Edit: After surprising pushback, Tia is now a Tea cup.

After the success of Life Badger, one thing became very clear to me: people love a character. There’s something special about having a little face cheering you on—a mascot that makes an app feel like a friend instead of just another tool.

So when I looked at Today I Am, I realized it was missing that touch of personality. Sure, the daily Personas are already funimaginative, you can wake up as a toaster or a thunderstorm, but there wasn’t a character tying it all together.