Julie Aigner-Clark

What if all it took to boost your baby’s brain was a Mozart track, a mirror, and a sock puppet?

Julie Aigner-Clark was a new mom in 1996 when she realized there were no baby videos that celebrated what she loved: art, classical music, and language.

So she borrowed $18,000, picked up a VHS camera.

Gathered some puppets, books, toys, and music.

And filmed a homemade video in her basement.

The result? Baby Einstein.

A video created for babies as young as 6 months.

Filled with classical music, poems, and simple, colorful visuals.

No dialogue. No loud cartoons. Just puppets, toys, and soft symphonies to create a peaceful sensory experience...

By 1998, revenue hit $1M.

By 2001, sales reached $20M.

And she was still running the company out of her home with five employees.

That same year, Disney acquired the Baby Einstein Company for a reported $25M.

Julie was only 35.

And she’d created one of the most successful infant media brands of all time.

Without ever stepping inside a studio.

One in three households with infants owned a Baby Einstein product.

And when Disney wanted to expand?

Julie developed the original treatment for a new preschool series.

It became “Little Einsteins,” a hit show on The Disney Channel.

But the journey wasn’t always smooth.

In 2006, a watchdog group filed a complaint with the FTC over Baby Einstein’s marketing claims.

Studies were emerging questioning the educational value of baby videos.

Some found they didn’t improve vocabulary, and might even delay language development.

By 2009, Disney began offering refunds.

The press framed it as a “fall from grace.”

Julie had already stepped away by then.

But still, she fought back.

She and her husband sued the researchers, demanded access to raw data, and eventually won a $175,000 settlement from the University of Washington.

Julie also co-founded The Safe Side, a company dedicated to child safety.

Partnering with “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh, she created videos to teach kids about stranger danger and online safety.

She and director Mark Burr won a Heartland Emmy for “The Safe Side: Stranger Safety” in 2005.

In 2004, Julie was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

She fought. She survived. She beat it not once, but twice.

And in 2010, she wrote “You Are The Best Medicine,” a children's picture book that helps parents explain cancer to their kids.

It was published by HarperCollins and became a source of comfort for countless families facing diagnosis.

In 2013, she launched a new company: BabyBytes, later renamed WeeSchool.

It was Baby Einstein, reinvented for the iPhone generation.

An app for new parents, with daily activities, milestone tracking, music, videos, eBooks, and more.

In 2019, she sold WeeSchool (now called ParentPal) to Teaching Strategies.

The company was later acquired by KKR.

Julie has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, and The New York Times.