My Amazing Family and Me – Alumni Stories, Jesse Toksvig-Stewart, and Kat Willott

Jesse Toksvig-Stewart and Kat Willott are graduates of York St John University, having both studied a Degree in Television and Film Production. In our latest alumni stories blog, Jesse explains how after graduating from YSJU, the two of them started a business together called ‘Ugly Duck Books’, and have gone on to self publish a kids record book for alternative families, called ‘My Amazing Family and Me’.

Kat and I are fellow graduates of York St John University. We graduated in 2011 and to be honest we both feel as though it was only yesterday we were throwing our hats up in the air on the stairs of York Minster. Since graduation, both Kat and I and all our friends from the course have stayed very close. This year my mum adopted my little sister. I was looking for a children’s record book like the one my parents wrote in while I was growing up, and I could not find one to fit our family dynamic. My mum was a single lesbian adoptive parent and there were no baby books that I could buy to fit our family. They were all very heterosexual and were geared towards a mummy, daddy and baby family. My parents had the same problem when I was little, because coming from a same-sex household they found themselves constantly crossing out Daddy to put Mama instead.

I decided that I would make one for my little sister and approached Kat to help illustrate a record book. I knew that Kat was a brilliant illustrator and I could not think of anyone better who would help me. As the process progressed we heard more and more stories like my families and we decided that there was a growing need for an alternative record book on the market.

We never started out thinking that we could make our project into a business, but with the growing need for a book like ours to help alternative families we saw a gap in the market. What started off as a hobby on our days off from work grew into a business before our very eyes! We made a website, self published one thousand books, registered as a limited business, and I guess the rest you could say is history. We have sold over 600 books since our website went live in March, and have been featured by One and Other magazine, Adoption UK, and We Are Family Magazine.

Although both Kat and I find ourselves in careers that we did not train in at York St John University, we have found a complete sense of community whilst at York St John and since we have left. All we have are good thoughts and feelings about our time at university, and we have created a close-knit family of friends from our time there. Recently we came back for a reunion and were welcomed with open arms to the battle of the years film quiz by Dan, and we felt as though we had never really left. We hope to keep growing as a business and hopefully we will expand in the future.

Jesse

To find out more about Jesse and Kat’s business, please see the below links

Website: www.uglyduckbooks.co.uk

Blog: www.uglyduckbooks.tumblr.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/uglyduckbooks