genna Rosenberg 4:31
Well, I think when we were celebrating either the 20th or the 25th, and I worked at a toy company called JAKKS Pacific, their play-along division did Cabbage Patch Kids. And we actually went, and it was a public company, and we rang the bell on NASDAQ. And we brought the Cabbage Patch Kids costume character with us to New York City to Time Square. And I think it was on the 20th and, then on the 25th, another cool thing was we had up birthday party for Cabbage Patch Kids at the Toys R Us in Times Square store with Xavier Roberts and with a very famous chef named Duff Goldman. And he had a show on the Food Network called the Ace of Cakes. And he made one of his famous Duff Goldman cakes of a Cabbage Patch. And we had a big party with 10s and 1000s of Cabbage Patch Kid fans who came for the birthday party.

Claudia Henock 5:30
I remember the Toys R Us being like super, super huge when it used to be back in Time Square. So I’m just imagining it really, really crowded because of the party with all the fans, the news media there just for this really cool event celebrating the doll.

Genna Rosenberg 5:44
Yeah, it was so cool, and they, you’re exactly right. They had this huge ferris wheel in the middle of the store. Each section of a ferris wheel was a different famous toy. And there was a bridge upstairs. And first, we did a press conference with a journalist named Elizabeth Warner and she did what’s called the satellite media tour, where she did live interviews with 30 different local TV stations nationwide. And she told them, “We’re here, we’re celebrating Cabbage Patch Kid’s birthday with Xavier Roberts and Duff Goldman.” And so we orchestrated a huge media event from there. And then we have big birthday party where there was this cake, and the cake looked like a giant Cabbage Patch Kid and it had firecracker sparklers, that were like shooting out of her hands as if they were the birthday candles. And it was pretty extravagant. It was awesome. I was actually pregnant with my first child, who’s my daughter, Leni, at the time. So I had a baby, a little Cabbage Patch in my belly. And I was telling Xaiver Roberts about how much I love his brand. And he actually gave me a little blondes Cabbage Patch Kid, and he signed the tushie for me because they have a signature on their tushies. And he signed one for my daughter that I still have right in my office as well. And that’s very special for me. And then years later, my daughter, when I still worked at that company, she had an opportunity to actually be one of the models on the Cabbage Patch Kid box too. All those years later, my favorite brand, my favorite toy, this doll that, you know, really did help instill my love of toys and wanting to go into the joy industry. And then my daughter is on the box.

Claudia Henock 7:37
It’s really cool that both you and your daughter have like this connection to the Cabbage Patch Kids. It seems like a really cool experience too. And then speaking of cool experiences, I forgot where it is exactly. But have you ever been to the Cabbage Patch Kids Nursery?

Genna Rosenberg 7:52
Yeah, it’s called BabyLand General Hospital in Georgia. And you know, I haven’t personally been, I really would love to go. But I have actually orchestrated events and different bloggers, because we did the public relations, that’s kind of my background is doing, you know, getting toys in the news. That’s what I do. And so I’ve done that for so many years. And at different times, I have done that for Cabbage Patch Kids, including sending people like different bloggers to BabyLand General Hospital. Another cool thing that I did with Cabbage Patch was, and I just like pinch myself at every turn, but they have the ability at the BabyLand General Hospital to, they’re all original, one-of-a-kind Cabbage Patch Kids, and they have the ability to make some that look like celebrities,

Claudia Henock 8:44
Oh my god.

Genna Rosenberg 8:44
And so there have been huge different, amazing experiences that I’ve had where we created original Cabbage Patch Kids that looked like famous people and then auction them off for charity, which really makes me happy, because I love to create opportunities for brands to give back to help other people. And so in one case, we made one that looked like Ellen DeGeneres and it was auctioned off for a lot of money. And then the company that bought the Ellen one, actually sent the Cabbage Patch Kid up to the moon.

Claudia Henock 8:45
Oh, oh dang!

Genna Rosenberg 9:23
Yeah, and then we made another one during the elect, the original election where Barack Obama was running for president against John McCain and Sarah Palin, and auctioned those off and we also did an Oprah one. So those were pretty fun to work on.

Claudia Henock 9:39
That’s gonna sound like a really fun project too, especially like auctioning it off, sending the proceeds to charity as well. Those sound like really, really cool things. So another question that I have is how did you get into this role of working within the toy industry? Because for a lot of people that sounds like a dream career for them.

Genna Rosenberg 10:00
Well, I’m so glad you asked that question. I, actually, my 10th grade English teacher, Mrs. Benjamin said to me, “Jenny, you should do public relations.” And I was probably about 15 years old. And I thought, okay, she saw something in me that told her that I would, you know, that she thought I would be good at that. And I was, I enjoyed writing. And I guess she felt that I had the ability to influence others and to, yeah, it’s a form of journalism to communicate and get the word out about things. And so she really set me on the path to study journalism and public relations.

