Founders Spotlight: Julia Min 04 ID
Celebrating RISD’s alumni founders and entrepreneurs
We celebrate RISD founders by remembering their work and shining a light on the entrepreneurial spirit that remains strong in our students and alumni. In this series, alumni founders share thoughts on getting started, taking risks, and how their education prepared them to create something entirely their own.
Julia Min 04 ID is the founder of TWELVElittle, A fashion accessories company that designs stylish, modern diaper bags and other parenting accessories
After being in the fashion handbag industry and designing for New York companies like Coach and Juicy Couture for over 10 years, I found myself struggling to find a stylish and yet functional diaper bag when I was expecting my first child. There were many existing stylish and very expensive designer diaper bags and also extremely practical but boring diaper bags out there, but there was definitely a need for a diaper bag that combined the two worlds.
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For sustainable success, it ultimately comes down to balancing grit and kindness. You need to keep pushing forward no matter what wall comes your way––there will be endless trials and unexpected setbacks in every stage of running a business. And at the same time, you need to remember to be compassionate with your team and business partners because at the end of the day, you are nothing without your team.
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My time at RISD, studying Industrial Design, were some of the most meaningful years of my life. It was definitely challenging with many sleepless nights and adopting a lot of unhealthy habits, such as drinking coffee like it's water. But all the stress from professors' critiques and criticism has really helped me become stronger. In the real world, not everyone will love what you do or approve of your work. RISD taught me how to receive constructive criticism and have confidence in my ideas.
The ideas that led to the founding of RISD were nurtured by a small group of women who had joined forces to raise funds for Rhode Island’s contribution to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. In 1877—four decades before women in the US gained the right to vote—Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf and the 34 other members of the Rhode Island Women’s Centennial Commission invested their group’s surplus in founding a school of art and design.
In 1877, 35 women, armed with $1,675 and a vision, founded RISD. Understanding that a school for art and design could produce world-changing critical thinkers and makers, the founders were innovators whose impact stretches across the globe.
