(FORTUNE Small Business) – When Hermine Brindak, 44, saw the drawings her daughters had made, she felt more than maternal pride. Juliette, then 10, and Olivia, then 6, had come up with characters--such as a fashionably dressed Chinese-American girl named Harlie who lives in New York City--that Brindak sensed could have wide appeal. With her husband, Paul, she began in 2004 creating a Miss O and Friends website, where girls keep virtual scrapbooks, among other activities. The site launches this month. More than 5,000 retailers have ordered stationery based on the characters--lifting sales to a projected $5 million this year. Next comes footwear. "It's not for children. It's not for teens. It's for that in-between age group," says Jacqueline Ching, senior editor at Watson-Guptill/VNU, which plans to publish books based on the website. Parents like it, theorizes Paul Brindak, because "it's not Britney Spears." --E.P.