Rose O'Neill was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer, born on June 25, 1874, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She is recognized as the first published female cartoonist in the United States. O'Neill demonstrated artistic talent from an early age, winning a drawing competition sponsored by the Omaha Herald at thirteen and providing illustrations for local publications while still a teenager. In 1893, she moved to New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator, later joining the staff of the influential humor magazine Puck as its only female artist. Her early career included illustrations for major periodicals such as Harper's, Life, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping, as well as advertising work for brands including Jell-O and Kodak.

O'Neill is best known for creating the Kewpie characters, which debuted as a comic strip in the Ladies' Home Journal in December 1909. The name Kewpie derives from Cupid, the Roman god of love, and O'Neill described the characters as little round fairies whose purpose was to teach people to be merry and kind. The Kewpies became a national phenomenon, and in 1912, German doll manufacturer J. D. Kestner began producing Kewpie dolls, making them one of the first mass-marketed toys in the United States. At the height of the Kewpie's success, O'Neill was the highest-paid female illustrator in the world, amassing a fortune of $1.4 million. Beyond the Kewpie comics, she published several children's books featuring the characters, including The Kewpies and Dotty Darling (1910) and Kewpies: Their Book, Verse, and Poetry (1913).

In addition to her commercial work, O'Neill pursued fine arts, studying sculpture with Auguste Rodin and exhibiting her paintings and sculptures in Paris and New York. She was elected to the Société Coloniale des Artistes Français in 1921 and held solo exhibitions at the Galerie Devambez in Paris and the Wildenstein Galleries in New York. O'Neill also wrote several novels, including The Loves of Edwy (1904), Garda (1929), and The Goblin Woman (1930), as well as a book of poetry titled The Master-Mistress (1922). She was an active supporter of the women's suffrage movement.

The connection between Rose O'Neill and anime stems from the Japanese television series Rose O'Neill Kewpie, which aired in December 2009 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Kewpie character. The series consisted of 26 five-minute episodes directed by Masatsugu Arakawa, known for his work on Nurse Witch Komugi and Medarot. The anime retained the hand-drawn look of O'Neill's original illustrations. The Kewpie character had already achieved household name recognition in Japan prior to the anime, largely due to its widespread use on Q.P. Corporation's mayonnaise bottles. The anime project was supervised by Kazuo Kitagawa, head of the Japanese Kewpie Club and one of the character's rights holders in Japan.

Recurring themes in O'Neill's work include kindness, merriment, and social consciousness, embodied in the Kewpie characters' mission to promote good deeds. Her later artistic works became more experimental, influenced by dreams and mythology, including a series known as the Sweet Monster drawings. O'Neill lived a bohemian lifestyle and was known as a non-conformist and ardent advocate for women's rights.

O'Neill's industry significance is substantial. She was a pioneer for women in cartooning and illustration, breaking barriers in a male-dominated field. Her merchandising of the Kewpie characters established a model for character-based commercial licensing that preceded and influenced subsequent character-driven franchises. In recognition of her contributions, O'Neill was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and, in 2022, was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame as a Comic Pioneer. O'Neill died of heart failure on April 6, 1944, in Springfield, Missouri.