Surprises in store: How four students are running their own virtual stores

Masks have been “all the rage” since the start of the pandemic and will remain so for at least the next few months, so why not make them fashionable? That’s what junior Victoria Hwu decided to do by merging her art skills with helping others stay safe through selling homemade masks on her Etsy shop, Craftablelove.  Hwu arrived at the idea of starting an online business a few months into t...

During the pandemic, sophomore Annie Liu has created an Etsy store selling crocheted bees. Inspired to raise money for her charity work, she handmakes and personally delivers each plush toy. Liu originally came up with the idea to create her store while raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). The LLS is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to fighting blood canc...

Chikiin, an intentional misspelling of the animal, is the humorous name of senior Iris Leung’s Etsy shop.  “There’s no specific reason why it’s spelled that way,” Leung said. “I decided upon the name because of my friend, who has these dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I happened to have a dinosaur toy at the time, so I thought, what the heck I might as well. And that’s how the name c...

For more than a year, freshman Maple Leung has run a popular handmade jewelry store online, syrup. She brands her business as “POC, female-run, green, 100% designed-by-me, and 100% handmade-by-me business” and hopes to bring joy to others through her work. Leung started her store by selling her pieces to others in seventh grade because of an interest in sustainable living. In eighth grade, she ...