Girl Crush x Brittany Paige
GIRL CRUSH X brittany paige
illustrator, graphic designer & founder of Brittany Paige Designs
Welcome back friends! As you can see it has been a minute (almost one full year but who's counting right?!) and I am beyond excited to finally launch my latest Girl Crush article featuring a local graphic designer and the founder of her very own Hoboken based stationery gift company, Brittany Paige!
Before I dive in I want to take this brief opportunity to hold myself accountable for something. Yes- Brittany and I sat down over a year ago (gulp) for this interview and while I wish I could say that I am just a really slow writer, the truth is life got in the way. There were times when I didn’t know if I would write this at all but every time I wanted to give up, I would open Instagram and see a new post from Brittany. She would be sharing her latest greeting card design or collaborating with other brands for the holidays and that is what gave me the hope I needed and the motivation I wanted to continue showing up. It may have taken me longer than I would have liked or anticipated but I am proud that I have finally finished what I started and wrote a pretty kick ass article (I’m biased) about a pretty kick ass female founder who turned her stationery side hustle into a profitable business and is crushing it right now.
Brittany Paige is the driving force behind her one woman design studio where she creates witty and relevant products for the unapologetic girl. I met Brittany back in 2019 at a Hoboken Creatives event where we sat next to each other and talked for hours about everything; from careers and relationships to our business ideas and social lives. It was so much fun to catch up with her again after all this time and I couldn't wait to share her story, which to me is the true embodiment of what it means to be a Girl Crush.
In college Brittany studied graphic design and marketing at the University of Maryland. It was around her junior year when it became clear that Brittany’s goal was to work towards a career as a graphic designer at one of her favorite brands, Free People. “I always loved the look and feel of the brand [Free People] so with each design opportunity I tried to bring in elements of the Free People aesthetic (think hand lettering and full of illustration). That’s really how I got immersed in drawing and illustration and it allowed me to move away from the old boring graphic design style.”
Brittany ended up crushing her first big goal and getting an internship with Free People after graduation. The opportunity helped her land her first job in NYC as a graphic designer for apparel at Aéropostale’s children’s line and eventually go on to work for different fashion brands such as Victoria’s Secret, OshKosh and Carter’s. It was then that Brittany decided to give her stationery side hustle a shot. Even though she feels like she had a few false starts at the beginning, Brittany knew she had to take a few risks. She decided to create sample cards and send them out to stores to see if she could spark some interest. “I know you’re not technically supposed to do that but I figured what did I have to lose?” In March 2018 Brittany had created over 20 of your not so typical greeting cards and would take them to local trade shows and artist pop ups. It was only once she looked back on that time in her life that she realized that was the launch of Brittany Paige designs.
Brittany’s small business didn’t bloom overnight. If you look at where she has built her business to today, it was years in the making. So often we look at someone else’s 20th step and think it’s fair to compare that with our first step, but it’s important to remember that we all have to start somewhere. “I think the reason why it took me so long to get started was because I was really comfortable in my full time job. I had a great boss, an enjoyable work environment and I was even working normal hours! But I always knew something was missing.”
It’s remarkable to see how far Brittany has come especially when you understand how much work she had to put in to get where she is today. She was feeling the same way I’m sure a lot of us do. We get stuck in the corporate world, unsure of how to claw our way out. We want our day jobs to be our passion projects and we want our passion projects to pay us like our day jobs. There was a point in my career when I felt like something was missing at my job and I knew I needed a creative outlet to help me figure out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. I knew I needed to put the work in after hours. It’s the reason why I created Girl Crush, so that I could connect with other people who were feeling a similar way and shed light on what these girl crushes in my life are doing to find fulfillment and turn their dreams into reality.
Brittany’s brand and line of products are one of a kind and designed for the unapologetic girl; sassy and sarcastic, witty and empowered, not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in. It’s one of the reasons, I believe, that makes her so relatable. Her business came from seeing a gap in the stationery market and realizing there wasn’t a Hallmark card she could give to a girlfriend who just got ghosted or dumped. “So much of my brand is more than just what happened this past year (referring to the pandemic). I chose to shine a light on the things that suck like breakups and divorces. There’s no good card for a girlfriend who just got ghosted! My cards are a fun way to say ‘oh well he was just another asshole in finance so it’s fine’!”
One aspect that I was so drawn to about Brittany’s work was the way she uses dark humor in places you wouldn’t expect; cheeky enamel pins and bold stickers are filled with unconventional (and dare I say ballsy) sayings. She plays to her strengths and gives the millennial and GenX audience what they cannot find in the traditional markets; break-up cards illustrated with “should have swiped left” and holiday wrapping paper with David Rose’s face on it! Umm yes please. “Of course you can’t use humor for everything but with Covid there would be times when I hadn’t gone outside in three days or couldn’t get out of bed so it felt like a perfect time to create a “little victories” collection with stickers and pins. The original stickers had fun sayings like “didn’t quit my job” and “made it to the gym” and we expanded into more quarantine appropriate sayings like “got out of bed” and “put pants on”. Which I think many of us can relate to and truly became a daily victory each day!
This past year Brittany launched a new product that was a dream come true for her: candles! “It was such a fun process! I had a few friends who also love candles come over, test the scents and helped me to pick the final products. They all represent something different which is still totally on brand with everything else we do.” Brittany’s friends and family have become essential parts of her team. “My family actually is my team. My mom ships all the orders. My sister helps me with the backend like recording sales and forecasting trends. I like to say I have a copy team, which are some of my best girlfriends. I definitely would not be where I am without everyone’s help!”
