Check Out Aurora Zeng’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aurora Zeng

Hi Aurora, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I loved to draw and do art. I drew my favorite characters from books and TV shows, did various crafts (ranging from polymer clay, sewing, and even making duct tape items) inspired by my interests, and watched a lot of crafting YouTubers share and sell their creations. I always aspired to become an artist of some sort, but my immigrant parents pushed me to focus on my academics, get into a good college, and land a stable, high-paying job after graduation.
In high school, I stopped investing in a lot of my hobbies to prioritize academics, but still dabbled in art whenever the opportunity allowed: creating flyers for school events, making layouts for the school newspaper, painting poster for my classmates’ Promposals. Then, during my senior year I fell *deep* into the K-pop rabbit hole with Stray Kids, who were freshly debuted at that time. It was my first big interest in a while, so I found myself reaching out for my pencil & paper again. I asked for an iPad and Apple Pencil for my birthday, and in the spring of 2019–after I was finally free from the college application process–I created my first ever sticker designs. I briefly sold them online and at Stray Kids’ first concert in LA with much success.
Unfortunately, this didn’t continue. Shortly afterwards I packed my bags and moved to Berkeley for college. I definitely couldn’t sell stickers from my tiny dorm room shared with 2 other girls, but I continued to doodle. When Stray Kids announced a new USA tour for early 2020, I found a few local fan artists to host a fan support project for the San Jose concert together. We needed a way to fund our project, which involved printing and distributing paper banners to all attendees as a way to cheer for the artist (it’s a tradition for K-pop shows), and I pitched my stickers as an item we could sell to raise the money needed. Our project was successfully funded and well-received. With the extra stickers, I grabbed a friend to help me sort them into packs as I handwrote thank you notes to include in every pack. I brought these packs with me to Stray Kids’ LA concert and sold them at the venue before the show. I sold out of the 45-ish packs that I brought.
After the tour, I went back to my shared dorm. I continued to receive a lot of questions on social media from people who couldn’t attend the show but wanted my stickers. I regretfully told them that I was out of stickers and I couldn’t make more as I was a college student living in a triple. It was at that time that I also began to become more familiar with the fan merchandise community after working with other fanartists, so maybe I could try again when I move into an apartment next school year, I told myself.
Except it wasn’t next year. Less than a month afterwards, Covid hit, and I was sent back home to LA. Finals were cancelled, the grading system became lenient, and I was living in my parents’ house again. Like everyone else who found themselves with too much time on their hands, I decided to try making fanart to sell online.
I held my first enamel pin preorder in April 2020. My first launch in May consisted of stickers (the original set plus 2 new sets) and the leftover enamel pins. Gradually I made more things, from key chains to washi tape to sticker sheets, and my follower count grew steadily. I made artist friends in the community and continued to host online events with them. When the pandemic calmed down a bit, I was invited to vend in person at a few Stray Kids cupsleeve events. I held my own cupsleeve event in January 2022 (which has now become an annual tradition and one of the biggest Stray Kids fan events in LA). Throughout the past 5 years, I’ve greatly expanded my inventory, vended at multiple events, held fan projects for more concerts, sent out thousands of orders, and most importantly, improved my own design skills.
Now, I’m running my shop while working a full-time job in the Bay Area. After work, I eat my dinner and switch over to small business mode, whether it be packing orders, doing taxes, or finishing up a design. On weekends, I’ll vend at events (in LA and Bay Area) or explore a new cafe to doodle. My small business has become something that makes me my own person outside of work.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been the smoothest. I’ve ran into a lot of errors in manufacturing, whether it was my own mistake or dealing with difficult manufacturers. I had to learn everything about e-commerce on my own: navigating the postal service, researching shop platforms, setting up payments, dealing with taxes. I had to figure out where to buy packaging material at the most efficient cost per piece, as well as establishing a balance of time, money, and sustainability when it comes to product display. Logistics were also difficult, especially during the pandemic years of college when I was hopping between living at my parents’ house in LA and my college apartment in Berkeley. I had to plan shop updates around my academic schedule and personal life. There’s so many little details that I need to cover as a singular person running a shop: updating notices on my website, adjusting shipping prices to reflect USPS increases, creating a post schedule for social media, etc. Now as I work a full-time job, I feel like I have no free time to myself. Every minute that I spend outside of the office, is spent on my shop. For awhile, I struggled with lack of energy to be productive after my 9-5.
I’m also an introvert, so it can be a little tough interacting with customers at tabling events (sometimes I just don’t know what to say.) But I think this is a good opportunity for me to improve how react to the inevitable awkward situations a little better.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Personally, I think I’m still discovering my style. I like drawing little characters in pastel colors, setting them on fun backgrounds of foods, sparkles, and other trinkets. In the community, I think I’m known for my simple, cute designs, my unique handwriting style, and my fun products. I try to make more practical items; I noticed that trinket sales are not always the best anymore because people can only use so many keychains or pins. These practical items (while harder to produce) are also more unique, and can become something I’m known for, especially if I’m one of the first creators to make such item. My most popular items have been my fluffy socks, shot glasses, coasters, hairclips, and glass cups.

Any big plans?
Recently I’ve began making fanart for another K-Pop group, Seventeen. It’s actually been really fun for me as their musical aesthetic matches my art style more. For awhile they also didn’t have official characters, so I’ve started to develop more of a personal design style as I created my own characters for them. Because of this, I feel like I’ve improved a lot as an artist in both skill and confidence. Right now I’m preparing for my first convention outside of K-Pop, where majority of attendees won’t know me beforehand, so I really need to upgrade my display. I drew a lot of new cutouts for decoration and I redid both my table runner and logo sign in my current style, so I look forward to piecing together my display with these new pieces. I hope this can be the first step for me to branch out and gain experience on more creative projects in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pastelstarlost.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/pastelstarlost
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/pastelstarlost

Image Credits
(Not a credit, but the aforementioned event with an upgraded display is next weekend, Feb 22-23. If the story will not be published before then, I’d like to send in a main photo from that event instead!)