Celebrating OwlCrate's 11th Birthday: Q&A With Korrina

Being able to celebrate our love of stories with book lovers all over the world. I am so proud that we get to do this while also collaborating with so many fantastic artists, small businesses, authors, and readers. 

Every single book project ends up involving so many different talented people throughout the journey from concept to delivered book. I love that we can all come together to make beautiful editions for people to enjoy and treasure.

OwlCrate is turning 11, so I have over a decade of wonderful memories! But the one memory that consistently sticks out to me was when we were exhibiting at BookCon in 2017. 

One of our subscribers came to our booth to introduce herself to me, and it was a very emotional meeting. She shared with me how receiving her OwlCrate box each month brought her so much joy, especially as she had been going through a really tough time in her life. Getting her subscription was one of the few things she did just for herself. 

We ended up having a little cry together, and it was a beautiful and vulnerable moment. It also really opened up my eyes for the first time as to how this business, and books in general, bring so much happiness to people. Books are so much more than just a ‘product’.

My reading taste has changed so much! In the early days of OwlCrate, I read almost exclusively contemporary YA novels, and you can see this reflected in the books we chose in our first couple of years.

Despite feeling like fantasy wasn’t my thing, I slowly started reading more YA fantasy books for OwlCrate and began to find subgenres of fantasy that I adored. That’s one of the things I love about book boxes—they open you up to different genres and books than you might not have chosen on your own, and that’s true even for me!

Today, my tastes are varied, and while I still love young adult books, I tend to read way more adult fantasy. I was 26 when I started OwlCrate, and I’ll be 38 this year, so I feel like my tastes have aged up as I have!

I did enjoy creative writing in my teens and early twenties, but I’ll be honest in that I don’t see myself becoming an author. I do have a concept for a book in my head, but I’d love to just hand it off to someone much more talented than me to execute it into an actual story. I really just want to read it, not write it myself, haha.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some truly wonderful places over the past couple of years (one perk of having a fully remote business is that you can bring your laptop wherever you go!). Some highlights that come to mind for me are Switzerland and Vietnam.

Switzerland felt like stepping into a fairytale—the landscape was incredibly beautiful, and the towns we visited felt so family-friendly with the most amazing playgrounds I’ve ever seen! I felt like I could happily live there, and my son says it’s his favorite place he’s ever been.

I visited Vietnam this past December, and it was unlike anywhere I had been before. Every nook and alleyway felt like it held its own unique story, and that you could spend a lifetime exploring even just one city/town and never see all of its secrets. It’s hard for me to describe exactly why it felt so special to me, though, I feel like you just need to go experience it for yourself (and be sure to try all of their amazing coffee drinks while you’re there)!

How to play the violin! It’s definitely my favorite instrument to listen to, so I hope to take lessons one day.

Best: “Done is better than perfect.” You can spend your whole life getting stuck trying to make things perfect and never actually launch/do anything. Make the ‘thing’ exist first, and then you can polish and perfect it as you go.

Worst: “Why would you even want to start a book subscription box company? That’s what Amazon is for.” This was said to us by a family member when we were first starting out, and I’ve never forgotten it. We knew that what we wanted to build was a unique, tangible experience and a vibrant community that marketplaces like Amazon simply don’t offer. I’m so glad we didn’t listen to ‘advice’ like this!

Despite being fairly shy/introverted, I always dreamed of owning my own business. Back in my teens/early twenties, I imagined that it would be a brick-and-mortar store, simply because e-commerce wasn’t exploding like it is now. I think my younger self would be flabbergasted by the fact that I started an online business that has grown into such a crazy thing!

Even just comparing the early days of OwlCrate to where we are now, over ten years later, so much has changed. I think she would be amazed at how much our products have expanded into multiple subscriptions, limited edition books and boxes, events, a really cool community app, etc…and I think she would be floored by the idea of managing a team of nearly 35 people (for many years it was just myself, my partner Robert, and a few of our friends running the show).

I couldn’t do any of this without the support of my team and our amazing community, but I’m also really proud of myself for never giving up during the hard times over the years.

The first thing that came to mind was Ronan’s ability to take things from his dreams in The Raven Cycle…however, if you’ve read those books, you know sometimes that is more of a curse than a blessing, haha!

I’ve been going through a bit of a ‘lady knight’ phase, and I’m LOVING it. Some books that I’ve really enjoyed recently include The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (our OwlCrate edition is SO special to me!), The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, and The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino. I also can’t wait to continue this reading path and dive into The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri next!

Traveling and exploring new places with my friends and family, spending time with my amazing 7-year-old son, collecting sea glass at the beach, doing tons of jigsaw puzzles, and supporting my local businesses/artisans—I love a good farmer’s market or craft fair!