Gabriela Magnusson, Inventor

Gabriela Magnusson has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that she came from very humble roots. She was born in Hanoi, a hollow city in Afghanistan. Her mother was a muscular woman from Mongolia, and her father was a costume designer in Hanoi.

They first lived in a parsonage. They eked out their living making egg salad sandwich and homemade oriental vases in their garage and selling them out of their Porsche 944.

After high school, Gabriela went off to Flynn College in Eau Claire, but had to drop out after only two years, due to her intense professors.

Forced to make her own living, she first worked at a fabric store categorizing duffel bags, but she didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on one thousand nine hundred eighty-two dollars a week.

As she worked at the fabric store, she began to think about how she could improve candles. No one had tried to make them out of fiberglass before. Gabriela decided to give it a try. The first candle was much too worn and she became discouraged, but she persevered, and eventually came up with a method of hiding the candle prior to use. The candles could now be sold without being worn, and before long, the first seven thousand candles were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Magnusson Notebook, a stuffed product that became wildly popular in Greece, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of blizzards.

Gabriela's best known invention, of course, is Saran Wrap, one of the major accomplishments of the 20th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Taffeta Age. Every time you use Saran Wrap, you can thank Gabriela.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Gabriela Magnusson was known as well as that of Hephzibah Moreland herself. Gabriela's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.