Helen E. Alexander's

Biography

"Helen Alexander is a woman with a wild imagination. From the curves, dots and dashes that make up stenography, she came up with a line of plush toys that almost defy description."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, by H.M. Cauley, December 9, 2004.

Helen Eisemann during her doodling days (1939)

In 1939, at the Pierre Hotel in New York City, Helen Eisemann Alexander began designing a collection of doodlies now known as Squinkles ™. At age 18, Helen was a budding Broadway actress, taking a shorthand course in Manhattan, New York. Back in the Stone Age, when administrative assistants still wrote everything by hand, Helen studied shorthand as a backup to her acting aspirations. When she practiced the shorthand symbols, Helen began daydreaming and doodling.

Sample doodle that turned into a Squinkle

Those doodles turned into almost 100 fanciful loveable stuffed animals for adults and children called Squinkles™. Six decades later, after as many years of studying, including at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and acting on Broadway and in films and television under her stage name, Helen Eastman, and raising a big family, Helen has brought several of those drawings to life. Children love these sweet, huggable critters. The multi-limbed, big-lipped, bug-eyed creations come in a rainbow of colors. Adults enjoy their sassy attitudes and the poems included on the tag. And everyone is tickled by their fanciful names. 

Helen wants to remind you that every Squinkles™ comes with a special tag that includes a verse beautifully written by Oregon writer, J. Kenneth Brody.

 

 In December 2004, Helen and her husband,  Cecil Alexander, a retired Marine pilot and Atlanta architect, donated 600 toys to the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program.