On a cool Sunday night, while most seniors are on their phones, watching Tik Tok or texting their friends, Anna Kim is carefully crafting her next pair of earrings, this time opting to tie into her brand name “strawberries by anna’ with a strawberry theme.

Kim uses polymer clay to shape earrings, and once shaped, they are popped into the oven. Out of the oven they get painted carefully and put on earring backings. She was inspired to do this by a Youtube video she saw during the pandemic. 

   “I already enjoyed painting, and I was super bored during online school,” Kim said. She has been painting since she was a toddler and wanted to share her creations with the world, so she started posting her art online in middle school. The idea of making clay earrings instantly captivated her during quarantine, and after a while of researching the topic, she graduated to selling what she made.

   Senior Marcel Ramji, a customer of Kim’s, first bought a ring of hers. “I liked it so much I came back for earrings,” Ramji said. He found out about the sales through her Instagram page, @strawberriesbyanna_.

Kim’s mom, Sharon Kim, has seen Anna grow into selling her art. “Since age 2 or 3 she was interested in sketching with pen, pencil, marker, and watercolor. She loved drawing pictures.” 

   As she grew older, Anna continued crafting, sometimes using play dough and paper scraps to make things. Her love of reading picture books from an early age inspired her to pursue arts, first exposing her to bright, colorful images. “She has always been fascinated with beautiful and colorful trinkets and figures,” her mother said.

   Kim’s artsiness shows how people are never too young to start pursuing hobbies professionally. What may have once seemed like an unrealistic venture is now a source of income for her, while doing what she genuinely loves. In addition to Instagram, her products can be found under strawberriesbyanna on Etsy.