Fidget toys are as popular as ever. Kids and adults across the country clamor for them, but where many might find shortages or discontinuances on store shelves, one Mount Vernon 5th grader has innovated her own solution.

“I always thought it was cool, because people would always bring those cool 3D printed dragons, and I always wondered how you would get them,” said Henley Neff, who will be starting her first year at Mount Vernon Middle School in August.

For the past month, Henley and her mom have been hard at work, doing something neither of them would have predicted: 3D printing their own fidget toys. It began last school year, when Henley’s teacher showed her class a video on 3D printing.

“The video was super informative, and it told us that you melt the filament into glue and it layers it on,” said Henley, who continued to develop an interest in 3D printing, but never got the chance to try it herself. That is, until her mom came into contact with a family friend who buys and fixes 3D printers in another part of the state.

“We kind of fell into a 3D printer,” said Dawn Elizabeth, Henley’s mom, who adds that after hearing about her interest, their friend gave Henley her first 3D printer. Elizabeth also mentions that it was through their friend that they learned you could make fidget toys, solely by printing them.

“I’m a mental health therapist, so I knew how helpful those can be, and also the fact that they were just printing their own was super cool,” said Elizabeth, who works as a supervisor for Tanager Place, a children’s human service agency based in Cedar Rapids.

The prospect of printing her own fidget toys appealed to Henley, but knowing how popular they are with her classmates, Henley’s entrepreneurial spirit took hold.

“I was really interested in printing fidgets, because sometimes I run lemonade stands, and I was like, ‘oh, I might get a really big turnout if I sell fidgets,’” said Henley, whose mom suggested that they create a Google form for people to fill out their orders on.

“When she started, I had her pick out 10 that we would print,” said Elizabeth. Henley’s 3D printer works in tandem with an app, which allows Henley and her mom to pick out exactly which fidget toys they want to print. They’ve produced toys ranging anywhere from simple daisy shaped spinners and gear cogs, to dragon scale eggs and starfish with movable arms.

After sending the order form to friends and colleagues over a month ago, Elizabeth began to advertise their fidget toys on her Facebook.

“This week has been busier than when we started,” said Elizabeth, with Henley adding, “yeah we have eight orders going right now.”

The demand for their 3D printed fidget toys is thanks, in part, to the variety of toys they can create. If a customer has an idea for something new, Henley and her mom can just browse the 3D printer app to try and match the specifications as best they can.

“She just got an order last night. It’s for a baseball team, so they asked us if we could get little bats and balls,” said Elizabeth.

Henley only has the one 3D printer, and with some designs taking anywhere from 20 minutes to 13 hours to print, Elizabeth says the most valuable resource is time. “We don’t need to go crazy. She’s a busy kid and we’re busy. This doesn’t need to turn into a whole big thing.” That is one of the reasons Elizabeth reached out to the Mount Vernon Lisbon Mamas+Dads Facebook group to see if any retailers in the area were looking to house their product.

Elizabeth says she got the idea from their friends who gave them the printer. “Our friends who do the 3D printing, they said, ‘we have some of our stuff just in a little shop here in town,’” said Elizabeth, who adds that selling through a retailer gives the two more of a set schedule, rather than filling individual orders as soon as they come in.

Henley and her mom have reached out to Bass Family Farms, Silver Spider, and Iron Leaf Press, but so far, none have accepted the offer, either because of limited space, or they already have a similar deal in place.

“I think it would be pretty cool to have it somewhere that is in a retail space, but to still keep it pretty small,” said Elizabeth. In the meantime, Henley and her mom will still fill orders with the same care and attention they started with a month ago. “I think we’re also open to if it leads somewhere or if opportunities present, then we can explore that.”