I think a lot of people get caught up right when they want to start their side hustle, blog, business, whatever it may be, they have this need to be perfect and I’m definitely a perfectionist but at some point I think you kind of learn to just start the website and if the platform doesn’t work in six months then you change it. You’re going to make mistakes and you’ll just have to learn with each one and keep adapting.
What surprised Brittany most about starting a business was how quickly she had to grow and adapt. Brittany started out selling a handful of items on Etsy with just a few wholesale accounts and quickly had to adapt her business model as things started to pick up. Once Brittany landed 20 additional wholesale accounts she realized that the couple boxes she used to have under her bed with shipping supplies wouldn’t quite cut it anymore. So she had to adapt again. Today Brittany has surpassed her goals and reached over 400 wholesale accounts!
One of the biggest challenges Brittany had to overcome when starting a business and as a female business owner was that people didn’t always take her seriously. “When someone asks you what you do for a living and I say that I sell greeting cards, it kind of sounds silly right? It doesn’t sound serious. So I think I’ve had people definitely question the legitimacy of it and think I don’t have a real job. When in reality I definitely have a real job. I have an LLC, I pay taxes, I do my books every quarter, it’s all legit! So that can be a struggle. At the end of the day though I know that it doesn’t matter what other people think. I know how much money I’m making and how much fun I’m having along the way and that’s all that matters.”
While the last year has been good for business, Brittany hasn’t gone full time with it just yet. One of the things I hear entrepreneurs say often is to keep your full time job while you are putting in the work on your side hustle and that resonates with me. You have to do what works for you while you are building your business or brand and remember that it will take time. “I still freelance and take on graphic design and illustration projects. I mean they aren’t the most glamorous projects but for anyone who lives in the NYC area you know that the lifestyle here is super expensive and that’s just the reality of it. I have to supplement my income in order to live here and hopefully one day the business will be my full time job but for right now I’m making it work.”
When asked what advice Brittany would give to someone who is trying to start a business or a side hustle she said, “Honestly, you just need to start.” Maybe you are thinking about starting something up and feeling like you need to have everything figured out first but I would argue that you can’t actually learn what works for you and what doesn’t until you dive in. Of course most of us have jobs, families, bills to pay and so many other commitments that take up our time but just taking one small step each day can really make all the difference. “It’s not going to be perfect and as I mentioned earlier you will need to adapt as you go. The route that I went was to find a job that I could at least be happy at because I don’t believe you will be able to give a side hustle your best self if you’re that miserable everyday at your job. Do what you can to find a job that treats you fair and pays you well and focus on that. And then you can put the time into that passion project and hopefully it will turn into that side hustle and you can see where it goes from there.”
Some aspects of Brittany’s lifestyle that help her to stay on track as a business owner is finding a balance between working and not working. “I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this, especially people who were working in an office setting and now are working from home. I would love to sit here and tell you that I have a morning routine, that I do my affirmations and I drink my green smoothie and work out for an hour, but I don't do those things. I like to work out and I like doing other things besides just work. But I think it's just knowing when to stop and take a breather.” Finding balance can be key to avoiding burnout. Whatever helps you stay on track for your business or passion project it’s important to figure out what works for you and make it a non-negotiable part of your day.
When asked, “what is your ‘why’ for what you do and what makes you excited to go to work everyday?” Brittany’s answer and overarching ‘why’ became so prevalent, just as it is in her brand, as she aims to represent the unapologetic outspoken female. “I think this is something that I've struggled with a lot throughout my life and whether it's in a social setting where I'm the person bringing up the election at the dinner table and even on a more professional level there were so many times I would do an illustration for work but we couldn't because it was too political. I hated being censored in that way and I hate being censored in general. I don't think art should ever be censored. I think being able to represent that person, that girl who is told to be quiet and stop being a buzzkill, who is afraid to bring up an idea because it is a little different. That's what inspires all of my work. And that's what I want to keep putting out there in the world and making things that speak to and defend that girl. That is my why.”
The last question that I ask at the end of all of my Girl Crush interviews is “what are you grateful for” and Brittany’s answer really hit home. “My family. I know I mentioned how much they help with the business but they are just really selfless people and I definitely aspire to be more like the women in my life everyday. I’m grateful for my health, especially this year more than ever. I mean I’m a bit of a hypochondriac who probably watches way too much Grey’s Anatomy but there was just so much loss in my family this year and it just really puts things in perspective, the way it has affected so many people, so many families. It’s been a tough year but I’m grateful for my family, my health and I can’t wait to see what the New Year brings!”
When I think back to three years ago when I started Girl Crush and the idea behind it I can’t think of a better example than Brittany to feature here. This platform is all about women who want more and are putting the work in to accomplish things they had only once dreamed about. When Brittany saw a gap in the stationery market she took matters into her own hands and created the cards she wanted to give to her girlfriends. When the photo of Bernie Sanders went viral on the internet, Brittany was all over it and within days she had Bernie prints, stickers, birthday cards and of course her signature wrapping paper up on her website and available for purchase. She fully embodies the hustle, the grind, and staying relevant to the millennial market that was looking for something bolder than a sappy Hallmark card or another basic Yankee candle. If you are thinking about starting a side hustle, a passion project or even just interested in picking up a new hobby, now is the time. This is your sign! Get clear on what you want, dedicate a little bit of time everyday to exploring more about it, and one day, just like Brittany, you’ll be out there crushing it.
As always thank you for being you and being here. And a BIG thank you to Brittany for her kindness and patience with this one along the way.
