LENA MINTZ: Founder of Mr. Mintz, Author, Mom of Two
I write about business, parenting, and the systems thinking that connects them. Founder of Mr. Mintz, a crafts-for-kids brand used by thousands of teachers and parents worldwide, and author of two books.
I'm the founder of Mr. Mintz — a crafts-for-kids brand I built from my kitchen during the pandemic after leaving my role as Head of PR at a large IT company. Now a registered trademark and one of the top-selling brands on Teachers Pay Teachers, Mr. Mintz's printable materials are used by thousands of teachers and parents in classrooms and homes worldwide.
Before Mr. Mintz, I studied humanities at university — philology, specifically — with the idea that I'd end up writing something. That eventually turned into a PR career, then into building a business after my second child was born.
My first book, While the Kids Slept (2025), chronicled building a business from home with small children around — late nights, late mornings, and work in the margins of real life. My second book, On the Glide (2026), is a practical parenting guide for the tween and early teen years — the transition when the methods that worked for years stop working.
Both books came from the same instinct as our craft templates: make what our family actually needed, then share it. Everything we've built — the crafts business, the books, the free companion materials — has come from inside our family.
Books
On the Glide: Raising Kids Who Stay Close as You Step Back - Practical Parenting Guide for the Tween & Early Teen Years (Ages 6-14)
Somewhere between ages 6 and 14, the family system changes. The bedroom door closes, "How was school?" becomes "Fine," and the parenting playbook that worked for years stops working. On the Glide is a practical engineering manual for these Threshold Years — a structural rebuild of how parents lead during the transition from childhood to early adolescence.
While The Kids Slept: How I Built a Profitable Etsy Business from Scratch through War, Chaos, and Change, Turning Survival into Success
A practical book for anyone dreaming of turning small steps into a meaningful online business.
While the Kids Slept chronicles the years I spent building Mr. Mintz from scratch — through relocation, uncertainty, and late nights — with small children around.