The COVID pandemic left Anaya Doshi (‘26) with some free time on her hands. Noticing her love of crafts, her aunt suggested that Doshi start a business, so she decided to give it a go.

“My aunt was like, ‘You should start a business. You have all of the resources, and you have all of the materials, you have the machine.’ I had a lot of free time and I thought why not start something that can take up some of that time? I love doing crafts, so I thought this was a perfect idea because it’s just something fun that I can also make a little money from,” said Doshi.

Doshi is now a proud owner of HugsandStickiesCo, her small business, where she takes reusable Starbucks cups and personalizes them to the customer’s liking. 

“My business is about making people drink more water with a reusable Starbucks cup. I think what really attracts them is the designs and the images that I put on them, especially because I can put their name on them, and really make it feel like it’s theirs, and I think that really interests them,” said Doshi. 

Her main inspiration to start her business was her love for art. She believes that it’s part of the reason why her business is successful, along with the quality of her products.

“Art is the sole foundation of why people buy my cups because they like the art that’s on them, and the really great thing about these is that they’re fully washable. They are hand-washed but the stickers don’t come off and they stay on forever,” said Doshi. “When you go out people will see that ‘Okay, that’s their cup,’ and it’s something I think really great, and also the designs can be from your name to all sorts of other things that personalize about you, so to have your personality on something is really good.”

Even though she’s a freshman, Doshi has been able to successfully balance both her business and school through her determination and perseverance. She is finding ways to decrease the amount of time she spends working on her orders to not let her grades drop. 

“I pick the orders I want to do, and I save the other ones for when I have time, especially because it’s hard to balance it with school. I have a lot of homework so what I’ve been doing is that I’ve been using my weekends a lot and I’ve been taking my holidays and stuff like that so I can make sure to finish all of the orders,” said Doshi.

Danielle Hubbard, Doshi’s English teacher, has nothing but high praise for her student. 

“Anaya is a very hardworking, focused young lady. She added into my class late and within that same day, she already turned in an assignment that she wasn’t even in my class for. It shows that she is proactive with getting her work turned in, and she’s driven to be successful in the class,” said Hubbard.

Doshi has benefited in many ways by starting a business, from continuous support from family and friends to maturing as a person. She believes that she’s become a lot more independent and has gained skills in money management. 

“I’ve definitely become a lot more entrepreneurial because a lot of people know me because of my business, and I think it’s really great to know that people are interested in what I make.  A lot of orders that I’ve actually gotten are from people from school, so I think it’s really great how people support me, and I think it has modeled how my personality is,” said Doshi.

The personalized cups are priced at $12.99 and up, depending on the design. Along with those, Doshi also sells custom name decals and personalized key chains.

Check out Doshi’s business on her Instagram @HugsandStickies and on her Etsy store.