BUYE Stickers aims to promote acceptance, inclusion, and diversity

Following last year’s racial incidents, two St. Joe’s students found a new and creative way to spread positivity on campus. Daniela Lugo ’22 and Maria Fernanda Medina ’22 started BUYE Stickers, an Instagram-based sticker company, in August 2019 with the goal of creating more positivity on campus at St. Joe’s.

When thinking about how to go about spreading positivity, the duo felt they had to come up with something original and customizable for different personalities. Medina said she felt stickers would be a way to accomplish this goal because everyone uses them differently.

“We wanted to do something that would bring awareness to campus and bring inclusion and diversity and acceptance,” Lugo said. “It’s just reminding people about these things with everything that goes around at school.”

The company currently has four designs for sale at $4 a piece. Medina sketches the designs using Procreate, a digital sketch app. 

To Medina, designing a sticker is much more personal and versatile than other branding. Medina said, putting stickers on things like laptops and water bottles is more unique and creative than getting a logo printed on something like a t-shirt or sweatpants. 

BUYE Sticker’s most popular product is the “Floreciendo Juntas,” which translates to “Blooming Together” in English, and is currently sold out. The sticker depicts three fists with different skin tones and nail colors rising from colorful flowers. When designing the stickers, particularly this one, Lugo and Medina wanted certain symbols to be crystal clear.

“We wanted [to focus on] women,’’ Medina said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from as long as we support each other we can come up and do great things.”

Megan Filipski ’21 found out about BUYE Stickers after Lugo and Medina announced its creation at a chapter meeting for Delta Sigma Pi, a business fraternity at St. Joe’s. 

Filipski said that her and other members of the fraternity loved the idea of a sticker business that promotes diversity and inclusion.

“I think it’s a great idea, especially using stickers, because for college students I know a lot of people who put them on water bottles or laptops,” Filipski said. “I feel like having that message spread around is definitely something St. Joe’s needs a little bit more of.”

Lugo and Medina met their first year at St. Joe’s after rooming together in McShain Residence Hall. Both are from Puerto Rico but didn’t formally meet and become friends until coming to St. Joe’s. The two had actually been tennis rivals in high school and never thought they would one day be roommates, let alone run a business together.

Their home of Puerto Rico has influenced one sticker in particular. Lugo said the “Tropicaleoooo” sticker is inspired directly by a memory from time spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the nation’s capital.

“If you go to Puerto Rico, go to Old San Juan,” Lugo said. “If you go there you’re gonna see ice cream trucks and they always sell passion fruit, mango, and coconut.” At the center of the sticker are the three fruits with “Tropicaleoooo” written behind them in bright neon green.

While the duo dips into their heritage when designing their stickers, they said they purposely choose not to solely rely on that for inspiration. 

While Lugo and Medina associate with and are friends with other Puerto Rican students, they wanted their friend group to be more diverse.

“A lot of people were [asking] us, ‘Oh, you guys are Puerto Rican so do you usually hang out with [other Puerto Ricans]?’” Medina said. “We’re like, ‘No we hang out with everyone.’ We also wanted to include that in our stickers.”

With more than half of the original inventory of stickers sold in just over a month and plans to eventually add more designs, Lugo and Medina show no signs of slowing down.

“Once we sell these ones we want to maybe partner with the fraternities and sororities if they want to and hear what they want to do for designs,” Lugo said.

While the mission of BUYE Stickers is to celebrate and promote diversity, Lugo feels that shouldn’t mean commonalities don’t exist.

“Remember we’re all the same in the end,” Lugo said. “It’s all about keeping a positive mindset. If we can expand the business and provide St. Joe’s with more personalized things, we really want to have that interaction”

For more information on the stickers and other designs, check out the business’s Instagram account @buyestickers.