MEET Ellen Yang, a rising senior from Boston, Massachusetts, who is the founder of HelloBrandBox, which is a Gen Z marketing agency, and the executive director of Desircle. Her passion for programming, UX and UI design, entrepreneurship, and social activism have played a key role in her success today.
Seeing that Gen Z was an overlooked marketing niche for many companies, Ellen started her own marketing agency. HelloBrandbox gave her personal liberation from internships because she found those to be extremely exploitative and creatively limiting. “I wanted to help other brands reach success as I have.” The organization currently serves to help Gen Z founders and companies tied to Gen Z audiences build brands and increase their sales through branding, website design, graphics, content marketing models, and coaching.
As for Desircle, Ellen’s love for the company’s mission and purpose-led her to become more involved in the design community. The team’s mission to revolutionize the design industry by creating resources to close the accessibility gap in freelance careers gave the push for her to join. Her initial position as a podcast host turned into an opportunity to work as an engagement manager and ultimately as the executive director!
With the amount of success, she was achieving came obstacles to overcome. The biggest challenge she faced was time management. To finish all her tasks before a deadline and pinpoint which tasks were her responsibility, Ellen had to dedicate time and effort in figuring out how to work effectively and productively. “As an executive director, my natural instinct is to be hands-on with everything,” she explained, “even though it is more productive for the company to have each task delegated to the person who can best accomplish it and split our time accordingly.” However, one problem solved another. The more she delegated with others, the more comfortable she became with tasking others to complete projects and assignments.
Not overworking herself and finding that perfect balance between work, school, and social life was also a struggle that only experience could solve. Running multiple companies as a high schooler often meant sacrificing sleep and sanity, but over the past three years, Ellen has had the time to master that ability. She has built a marketing company from the ground up and has worked with over twenty others interested in her work to generate additional sales exceeding $250,000. Featured in several newspapers such as Boston Globe and awarded for her hard work through honorable mentions, Ellen has been and continues to be incredibly grateful for the love and support she receives from her team, her friends, and her family.
As an international company with a focus on accessibility for all, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, sexuality, or other socioeconomic factors, Ellen and her team work tirelessly to ensure that they create an inclusive space in the design freelance industry. To help promote the Asian community, they are planning to design social activism campaigns to spotlight Asian creators in the near future.
Her final advice for students looking to start their own platform: “Think very carefully about timing. Most startups fail because even when they are creating something amazing or revolutionary, the [rest of the world] might not be ready for your project… yet.”
By: Rachael Ngai