Julia Gersen met Weera “Bee” Saedan during the first year of what became a four year adventure living in Thailand and teaching English to students from age 5 - 65.  Bee is from a small village in the Nakhorn Si Thammarat province of Southern Thailand and was living in Bangkok selling his paintings when a mutual friend introduced the two.  A few years later, Julia and Bee had become husband and wife, their daughter was 1 1/2 and they made the difficult decision to move to the US for a few years. 

Remaining connected to friends and family in Thailand was a worry with the move, particularly concerning their daughter Sasha.  Julia and Bee wanted to foster Sasha’s relationship with her Thai family and culture as well as continue to support the people of Thailand.  Prior to their move to Maine in 2006, Julia and Bee discussed ways to merge their values as parents, as a bicultural family, and as advocates for strengthening global understanding.   They came up with the concept of a fair trade business in which they could create products for children and parents that reflected these ideals as well as a sense of fun and playfulness for modern families and soon Monkey Beanz was born.

A commitment to fair trade business practices is at the heart of Monkey Beanz.  Thailand is home to their family, much more than simply a place to produce merchandise.  Many of the Monkey Beanz seamstresses are from Bee’s own village.  Julia and Bee design the products and work directly with seamstresses to create final patterns and product.  They are able to create relationships that lets them sit and discuss patterns over lunch with a seamstress while their children all play in the shop and know that this is possible because the mother has not had to travel north to find work in the city and be separated from her children.

Julia and Bee created Monkey Beanz as a way to connect the two cultures of their own family and share the beauty of experiencing the world with children.  They have built a business that can inspire families around the world while creating products that are modern and fun and encourage kids to just be kids.