Joan Anderson was born on December 28, 1923 in Sydney Australia. She met her husband, U.S. pilot Wayne Anderson, at Bondi Beach in 1946, and they married four months later, moved to the United States, and settled in Hollywood. Joan then took on work as a model, though that's not what she's remembered for.

In 1956, Joan went back home to visit her parents and noticed a bit of a fitness craze revolving around "the hoop," which was a wooden exercise ring that was swiveled around a person's waist and hips.

She had her mother mail one to her home in California and it became a hit with her friends and family. The Hula Hoop was born, with the name "hula" coming into play when a friend told her she looked like she was doing the hula, the traditional Hawaiian dance, when she swiveled the hoop around her hips.

Her husband, Wayne, pitched the Hula Hoop to Wham-O, and a deal was arranged, signed only with "a gentleman's handshake," as Joan described.

Wham-O never acknowledged Joan's role as the inventor. In 1961, the Andersons filed a lawsuit, but it ended in a settlement of just a few thousand dollars.

Joan's story was finally told in 2016. Her daughter, Loralyn, was telling her mother's story to coworkers at a restaurant when a filmmaker seated at the table next to them overheard and gave Loralyn her phone number.

The filmmaker, Amy Hill, and her husband, Chris Riess, ended up making a documentary, "Hula Girl" that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. Joan, at this time 94, flew to New York to promote the film and was even interviewed by Vogue.

Joan passed away on July 14, 2025, at a nursing home just north of San Diego at the age of 101.