Lisa Frank Inc
Do you know what it feels like for a girl?
Undeniably influential to the stationery heritage of tween millennials, it’s Lisa Frank.
Extremely abbreviated timeline of Lisa Frank Inc
1979 - Lisa Frank Inc. forms.
1996 - Mila Kunis is in a Lisa Frank commercial.
1996 - 2013 - Lisa Frank Factory opens in Tucson, Arizonia1, then closes. Here is a short video of the lobby after it closed.
2022 April - Documentary producers sought ex-employees in the Tucson subreddit.
2024 December - Amazon Prime releases Glitter & Greed: The Lisa Frank Story. Lisa Frank’s ex-husband and one of her sons start posting videos on TikTok at LisaFrankExposed. As of January. that account has been deleted, but you can still see clips in stitches (TikTok reply videos) and parodies.
TL;DR
It’s the usual story - ego, fame, fortune, legal battles. I have never consumed a story about any corporation that hasn’t made me think “Damn, these employees should unionize!” I can only imagine what we learn in the future about the corporations of today.
Currently, you can peruse the most recent product lines at the official LF website, follow the official LF social media accounts, or search for vintage products on places like Etsy. I still love rainbows, but I don’t actively miss the LF products I had or particularly want new ones. I would like to visit the factory if it reopened!
References
Atlas Obscura - Lisa Frank Factory
Reddit - Lisa Frank Ex-Employees?
TikTok - LisaFrankExposed (deactivated)
Wikipedia - Lisa Frank Incorporated
P.S.
Apparently, January 13th is national sticker day? Look out for that on Monday, maybe we will see some sales. Pipsticks + Martina's Tiny Store ran a sticker giveaway.
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Not a typo, that’s how we say it now
LISA FRANK!!!!!!!
Equally undeniably influential on Gen X elementary students, I still recall the thrill of what looking at those designs felt like, especially when Target opened near my home in LA in the early mid 80s and they had a whole aisle just for stickers, many of them Lisa Frank! 🌈x1,000