Freckle-faced girl’s dreams and victories

They say that the best way to learn something is the game, and the best way to achieve the maximum is to strive for the impossible. By guiding these two principles, Shushan Grigoryan turned her childhood dream into a goal and created the first Armenian animated “Pepen”/freckle/ toy. From now on, the freckles are not only the peculiarity of the appearance, but also the wooden crochet that can be combined with own animated film. WomenNet.am has had an opportunity to tell about the innovative idea of ​​Shushan Grigoryan last year, and recently we were glad to know that it was also presented within the framework of the Girls in Tech Hackathon drawing the jury’s attention and winning  the second prize.

Shushan’s dream

Shushan is from the village of Aygek. During childhood, in the 1990s, especially in regions, there were few opportunities. The only place was the musical school 5 kilometers far from the village so in spite of the fact that she was not planning to become a musician, Shushan she was attending it for the period of 7 years playing the violin.  A few years ago she witnessed a backstage preparation of a Christmas animation film and fell in love with animation world.

Shushan’s dream turned into a goal when she decided to study animation on her own, but the teaching methods seemed to be boring. Figuring out other not boring methods of learning she just realized that every frame of animation should be tangible, so that one can put together, compare and see the principle of work. Not being able to decide what she prefers –  traditional animation, “stop motion” or 3D, she thought to create something that would combine all of these. As a result, “Pepen” came up with the same principle”.

From the curiosity to the business idea

The first wooden frame-toys were made by Shushan herself. It was about a year ago. At that time she did not think that this was going to be a business project, it was just something she wanted to accomplish.

At that time she noticed the announcement of the “Sevan Startup Summit”, which also contained a prize fund and, in essence, started the process of implementation of Pepen.

Pepin got attention on a number of other industry events. Recently, she received a special prize and financial support during the Girls in Tech Armenia Hacking for Humanity rehearsal. In her words that prize helps them a lot, although funding is not enough to start the initial production, but they will invest in the development, advertising and dissemination, will organize fundraising.  Investing  the money they will earn more, which will allow them to start production.

Referring to the origin of the name of the animation toy, Shushan said that from her early childhood she had not felt good about her freckles and being in the center of attention not in a country like Scotland, where it is widespread, caused many complexes. Years later, of course, she realized that that was not her punishment, but her business card.

Although the idea preliminary was designed for a target group of 10-14aged  children,   very often their parents also get interested in it, so  in fact it is for all curious people.

This toy also aims to popularize the animation industry. In case of successful financial settlement, according to Shushan, “Pepen” will appear in the market in April-May 2018.

Today, in addition to fulfilling the dream Shushan also teaches at the School  – together with 8-18 years old children she learns Informatics and robotics. Children play an important role in her life, every day they are actively suggesting new ideas, which is a great motivation. Shushan’s father also supported her to fulfil her ideas by his nature of being different from others. What about achieving goals, Shushan always states that one should always seek the impossible to reach the maximum. One should not stop dreaming, seek the impossible, and in that case everything becomes possible.

Full text in Armenian