Genna Rosenberg 10:37
But then my first job out of college, I kind of, one, I worked at a public relations and marketing agency. And one of my clients was actually what’s called a licensing agent. And a licensing agent works with different brands, like Cabbage Patch Kids or SpongeBob SquarePants, or Coca Cola or the, you know, New York Yankees, and helps make deals for different companies to make products based on those brands. And so my first job at this PR agency was actually working with these children’s preschool properties. And I keep all my toys around, and one of the preschool properties was called the Bananas in Pajamas, it was a very popular Australian preschool property. And we started doing PR on this licensing agent deals. And one of the deals was with this toy company. And then the toy company was called TOMY America. And they loved the job that we were doing so much, getting them in the news. And then they hired us to do their PR. And then another toy company hired us to do their PR. And then we went after we read about another toy company in the newspaper, and we went after them.

Genna Rosenberg 11:51
And so I started doing PR for all the toys to get the toys and the news and really started thinking about all the different ways that you can tell that story. So for example, if you’re talking about, you know, Cabbage Patch Kids, my most precious thing, then maybe you can talk about it from the standpoint of how Cabbage Patch Kids might teach children how to be more loving and nurturing. Or maybe you might want to tell the story from a business perspective, that they’ve sold 800 kajillion, Cabbage Patch Kids and you know, made billions of dollars this year. Or maybe you want to talk about it from a manufacturing standpoint, how do you actually, you know, make a billion different Cabbage Patch Kids and have every single one. So there’s lots of different ways they tell the stories. And so I really enjoyed that aspect of thinking about all the different types of media and how, what they might be interested in. So anyway, that’s kind of how I got into it, I fell into it accidentally, but then I really loved it so much that I really made it my job to get good at it and understand the complexity then, and how the whole entire business works. And now I’m actually working on really storytelling about that for young people. I’m going to be teaching a class in the Fall at the college that I went to, the University of Maryland, and try to attract young people, the careers in the toy industry. It’s a very huge industry. It’s like 100 and $114 billion, globally. And it’s a $38 billion industry in the United States alone with 1000 companies where young people to get a job working in.

Claudia Henock 13:39
So I don’t know if you’re like under an NDA or anything about the college class, but can you tell me more about it, because I feel like the toy industry is a really, really big industry. But it’s kind of like one of those industries that a lot of people don’t think about when they’re like looking for careers. But it’s like a really big industry that’s not just like the traditional big company. There’s like small companies, too, that also produce toys and games and all sorts of stuff like that, too.

Genna Rosenberg 14:06
That’s right, Claudia. Well, the thing is, like I said, there’s 1000 companies that are members of the Toy Association, which is the industry association in the US alone. And my class, the first class I’m teaching is called Careers in the Toy Industry: Gender, Trends, and Social Impact. And the idea is that basically, whatever you love, whatever you’re good at, there’s a job doing it in the toy industry. And then also, if you can come at it with an intentional lens, it’s thinking about these things like diversity and inclusion, and looking at trends of what’s going on in the world. And also, for a social impact perspective, literally can change the entire world through the work that you do in the toy industry.

Genna Rosenberg 14:59
And so So what most people don’t realize is, first of all, almost everyone I know who works in the jewelry industry just fell into it accidental. Truly, unless you inherited it as a family business, most people just, if you ask them how did you get into it, they just fell into it. But if we can meet with intention, and we can attract young people, especially from diverse communities, and underserved communities, we really can set people into careers that would give them a livelihood that they would really enjoy, and a livelihood where they can really make a difference, and also create the future workforce of the industry to fulfill a need because we need to attract young people and have diverse people at the table so that they bring in their own unique perspectives, especially to make sure that the toys that people play with represent all people. And so if we think about people who have special needs, people who have, you know, neurodiversity, people who are of different races and ethnicities, adults of all ages play with toys, you know, think about how young people playing with toys so that we’re not reinforcing antiquated stereotypes, you know, we really can improve the functionality of them, and the impact that we can make with that. So if you love action figures, or you love fashion, or you love pop culture, or maybe you don’t like any of those things, but maybe you’re really good at science, or math or accounting, or you want to be a lawyer, or a project manager, basically, whatever you’re good at, you can use those transferable skills for a job in the toy industry.

Claudia Henock 16:45
That’s definitely really amazing and really inspiring to hear as well, because it’s always important to essentially give everyone an opportunity to be in this really, really cool industry, in speaking of unique opportunities, other than the Cabbage Patch Kids, is there like a dream toy, or like a dream game that you would love to work with in the future that you haven’t worked with yet?

Genna Rosenberg 17:09
I’m sure there is. But I’m actually working on one of my favorite things right now, a new project, which is, one of my very favorite things to do is to sing, I love to sing. Actually one of my, also one of my favorite properties from when I was a kid was a book and then a play called Really Rosie by Carole King, and it was about kids who created a band. But I’ve always loved to sing and I love karaoke, and one of my new clients is called The Singing Machine Company. They’re the world leader in karaoke products. And I’m doing some very special work with them. I have created a social impact division with them, called CARE-EOKE, c-a-r-e, karaoke. That’s all around helping people through karaoke, and bringing joy through music. And there’s so much science that really talks about the mental health benefits and the physical health benefits that are there for people, whether you’re talking about people who feel lonely and isolated, or shy, or who have real physical health issues for seniors, who have healthy brains, for seniors who have Alzheimer’s or Dementia, for folks with autism. So I’m working with all of these different amazing groups of people and children, and then hospitals, and bringing karaoke to them and different programs, and really bringing them a lot of joy. So this is really exciting new initiative that I’m working at.

