HyphenBox Solves Gift-Giving Challenges

Deena Birashk and her mother Shahira Qudrat came up with the idea for The HyphenBox while looking for a birthday gift for Shahira’s sister. Shahira’s sister had everything. They couldn’t think of anything that she needed or wanted. They decided to make a gift box that was more than one filled with soap, candles, and sometimes a bottle of wine. Their gift box would be much more personal.

Deena and Shahira decided to create a gift that would give Americans who identified as “hyphenated” a connection to their heritage and culture. That is an Afghan-American or Chinese-American would receive a gift box filled with items that were relevant to their heritage. Each box included a doll dressed in a costume representing the country. In some cases, its might be different regions of the country. While each gift box had a doll the other times would be unique to the culture. For example the Chinese-American box might have a miniature tea cup with a tea bag of green tea.

How Deena and Shahira Work Together

As with any product-based business there is the question of sourcing supplies and materials. In the case of The HyphenBox sourcing is even more important. Where the items are sourced makes a difference in their uniqueness. Etsy is a good place to find hand-made gifts while supporting local artisans. Deena connects with her friends at school in Riverside CA as to what would be good for the Mexican-American, Desi-American, and Chinese-American boxes.

Of course there are many more hyphenated-American boxes they could design. Some are even in the works now. If there is something you would like to see designed contact Deena and Shahira through their website at https://www.hyphenbox.com/contact.

While Shahira does a good deal of the sourcing Deena handles the social media. She finds Instagram to be the best platform right now. Although she is experimenting with TikTok. However sales have been made over Instagram and their market is known to follow Instagram for new ideas.

Learn more about The Hyphen-Box and what Deena thinks about being a young female entrepreneur through their video below. You can also hear our interview on the Enterprising Young Females Show found on iTunes and here on our website.