stumbled across a nice n channel mosfet BSS138L
https://www.onsemi.com/products/discrete-power-modules/mosfets/small-signal-mosfets/bss138l

The thing I liked about this transistor is the low gate threshold voltage
https://www.onsemi.com/download/data-sheet/pdf/bss138l-d.pdf
Vgs(th) 0.8 low norm1.25v high 1.5v

they make perfect level shifters or mosfet drivers
turns out this is an example use
https://www.adafruit.com/product/757
https://www.digikey.sg/en/blog/logic-level-shifting-basics

 

Please let us know what ideas you come up with.

 

BSS138L is a good logic level mosfet in itself given its low Vth threshold voltage to switch on, and 200 mA drive is plenty
https://www.onsemi.com/download/data-sheet/pdf/bss138l-d.pdf
A key is this will work on a 3.3v device, many logic level mosfets can't do such low voltages.

for a long time if I need to drive 100s of mA from a gpio pin, normally I'd resort to BJT transistors, e.g. 2n2222
https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/p2n2222a-d.pdf
as base turn on is normally diode voltages 0.6v, and the drive current is simply beta / hfe(amplification) x Ibase
lets assume beta / hfe = 150
so to get say about 200 mA over the transistor, a rough estimate for a resistor at the pin would be (3.3v - 0.7v) * 150 / 0.2 ~ 2k ohm
but that hfe can vary between transistor to transistor (specs say 50-375), but I'd guess values between 2k-5k would be ok and gives a fair drive.

but with BSS138L, I'd guess one can simply connect the pin to the gate
but that may drive too much currents in the mosfet, hence pull up resistaor at the drain may be needed to limit that.
the other thing is the rather low on resistance, which is probably a good thing drive motors etc.
BJT often have a rather high Vce (sat) which could be like 0.5-1.5v