YOU STILL DON’T KNOW ABOUT JANESE SWANSON’S YAK BAK ???

Yak Bak was a line of handheld electronic voice recorder toys said to be developed by Ralph Osterhout at Team Machina for the company Yes! Gear (known as Yes! Entertainment) during the mid-to-late 90s. Several versions of the toy were developed which include the Yak Bak, Yak Bak 2, Yak Bak WarpR, Yak Wakky, Yak Bak SFX, and the Yak Bakwards. Some of these models also came in pen form as part of the "Power Penz" series. The Yak Bak was intended to be a compact, affordable and efficient competitor to the Talkboy introduced by Tiger Electronics in 1993.
Janese Swanson, famous tech girl, has indeed invented this toy, but lots of sources seem to have forgotten about her.

What can you do with the Yak Bak?
TRY IT!

BUT WHO’S JANESE SWANSON ???

Tech inventor, businesswoman.
She missed her daughter so much when she was at work!
She created a voice recording device to install in her daughter’s daycare.

She licensed the Yak Bak in 1992.

1958 Born in San Diego. Raised by a widowed mother.
Her dad passed away in the Vietnam war. 1975 Graduates from Orange Glen High School. 1981 Bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from the Sand Diego State University. 1982 Works as a teacher, flight attendant and model. 1983 Convinced a computer company to donate laptops to her job.
Taught her mainly female fellow flight attendants how to use them. 1989 Hired by Broderbund Software as a product manager.
Helped develop The Treehouse, The Playroom etc. 1990 Invented gadgets for her daughter, including a voice recording device. 1992 Left Broderbund Software.
She started her own company, Kid One For Fun.
Developped and licensed the infamous Yak Bak. 1995 Created Girl Tech as an independent company.
Headquarters near her home in San Rafael, California.
Their goal was to produce toys also for girls. 1997 Her vision for the company did not match the expectations of distributors.
Toy store buyers would say, “Can you make it pink?”
She would say,
“No, this is what girls like playing with.”
now
    She has:
  • Seven academic degrees.

  • A doctorate in organization and leadership,

  • A thesis on gender issues in product design, play pattern and gender preferences,

  • Founded two well being companies and invented dozens of toys.


    • But no one knows about her inventing the Yak Bak...