For Kathy Cano-Murillo of CraftyChica.com, creativity is at her core. "I've always been a hyper-creative person," she says. "When I was a young girl I remember writing a story and reading it aloud to my class - I was one of the only brown girls and very shy but everyone loved it and they connected with me and cheered and laughed. I anchored on that moment that this is what I want to do - I want to create things and tell stories."
While working as a newspaper columnist, Kathy saw a gap in the craft world she loved. "I looked around and saw that there was almost no representation in craft products and finished goods that represented Latino culture," she recalls. So Kathy got to work. With her husband performing as a musician, Kathy would make her own crafts and sell them at his shows. Her products exploded in popularity but it became too big to manage on her own, so she pivoted her approach. "We became so overwhelmed with orders I realized we could serve our mission by teaching people how to make these things, rather than just selling them," she recalls. "I took everything I learned as a reporter and applied it to my craft blog, Crafty Chica." That strategy worked, by 2007 Kathy was able to pursue Crafty Chica full time – "every year it gets bigger."
