Rowan was nine when a black car passed his street in Penang. He asked his father why they didn’t have one.

“Those don’t come easy, kid.”

Most mornings, his father had left for work before Rowan woke. Most nights, he heard him come home as he was falling asleep. He wanted to build something that could make life easier for his family. Something they could point to with quiet pride.

At eighteen, he was studying for a full-time degree while working in direct sales, insurance and property. He put his lectures into one long day to leave the other weekdays free for work. Weekends too.

At college, people asked whether he had a presentation. His shirt and formal trousers were for the work he had to go to afterwards. Between classes and work, there was little time left for anything else.

Much of that time was spent learning the property business from his cousin, a strict boss he respected. Once, he asked whether his cousin wanted to spend more time with his little boy. His cousin smiled and said nothing.

Rowan thought of his father coming home late.

He remembers those years as some of the happiest of his life, as well as the hardest. He liked having something to work towards. He was finding out what he could do.

Rowan had been selling things since secondary school. By 2014, he was building businesses online, including Rokva, his earlier jewellery business. An early suggestion to try women’s jewellery helped shape the direction.

He eventually left employment and, in 2017, founded MYJN from a rented room in Penang.

His father had doubts about the decision. Still, he found Rowan a room to rent in a friend’s house.

Rowan built the website, worked on products and advertising, answered customer messages and handled aftersales. When he was frightened the business might fail, he worked harder. MYJN took up more of his life than he had meant it to.

As graduation approached, his cousin offered him a way back into employment. It meant doing work he enjoyed, with someone he trusted. MYJN was still trying to become profitable.

He smiled and declined.

He couldn’t say when MYJN would get better. He still wanted to find out.

Rowan began asking questions on Reddit and in Facebook groups where other people were trying to build businesses online.

One conversation began at eleven at night. The person on the other end worked in digital marketing. They spoke for about an hour. Rowan still remembers that someone he had never met took the time to help.

He put the advice into practice. They stayed in touch and became friends.

Then came the Merdeka sale.

On 31 August 2018, MYJN took in more revenue than on any day before it. After so long trying to make the business work, Rowan could finally see a way forward.

He still doesn’t know whether MYJN would be here without that day. It is why he chose the date for his letter.

Later, he moved to the Klang Valley so he and his friend could work more closely. The person he had met on a forum became the person he shared an office with.

In 2022, Rowan’s relationship ended, and the person who had shared his working life left MYJN.

The work was still there every morning. So was much of what hurt. Customers needed answers, products needed attention, and Rowan was trying to find his way through a life that had changed.

He called his cousin for the first time in years. Their conversation lasted about a minute. Then his cousin called back.

The advice was blunt: forgive, let go, get on with life. Rowan found something funny and comforting in being scolded by him again. The next day, he went back to work on MYJN.

He kept MYJN going, working with freelance photographers and content creators on new imagery for the brand.

He could have changed the name and started another business. But he had built this one from Rokva into MYJN. There were customers who trusted it, years of work he was proud of, and ideas he still wanted to see through.

He wanted a new life. He still wanted MYJN in it.

JX joined MYJN in 2023. She began with stockkeeping and packing orders, getting to know the pieces through the everyday work of looking after them.

Photography was new to her. Rowan shared what he knew, starting with ISO and shutter speed. She taught herself much of what followed and developed her own eye.

MYJN’s creative campaigns began with JX. Her work changed how we presented our jewellery: the scale of a piece against the body, the space around it, the way a curve catches the light.

Today, she leads our art direction and model shoots as Creative Director. Rowan leads product and business direction. The MYJN you see now owes a great deal to her work.

She is also the person he loves.

“JX gave me a new life. I want to give her a good one."

For years, he had given almost every hour to building a future. With JX, he wants to make time to enjoy it. To have memories that are about more than getting through another working day. To spend time together before everything is finished, knowing there will always be more to do.

We are prouder of our current collections and photography than we have ever been.

We notice forms in ordinary things: the curve of a shophouse door handle, the shape of a halved cacao pod. In the jewellery, we keep returning to proportion. Where an earring ends beside your face. How much of your hand a ring occupies. What happens to a curve when you move.

We want jewellery with presence that feels natural on you. Something you notice in a photograph and enjoy even more once you put it on.

We work in small batches. Each piece is checked before it leaves us and packed by hand. You can read about our materials and come to us for care and repair advice as you wear it.

Since the changes in 2022, MYJN has received more than 20,000 orders, including many from returning customers.

When you return, you already know something of us. You have given us a chance before and choose us again. We want that next experience to be worth your trust.

Perhaps it’s a ring you notice when you reach for a glass. Or earrings that make you tuck your hair back, just to see them again. Your usual clothes, with something that makes you a little happier to be wearing them.

There doesn’t have to be an occasion. Liking it on yourself is reason enough.

What we hope comes afterwards is harder to show in a photograph. The piece you pack for a trip. The one you reach for without looking. The small feeling that something is missing when you’ve left it at home.

Over time, it may stop feeling like a new purchase and become one of your things. A favourite. Something that has been with you in places we will never see, on days we will never hear about.

The long after. That’s what we make for.

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MYJN is pronounced letter by letter: M-Y-J-N.