My parents and siblings are doctors, but I became a toy inventor. My company raised $5 million this year.

• Sydney Wiseman is cofounder of Playhouse MD. • She designed Fingerlings, small toys that sold millions of units. • Now she's partnered with her sister, a pediatrician, to make fun medical tools.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sydney Wiseman, cofounder of Playhouse MD. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Everyone in my immediate family is a doctor, except me. My brother, sister, and dad are physicians, and my mom was a vet. Luckily, my parents could tell from an early age that med school wasn't for me, and they were supportive. They say they could tell from the rapt way I watched commercials that I was made for something else: toys.

My mom's two brothers own a toy business, so the idea of inventing and producing toys wasn't so unusual in our family. My