“I was nervous. Everyone knew what they wanted to do when they got out of high school” 

Three days after her graduation ceremony from high school, Amanda Hahn started her first day on the job at Learning Express Toys. Armed in her kid-friendly Cat in The Hat t-shirt on her first day – she wasn’t sure this was going to work out.

“I was nervous,” Amanda says. “Everyone knew what they wanted to do when they got out of high school.” Amanda, however, did not. Amanda’s Mom was in the neighborhood and knew Colleen, the manager of the store, so she dropped in. Colleen instructed her to have Amanda send in an application. Application received. Interview scheduled. Colleen hired Amanda on the spot. And Amanda started work the next day. Self-conscious, she knew she wasn’t like the other employees who worked in the store. She wasn’t pursuing a degree in education and didn’t want to be a teacher. But Colleen saw something different in her and encouraged her to be herself.

While Amanda settled in to her new job, she signed up for junior college and took a lot of classes to explore what might be the right fit for her. She completed two associate degrees, in General Science and in Criminal Justice.

Amanda liked being in the community and talking with people. She wanted to work and make a difference in her hometown of Roseville, and thought she’d pursue the police academy. She soon came to realize she’d likely be deployed to a city where policing was more needed. And it dawned on her that police work was probably not for her.

Fast forward 15 years later, she is still enjoying her work at Learning Express Toys. The owners appointed Amanda to run the store and she does so passionately. She cares about what kids are into and what parents need to keep their kids stimulated, engaged and learning life skills. Amanda shares that she knows not everyone has time to be a “Pinterest Mom.” Parents are busier these days and she loves sharing tools they can use to teach their kids learning through play.

There’s always a lot of activity and events at the Learning Express Toys. It’s a huge birthday hub and they host a Birthday Box Gift Registry. Kids select what they want for birthday and guests come in, usually on the way to the party, and grab items out of the box. That gift is wrapped and off they go to the celebration.

Amanda hires local high school students from Oakmont, Granite Bay and Roseville to work part-time in the store. As luck would have it, some of them are in drama class and are very enthusiastic about dressing in character to perform. They’re all Disney fanatics as well. Once a month, an assortment of characters make appearances, courtesy of these very drama-tic employees! They love to dazzle the little ones as Elsa, Frozen’s Ice Princess, Ariel, Belle, or Rapunzel and other Disney characters. Rapunzel even brings her pet chameleon.

Learning Express Toys hosts after school and weekend craft activities – all free for the community.