Claudia Henock 18:49
That’s awesome. And it’s always important to just bring that, just that little bit of joy into people’s lives too. Because sometimes it might be the best thing that can make them feel better, too. So that’s really cool that you’re doing that.

Genna Rosenberg 19:02
Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, The Singing Machine Company is really amazing. What’s one of your favorite toy growing up?

Claudia Henock 19:12
Oh, god, that’s actually a good question.

Genna Rosenberg 19:15
What did you like to play with when you were a kid?

Claudia Henock 19:18
I’m like digging into like my brain a little bit. Easy! In my family. I was more of like doll person. So I have the Barbies and the Bratz dolls. One of the most clear memories I had was for my school we had to create dioramas for like a book we had to read over summer. And so what I did was I incorporated some my Bratz dolls into a little display that I included, but the sad thing was I didn’t realize that I couldn’t have my project on display, like they actually give it back to me as as soon as they graded it, because they didn’t want people stealing the dolls off the display so I was more of like a Bratz and like Barbie doll type person. I had like the little blue car and everything that had like a radio that was working.

Genna Rosenberg 20:03
I love it. That’s so great! Creative play!

Claudia Henock 20:06
Yeah. And I could also say that it’s also important to like, use your imagination. And that’s can also be something that definitely came up with playing with the Cabbage Patch Kids too, because even though you’re still playing pretend as like the mom learning how to nurture and care if your Cabbage Patch Kid, which are definitely lessons that we can still bring to kids today with learning to care for others, learning responsibility.

Genna Rosenberg 20:31
It’s definitely very well thought out, all the different benefits that kids would get from it, and it was also kind of my first exposure to collecting, having something that had a preceived value and a real value, and something that was sort of a limited edition. Something’s very precious that was mine, you know, that was really seem like something very especially special.

Claudia Henock 21:04
So in regards to that, how many Cabbage Patch Kids Do you currently have in your collection?

Genna Rosenberg 21:09
I have five. So I have two originals. I am the one that Xavier Roberts signed for my daughter. I have one in the box that she’s on the box. And I have one in the box from the 25th anniversary of when the special limited edition 25th anniversary one. Another cool evolution of something I worked on Cabbage Patch was when they came out one, with one with technology inside. So they had come out with the one that had electronic eyes and sensors that, you know, reacted back to the kids like a real life Cabbage Patch Kid.

Claudia Henock 21:53
I would need to see the doll myself because I’m so used to the traditional, regular like stuffed cloth dolls, I would have to see the electronic version of a doll myself.

Genna Rosenberg 22:02
I like the original ones better myself too (laughs).

Claudia Henock 22:05
Your’re good, when you mentioned that, the first thing that came up was the new electronic Furbies with the LED eyes. I don’t know if the technology is more like a current theme when it comes to toys nowadays,

Genna Rosenberg 22:18
Sure, yeah, well, you know, kids today, they want maybe a little more bells and whistles. But there’s definitely benefits to keeping with the classics too.

Claudia Henock 22:29
Definitely there’s nothing wrong with like just the classic imagination, and just play pretend because sometimes that’s all you really need.

Genna Rosenberg 22:37
That’s right. Yeah, it’s very important to teach kids, back to basics and unplugging.

Claudia Henock 22:44
So Genna, I want to say thank you, again for being a guest on my show today. And if my guests want to know or learn more about you, where can they find you online?

Genna Rosenberg 22:53
They can find me on LinkedIn, they can follow me on there, I tried to share a lot of cool ideas, especially about the toy industry, and about social impact, about classic brands. And I think that’s really the best place to find me.

Claudia Henock 23:10
Awesome. I’ll put a link to your LinkedIn in the show notes as well. Genna, I want to say thank you again for being a guest on my show today. You were a pleasure to speak to. It was really awesome learning more about the toy industry, and learning more about your love of Cabbage Patch Kids from you as well. And you were an absolute pleasure to be on my show.

Genna Rosenberg 23:28
So much Claudia. I loved it, it’s really so much fun talking about my most precious thing. So thank you for the opportunity.

Claudia Henock 23:37
You’re welcome, and definitely have an awesome night. Okay.

Genna Rosenberg 23:41
Thanks, you too. Thanks. Thanks, everyone for listening.

Claudia Henock 23:44
Alrightly, and have a good night everyone.

Claudia Henock 23:48
Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Most Precious Thing. If you want to support the show, you can leave a review on your favorite podcast platform and share your favorite episode with a friend. You can also contact me @claudiahenock on Instagram and Twitter, and Claudia Henock on LinkedIn. In addition, you can also contact me at claudiahenock1@gmail.com. You can also follow Your Most Precious Thing through my official website, www.claudiahenock.com, and anywhere where you listen to your podcasts. Intro and Outro music is Synapse by Shane Ivers and you can also listen to his music on silvermansound.com.