Hidden Gems: Meet Brooke Torrey of Babbles and Brumskies

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Torrey.

Hi Brooke, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The idea for my children’s boutique, Babbles and Brumskies, came to me sprinkled over the course of several months. At the time, I had no idea why I was being nagged about these random ideas that kept coming to me during various ER visits with my son. The first one felt like a giant poke from the universe – start an LLC. After getting over the confusion and giving in to the nagging, I did some googling, came up with a name and finally got the LLC designation in the mail. The second idea was the actual name for the children’s boutique, which carries my childhood nickname (Babbles) and my mom’s family’s nickname for the noise created by “blowing bubbles” on one’s skin, often referred to as a “raspberry” (Brumskies). I loved the name but had absolutely no idea why it came to me and what I was supposed to use it for. Then, all the pieces came together around 3am after I fell asleep with my son in the ER, except this time – every detail was crystal clear. I had the most vivid dream of my entire life and when I awoke, I knew exactly what to do with that name… and so the adventures of Babbles and Brumskies began! Our goal is simple: to offer clothing in matching styles and patterns for both healthy and medically complex children. In doing so, siblings can match and medically complex children have cute clothing options like all other kids!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Is anything ever a smooth road?!  Like anything in life, the Babbles and Brumskies journey hasn’t been entirely smooth, mainly because I am a nurse by education and training, not a business person!  I genuinely have no idea what I am doing from a business perspective so it has been a humbling experience trying to figure everything out.  I have had to teach myself some things along the way (how to keep track of business expenses, what types of things are classified as business expenses, what an S-corp is, etc) and have also had to ask for help when things were outside of my skillset.  I’m also a spouse, a mom to two little boys, and a nurse working part-time to full-time hours.  Building a small business while raising my kids, maintaining a healthy relationship, and working as a nurse has certainly thrown some curve balls my way!  I’ve taught myself to sew, how to craft using the Cricut, how to use Canva (ouch!), and built a website (my least favorite task!) – all while picking up extra shifts to help fund the business. Additionally, I tapped into my creative side and made glass tumblers and t-shirts to sell for extra profit! It’s definitely been challenging!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Babbles and Brumskies is an online children’s boutique that offers children’s clothing (Newborn to 5T currently) and STEM toys – but we aren’t just any children’s boutique. We are hard at work behind the scenes making prototypes with adaptations so medically complex children (think kids with special airways, special types of feeding tubes, etc) can have adorable clothes to wear and/or match their healthy siblings! Adaptive clothing lines exist but they can be pricey, are often found on hand-made sites like Etsy, and aren’t generally offered in matching styles and patterns like ones found in major stores. This means siblings don’t usually have matching options. In having our clothing line manufactured side-by-side, some with adaptations for special medical needs, we will be able to offer families the opportunity of having matching clothes for both healthy and medically complex kids! THIS is what sets us apart, what makes us unique and what we are most proud of! The line hasn’t dropped yet, but the goal is to purchase our first order to stock in our store in 2026!

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
You can look at it as luck, divine intervention, a Godwink – whatever your outlook is, I have certainly had my fair share. I happen to be a nurse, so I guess I feel lucky to have a lot of the knowledge necessary to understand what type of clothing adaptations are really needed in order to help caregivers of medically complex children. I also am lucky that I know people who could use some of my “scraps” to trial and give me feedback as well as spread the word about my new line coming out! I have also been struggling to find ways of sharing our story and what I’m trying to do so that I can earn some money in order to be able to fund my adaptive line – so I guess I consider myself lucky to have somehow caught the eye of VoyageATL! I make glass tumblers and custom t-shirts as a side hustle (in addition to my nursing job and running the children’s boutique) and this helps me purchase inventory for the store. Between a lot of hard work and the luck bestowed upon me, I feel very encouraged to keep working at this dream of creating an adaptive line of clothing and building my children’s boutique into having so much more to offer all families.

Pricing:

• $8.99
• $14.99
• $32.00
• $50.00

Contact Info:

• Website: www.babblesandbrumskies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babblesandbrumskies?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MW40dG95cmRqOHhvMQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557179756261

Image Credits
myself, Brooke Torrey