Natalie grew up in California, in the South Bay and later moved to Orange County. With the difficulty of moving, she turned to art to express herself and discover her creativity.  She developed a love for storytelling and character design through this expression. In Elementary school, she taught herself how to sew which sparked a passion in designing doll clothes and creating her own stuffed animals.  During middle school, her passion for art and sewing grew through her art and home economics classes. Throughout highschool, Natalie found more passions in music, fashion, and business. She came to discover her own sense of style, falling in love with a romantic fashion full of lace, frills, and bows. Natalie then created her own business through Etsy, where she sold stuffed animals as well as her own hair bow designs. In her sophomore year of highschool, Natalie joined the choir and advanced quickly to the highest level choir offered at the school. During her three years in the choir, she learned how to follow instructions carefully, work with a large group of people and learned how to lead as the section leader for the soprano group. 

Natalie’s love for creating stuffed animals led her to persue a degree in Toy Design at Otis College of Art and Design. Here, she learned many skills in concepting, model making, 3D sculpting and presenting her designs. With her love for plush, she also found skills in designing dolls and preschool toys. Her designs have a playful style and she loves to incoorperate musical elements to her designs. Natalie is also passionate about inclusivity and diversity, honoring her Nicaraguan and Panamanian background. 

Her skills at Otis College grew, which led to her interning at two toy companies. In the summer of her sophomore year, she interned at Just Play where she then became a part time employee and worked as a designer for a year. She worked on concepting and assisting with technical art for mainly fashion and preschool dolls, working across multiple brands such as Disney Princess and Hairmazing. During the summer after her junior year, Natalie interned at Mattel, working on the Plush Team; compiling research, concepting, and assiting with technical art, working across many brands such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Minecraft and Cuutopia. Her internship at Mattel led to a full time job offer after graduation. During these interships, she learned more about the toy industry and is excited to grow her career more