18 Facts You Never Knew About the Mysterious Lisa Frank

By Nicole Yi

Who is Lisa Frank? We know and love the nostalgic cult brand of adorable animals and bright colors but not so much about the woman behind it all.

Turns out, neither does the rest of the world, really. The 61-year-old has stayed away from the limelight and hardly any photos of her can be found. Aside from exclusive interviews with Urban Outfitters in 2012 and Great Big Story, she's rarely given interviews to anyone else — and now, she's also met with Rachel Antonoff on POPSUGAR and Watchable's show, Knock Knock, in a special episode devoted to her.

Besides that, the information we were able to uncover has only made us more fascinated with the iconic brand-holder. Lisa, if you're reading this, we want to know more!

Check out 18 facts ahead.

  1. Lisa comes from a wealthy family in Bloomfield Hills, MI.
  2. She began painting in high school and sold $3,000 worth of work at her art show during senior year, including a painting to Lee Iacocca who was the president of Ford at the time.
  3. She started her company while attending the University of Arizona.
  4. She renamed the company to Lisa Frank in 1979 when she was 25.
  5. In the same year, Spencer Gifts put in her first million-dollar order.
  6. Her headquarters are located in Tucson, AZ.
  7. She rarely appears on camera or does interviews.
  8. The secret behind her privacy is that she's worried she won't live up to fans' expectations.
  9. She was a total "girlie-girl" and always colored when she was young.
  10. She calls herself "crazy" and a "lunatic."
  11. Her favorite characters are Hunter (the leopard cub) and Forest (the tiger cub), who were inspired by her two sons.
  12. She names and bases her characters off of real people in her life, like Markie (the unicorn and one of the very first characters) who takes after a friend who died from a heart attack.
  13. She's always wanted to be an artist.
  14. One of her goals before she dies is to make Lisa Frank into a theme park.
  15. She's more of a dog person than a cat person but thinks Purrscilla (the white cat) is most similar to her. "But Purrscilla is a lot like me, because she is very into glam and glitz and jewelry and everything very girlie," she told Urban Outfitters. "And some of the jewelry in the illustration is even my own jewelry."
  16. The process to make her "proprietary ink formula" that gives her products that iconic bright color is a complete secret.
  17. She had another smaller company originally called Sticky Fingers, which was plastic jewelry she glue-gunned together. She sold it to Urban Outfitters over 20 years ago.
  18. There are only two photos of her on the internet, including the one below.

Watch the Lisa Frank episode of Knock Knock now!