Kawaii Designs By Joyce

Last year, the adorable designs of Joyce Chou, founder of online sticker shop Kawaii Designs by Joyce, showed up on my Etsy feed during the rise of Asian-targeted violence and discrimination. Co-Founder Alyssa bought her “Stop Asian Hate” stickers, of which proceeds are donated to support the movement, and they now live happily on her laptop and water bottle. Joyce, who is a student at UC Berkeley majoring in public health and cognitive science, kindly agreed to share her journey with us. Our conversation with Joyce revealed just how truly passionate, hardworking, and thoughtful she is. And the good news doesn’t stop there: she’s even agreed to collab on a sticker sheet with Lotus Magazine!

The Story Behind the Shop
During my junior year, the minute quarantine started, school was called off and there was really nothing for us to do, except to anticipate what would happen next and study for AP exams. I had a lot of time and creative freedom, so I wanted to make my time more productive. The thing that inspired me the most was a YouTuber around my age I had been keeping up with who ran a jewelry business. I just found it fascinating how she created something of her own, packaged it, and shared it with other people. I thought that that was really special. I wanted something that was low in investment but could serve as a creative outlet for me. On YouTube, I saw a video about sticker shops and I thought, “That's it! That's the jackpot.” I reached out on social media to other people who were also starting to create sticker businesses and inquired about it and what I would need to start. 

At the time, CollegeBoard was giving out gift cards for people who did sample SAT questions, so I had earned enough money on an Amazon gift card to spend on sticker paper. For the first year, all of my stickers were entirely hand colored and hand cut, and that’s how my sticker shop started.

Joyce Chou, Founder

Joyce’s Stop Asian Hate Stickers

Stop Asian Hate Stickers
Since the beginning, all of my stickers have revolved around my Asian American identity. Even my first stickers were Asian foods like Yakult and boba stickers and as I expanded my shop, that was definitely something I wanted to revolve more around. At the same time, there was the rise of Asian-directed hate crimes and it hit close to home for me because in my community, there were multiple self-made Asian stores that were vandalized on Chinese New Year. I was scared to go outside and I was even more scared for my parents and grandparents who would be going outside, because I wasn't sure what was going to happen to them if they did. I found that this is something that I'm truly passionate about and I definitely wanted to help support the cause, so I designed the Stop Asian Hate stickers to raise donations. Coincidentally, I had been collaborating with a bullet journaling account who had been supporting my shop since the beginning (Joline - @milktea.bottle). We had made a classical music sticker sheet with proceeds constantly donated to an organization. Before the Stop Asian Hate movement rose, we were donating to a different organization, but after that happened, those proceeds are now also going towards Stop Asian Hate.

An Inspiration During Childhood
I remember in middle school, I wrote a paper about it because it meant a lot to me - I remember going back to China and every time, it was always early in the morning and my dad only visits twice a year because he lives in China so every time we went back, it was like we were finally rejoining our dad again and that was always a pivotal moment. I would arrive at the airport and the streets would be filled with the nostalgic smell of cigarettes and street food. During the time, there were a lot of street vendors and we were walking through the crowd and at one point, there was a young girl who was around our age or younger. She was hand-making something to decorate your house with. I remember thinking “Whoa, she’s so hardworking - she’s only my age and she’s already working and making these things on her own.” I always thought that that amount of independence and hard work - that’s something I want to become. That was an experience that was eye-opening and shaped me into who I am today.

Joyce recently released new sticker sheets on July 1st! She’s looking forward to putting more effort and time into her shop now that it’s summer break. Check out her shop and look for our KawaiiDesignsByJoyce x Lotus Magazine collab sticker sheet!

Read the rest of Joyce’s interview in Lotus Magazine’s July/August 2022 Issue.