Our History

Owner, Stephanie Sala, started Five Little Monkeys in 2001 shortly after graduating from UC Berkeley with degrees in Sociology and Religious Studies. Plans for graduate school were put on hold when the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 made her realize that being close to home was most important. As the oldest of five little monkeys in her close knit family, Stephanie began looking for something that would allow her to play a very active role in her younger siblings lives. With her father, Andre Sala, a renowned toy designer most famous for the Whoozit line of infant developmental toys, and her mother, Anna Hobbet, the co-owner and founder of Sweet Potatoes, a children’s wear manufacturing company with several retail stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, opening a specialty toy store seemed like a natural fit.