A Brand of
Quirkiness Local Mother-Daughter Duo
Create Whimsical Styles for Children
10 September 2017 washingtonFAMILY.com



TEXT: Beth Roessner
I t was a partnership that accidentally
happened. A business partnership morphed
out of the mother-daughter relationship of
Lisa and Jamie Thompson.

With combined skills in graphic and textile
design, and daughter Jamie’s desire to have more
freedom from her corporate design job, the two
created online children’s retailer Oh Bessie.

With patterned animals, cute sayings and bold
colors, the Oh Bessie products are both quirky
and whimsical. Technicolor stars and hearts,
abstract animals and romantic sayings like “I love
your guts,” are just a few of the designs the team
has conjured up. There are onesies for wee babies,
and shirts for toddlers. They also have a selection
of brightly colored growth charts and stationery.

“We like to be cheeky and not take things too
seriously,” said Jamie, who does most of the
design work. “I try to put patterns in all of my
designs.” Jamie, the youngest of Lisa’s four children, also
likes her designs to challenge the norm.

“I love finding undertones of weirdness in
things,” she said. “Why does a monkey, that’s
going to be displayed in a baby’s room, have to
have the same size eyes? Why does everything
always have to be so perfect?”
The monkeys sure enough have different sized
eyes. The zebras’ stripes have triangles, too. And
the octopus says, “I want to hold your hands.”
The name itself came from Jamie’s brand of
quirkiness. The mascot is Bessie the Cow, but
Jamie has no recollection of ever petting a cow let
alone being close to one in her lifetime. But, as an
adolescent, she did used to call out “Oh, Bessie!”
as a phrase of consternation or excitement. Lisa
remembers this phase, and naming the business
after that seemed perfect.

Both Lisa and Jamie juggle other work
commitments in addition to running Oh Bessie.

But starting up their own business, and seeing the
products from conception to completion has been
a great learning experience.

Being both on the creative side, they had to
receive on-the-job training in skills like marketing
Quirkiness | Page 12
washingtonFAMILY.com September 2017 11