In 2015, I was still a college student. I bought whatever materials I could afford and made simple pieces at home. Then I packed everything into an old car and drove to Batu Ferringhi night market after class, night after night, setting up a wobbly table under harsh lights, trying to earn my way forward. Some nights it rained. Some nights no one stopped. Some nights people told me I didn’t belong there. Sundays were spent at Hin Bus Depot, selling whatever I could make by hand that week, stone necklaces, beaded bracelets, wire-wrapped rings, small earrings made from whatever I could afford. Every sale mattered, because it wasn’t extra money. It was rent. Food. College fees. Just getting by depended on those tiny handmade pieces. There was no brand yet. No logo, no website, no plan that looked impressive on paper. But the heart was already there. Make something honest. Make something meaningful. Make something that makes a stranger feel seen for a second.

In 2017, with savings from those nights and pop-ups, I founded MYJN from a small rented room in Penang. In those early days, someone close to me joined parts of the journey and helped. The name MYJN was originally inspired by initials. But what it grew into became bigger than any one person. It became a place for intention. For design that isn’t loud. For pieces that sit close to the body and quietly become part of someone’s life. While we were still small, I did what needed to be done, even when it felt like too much: In the early years I carried everything I could carry: registering the company, paying upfront, sourcing, designing, packing, writing every product page, marketing, events, campaigns, replying to every customer, fixing problems at 3 a.m, then waking up to do it again. It was not glamorous. It was devotion. There were no holidays and no safety net. There was only the quiet belief that if I stayed long enough, the work would speak.

Then you found us.

By 2020, something changed. Not because we became louder, but because you kept coming back. You told your friends. You chose our pieces for birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs, hard weeks, fresh starts, quiet self-gifts. You wrote messages that we still remember. You made a small studio feel possible. You were not just buying jewellery. You were telling us, keep going. And because you did, MYJN began to grow into what it was always trying to become.

With encouragement from a new friend who believed deeply in the vision, we made a big decision. We moved to Kuala Lumpur and opened a small studio. It wasn’t fancy, but it was ours. A space to create, to build, to make decisions slowly, to refine our voice. It has never been about trends or hype. It has always been about making things that feel real and honest. Jewellery that does not shout. Jewellery that stays.

There was also a year that tested everything.

2022 was the hardest year. A team member left, our relationship ended painfully. It was painfu, and it forced me to rebuild with clarity, boundaries, and a deeper commitment to the work. The studio felt different. Everything slowed. I carried a quiet sadness, and each day felt heavier than the last., and the studio felt heavier than it used to. Some nights I stayed long after everyone went home, often until midnight, sitting at the same desk, keeping things moving through the quiet. I did not turn it into content. I did not ask anyone to take sides. I chose to protect the work, the people still here, and the customers who only ever asked us for one thing: keep making something beautiful and true. I learned that hardship either makes you perform, or it makes you become precise.

I keep personal chapters private. The work is what we stand behind.

In 2023, a new teammate joined us quietly. She began with fulfilment and customer messages, learning the rhythm of MYJN detail by detail. But from the beginning, she saw the brand with unusual clarity. Where we saw routine, she saw opportunity. Where we saw familiar, she saw room to grow. Over time she moved from the packing table to campaign planning, from inboxes to art direction. She never asked for a title. She earned it. JX became our Creative Director through presence, care, and taste. Through her lens, MYJN matured. We became more intentional. More focused. More ourselves.

In 2024, we opened our first showroom in SS2, Petaling Jaya. Not as a trophy, but as a place to meet you properly. A space to slow down, try pieces on, and feel the shift when something belongs on your skin. It also marked the beginning of our Atelier and Object lines, because MYJN has always been bigger than jewellery. It is a way of treating objects as carriers of memory, weight, and presence.