Shana Dubé can finally make a living from her art after starting her business at just 19 years old.
“Shana Illustrious” offers phone cases, notebooks, bags and lots of accessories with her drawings on the cover.
“Ever since I was young, I've made little resolutions and one year I wrote that I wanted makeup cases with my drawings on them. “It started that way, but my mom is an entrepreneur and I made rings when I was young, so I’ve always had that passion,” she says.
Art helps him control his fear.
“I have performance anxiety. I had the grades needed to become a doctor and realized that wasn't what I wanted to do. I always leaned a little more towards art, but the hardest part was coming to grips with it,” she explains.
Mental health is at the heart of the approach
The young entrepreneur wanted to share her story to help as many people as possible. For example, on some of its products we can read phrases “I need you tomorrow” to comfort customers who are going through a more difficult time.
“I've been through a lot of things with anxiety and hospitalizations, so it's just that when you only see the negative, there are people who need you. I want people to look at the case and remember that they are not alone when they go through difficult things,” she says.
In addition, she believes that this is one of the points that differentiates her from the competition.
“Yes, there is competition, but I don’t like to think of it as competition because we don’t convey the same values.”