MEET Clara Lee, a 17-year-old whose passion for art led her to start her own business, Bucket of Stickers. In a supportive community that shares a similar passion as her, Clara hopes to inspire others to create art of their own one day.
In the beginning, she produced work that was more along the lines of traditional art, such as charcoal, sketching, and oil painting. Over time, she gravitated towards digital art and graphic design. That is where her love for bullet journaling first began. In January 2020, she was actively posting her bullet journal spreads on social media (@journalsbyclara), and “to be honest, it was merely for my own enjoyment,” she says. However, over the course of several months, she gained over sixteen thousand followers and an overwhelming amount of support. “While I’m not one to get caught up in numbers, seeing the magnitude of artists inspired by my work opened my eyes to see that the community is more than a group of extra and super organized artists.” She believes that the community is really there to inspire creativity in others and to support one another throughout the journey. “I’m definitely no influencer, but I have to say that there is a strange sense of joy and satisfaction in sharing hard work with a community that has similar interests as me.” Wanting to give more to the community of artists, paired with her dream of opening a small business, Clara ultimately decided to open her own shop.
With the help of her sister, Buckets of Stickers grew to be the business that it is today, producing stickers, cards, memo sheets, and many other kinds of stationery. Through social media, primarily her bullet journaling account, she is able to promote the stationery she designs. As a member of the Asian community, Clara strives to incorporate Asian culture and representation into her organization. “I will always pride myself in Asian culture and in no way am I afraid to show it,” she proclaims. In fact, one of the first products she ever released was a bubble tea-themed sticker sheet, which has now become one of her bestsellers. As her shop continues to expand, Clara hopes to add more products in the future to share with her customer base.
“Many new stationery shops’ biggest challenge is promoting their business and reaching a larger audience.” At first, when she started, she was fortunate enough to have a large customer base as her journaling account gave her that jump-start. Though she did not face the challenge of gaining publicity, as a high school student, Clara had limited resources and lacked supply and demand. With the pandemic, it is that much more difficult to plan the best time for restocking products because simply going out for supplies is not always an option. “Being a business owner means being held accountable for the commitments I make, and I have felt a tremendous amount of responsibility put on top of my shoulders when I opened my shop.”
Despite this, quarantine has given her the opportunity to take initiative and step out of her usual routine. As for her business, she has made it a clear goal to gear her shop towards current social issues such as racial injustice and COVID-19. “[Bucket of Stickers] has taught me that anyone can contribute to societal issues no matter how large or small the contribution.” With her platform, Clara raised money to support the Black Lives Matter Movement in hopes of finding effective solutions to end police violence by donating 100% of the net proceeds made. In just two days, she raised $300, and the total amounted to a whopping $600. Her journey in promoting and growing her business has not only been beneficial for herself but also an advocate of non-violence to end racial injustice. “My experience raising awareness for the BLM through my business has taught me to not only use the success of my shop for myself but for people in need.”
Her final advice to students looking to start their own platform: “I think it’s incredibly important to remember that any small steps of action can be significant and beneficial for the local community and even further. I started my business with little idea of what it would evolve into, and I came to realize that I could use my skills for something greater than myself. Sometimes starting a platform can be discouraging if there are few results and implications of success, but with effort and detailed planning, it’s pretty crazy to see what high schoolers can accomplish.”