When Sarah Rohira first began taking art commissions at 12, it was driven by a love for art and design, and an appreciation for the online creators she followed who were involved in similar artistic endeavors. Today, at 16, those same interests have motivated her to found her very own, self-run small business, which she’s called Kryptic Creates.
“I was a very chronically online YouTube kid,” Rohira said. “I would watch a lot of artists I looked up to in the form of videos, and that kind of influenced my art style and influenced me to want to make characters and want to try and make worldbuilding for them.”
Although Rohira is passionate about many activities, such as chemistry and volunteering, art has always been a big part of her life. Starting from a young age, she’s been developing a unique art style, creating characters and working on creative projects, with Kryptic Creates being the largest undertaking yet. According to Rohira, her passion has always been her guiding light.
“I think that I’m a very driven person because of my passions,” Rohira explained. “When I want to start a project, I tend to kind of find people I know and start right away, because I do love creating, and I love seeing the impact it has on other people.”
This was precisely what Rohira did when she decided she wanted to found Kryptic Creates. Through the business, Rohira sells merchandise of her own characters, along with some that feature pop culture icons or music artists, in the form of keychains, stickers and tote bags. It first began as an idea she had after helping design merchandise as the treasurer of DVHS’s Key Club.
“I had been seeing a lot of these art conventions near my area. A lot of the artists that I look up to do have their own merch store or booths, and that’s what inspired me to start drawing, and that’s also what inspired me to make some merch of my own,” she said. “I had been making merch as part of [Key Club], and I established our store, and when I got to see people buying stuff and being really happy with what they got, it made me very happy, and it made me want to pursue that as one of my projects.”
After completing the early drafts of a few of the initial designs, Rohira reached out to Arissa Cheng, another junior at DVHS.
“Sarah reached out to me basically saying how she wants to start selling keychains and stuff, and how she wants to have a stand at FOTA,” Cheng explained. “So I wanted to help her in that process.”
Together, Cheng and Rohira set up a bookkeeping forum to track expenses, and have started an Instagram account, where they plan to post details such as pricing and availability for any future web orders.
“She’s been awesome helping with logistics and helping with going to sell at this upcoming FOTA,” Rohira added. “She’s very helpful with helping with managing things, especially with all our commitments during school time.”
Additionally, Rohira plans to get the word out about Kryptic Creates at DVHS’s Festival of the Arts (FOTA).
“I’m hoping to start at DVHS, at least now, just at FOTA, but during the summer I really want to expand to children’s business fairs, to gain a broader audience of, hopefully, art fanatics like myself,” Rohira said.
As these plans are already well underway, the first shipment of merchandise has already been ordered, but in the future, Rohira said, the new tariff policies may impact the business’s pricing and sales strategies.
“Luckily, we did order a lot of the keychains and stuff before the tariffs ended up impacting our Chinese manufacturer, but, yeah, there’s going to be an import tax on US citizens, which is kind of a bummer,” she said. “We’re trying to see how we can adapt with the sales in that aspect, and that’s partially the reason why I wanted to shift to also [selling] handmade keychains too.”
Rohira also expressed her feelings on how the tariffs would affect many small businesses owners, especially those who rely on their businesses financially.
“Tariffs have been a big impact on small businesses that nobody really talks about, just because the tariffs kind of are seen as on groceries and on all those things,” Rohira described. “But nobody really talks about small creators, who have to earn an income based on what they save. And although I don’t personally base my sole income on this business, I feel for a lot of the creators who are struggling due to these widespread taxes.”
“One of the ways that the business has kind of influenced me is my art style has kind of become the face of what I want the business to be, and so I’ve been trying to design characters that are in similar art styles, and make sure the proportions are right,” she explained.
Cheng echoed similar sentiments, finding that founding Kryptic Creates has also led to an improvement in her and Rohira’s academic skill sets.
“I think it has helped us become stronger in communication, and also kind of learning how to do something that’s not necessarily school-affiliated and take ownership into doing something we would like to do,” she said. “It helps build our individual characters and helps strengthen our skills as students.”
For Rohira, the encouragement of her friends, classmates and teachers was instrumental in helping her persevere through roadblocks.
“I want to thank Mrs. Wengel. I’m very happy with what FOTA has become,” she said. “I really want to also share my thanks to Arissa, and the people in AP Art, because people have been so supportive with trying to go for these challenges with logistics and things like that.”
Rohira also credits the entrepreneurial spirits of her peers at DVHS for invigorating her own, and influencing her to turn her love for art into something bigger.
“I think that kind of what inspired me, is just seeing a lot of people—from nails to baked goods—it’s been awesome seeing people being able to sell their crafts or their talents,” she remarked. “Everyone here is very ambitious and very driven, and when you mix that with what you’ve been passionate about for years, I think that can make something that’s awesome.”
