Rose Cecil O'Neill (June 25, 1874 – April 6, 1944) was an American illustrator, artist, and writer who created the popular comic characters, Kewpies. After the growing popularity of O'Neill's Kewpie cartoons upon their publication in 1909, the characters were made into bisque dolls in 1912 by a German toy company, and later in composition material and celluloid. They were wildly popular in the early twentieth century, and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in America.
O'Neill also wrote several novels and books of poetry, and was active in the women's suffrage movement. She was for a time the highest-paid female illustrator in the world upon the success of the Kewpie dolls.
O'Neill was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the second of seven children to William Patrick and Alice Asenath "Meemie" Smith O'Neill. When she was three years old, O'Neill's family relocated to rural Nebraska, where she was raised. From early childhood she expressed significant interest in the arts, immersing herself in drawing, painting, and sculpture. At the age of 13 Rose entered a children's drawing competition sponsored by the Omaha Herald and won first prize. Within two years she was doing illustrations for the Excelsior and The Great Divide and other periodicals, having secured this work with help from the editor at the Omaha World-Herald and the Art Director from Everybody Magazine who had judged the competition. The income helped support her family, which her father had not been able to support as a bookseller.