We recently had the chance to connect with Aubrey Stevens and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Aubrey, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Life lately has been quite busy. Most days, I wake up and am greeted by my dog, Cookie, who runs over and collapses into my arms for morning snuggles. Then, I brew myself a cup of coffee, toast a bagel and enjoy them while catching up with my emails and messages. I quickly do a run through of my day–do I have appointments or errands that need to be run? Are there packages that need to be shipped? Before diving headfirst into work. My focus lately has been on the website I’ve been building for the past year with my partner Danny, Mavira. Mavira will be launching in mid-November and is an online marketplace designed to help you discover your personal style and find you products that match it from small businesses and secondhand sources. To do this, we analyze images you upload using AI and will cater results to each user. For the past month or so, I’ve been spending most of my days coding, filing paperwork, designing graphics, reaching out to people, or any number of other tasks that we need to do to prepare for our launch mid-November. So, I will typically spend most of my day working on any number of these things, while still fulfilling orders for my other business, Hot Girl Secondhand, where I sell secondhand clothing, shoes, and accessories.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi, I’m Aubrey Stevens, co-founder of Mavira AI and founder of Hot Girl Secondhand. I’ve been a small business owner in the world of E-commerce since I was in high school with my company, Hot Girl Secondhand, selling secondhand vintage and designer pieces. I did this for several years as a small side-hustle and turned it into my job last year, after I graduated from college and was facing health-issues that made it difficult for me to work a 9-5 job. Operating my own business offered me the flexibility I needed while addressing these issues and still being able to support myself. My experience owning a small e-commerce business inspired me to create Mavira. We built Mavira to make shopping from small businesses and secondhand sources more accessible to users. I noticed that my friends and I would often spend hours scouring the internet to find unique and interesting clothing from secondhand markets or niche businesses–often with prices similar to those of fast-fashion giants. While this was fun sometimes, it was often tedious, and I realized most people weren’t able to put in this kind of effort to find pieces from non-fast-fashion sources. I then understood that part of the reason so many people bought fast-fashion was not only because of the prices but because of the convenience. I wondered if we made shopping from small brands and secondhand sources as convenient as shopping for fast-fashion, if we could get people to shop more sustainably. This is why we created Mavira. We hope that you’ll make the decision to shop responsibly and check out www.maviraai.com and sign up for our waitlist.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I’ve always been someone who cares deeply about others. I’ve never been able to stand seeing others suffering and in pain, and have always vowed to dedicate my life to helping others in any way possible. I was the kid who emptied her Barbie wallet and gave it to the homeless woman on the street corner and tried to convince my parents to adopt the blind dog at the animal shelter. Above all else, I have always cared about others and tried to figure out what I can do to make the greatest positive impact on the world. This has always been the driving force behind me and still is today. This is what I hope to do with Mavira, to help people with small businesses and give an alternative to spending exorbitant fees to advertise with Google, Facebook, etc, only to be outspent by larger retailers. In doing this, I hope to help small businesses grow and give people better shopping alternatives to purchase things they love instead of things they will wear once and throw away.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
There are several times I have almost given up. For the last several years, I have had the misfortune of dealing with a multitude of health issues. From chronic migraines to having my gallbladder removed, they have been quite serious and difficult to deal with. About 1.5 years ago was probably the darkest period of my life. I had SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and my thyroid had stopped working. As a result, I had to go on medical leave from school and became quite depressed. I thought my family would be there for me, but they weren’t, so I had to deal with everything myself. There were many times if I contemplated if I should finish school, if I still had a purpose, and if I would even live (I didn’t know what was wrong for several months, just that I was in excruciating pain), but I made it through. I think that facing such difficulties gave me the confidence to truly believe that you can do anything if you set my mind to it and that life is short, so you might as well just do the thing you’re thinking about.
During this time, I started posting on the public Instagram account I built up during high school, which really helped me unleash my creative side and stay connected with my peers. I’m still running my page with over 25k followers, @aubreyyystevens, posting fashion and beauty related content (although less frequently lately due to my focus on Mavira).
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
I think I rely a lot on my mom’s ideas. She came to the US when she was a child as a refugee from Vietnam and has worked extremely hard her entire life. Even through hardship, she is able to maintain a positive outlook on life, and I’ve taken that to heart. She taught me that no matter what you’re going through, if you can work hard and look ahead, you’ll succeed, so that’s what I’ve done with my life. I’ve been given significantly more opportunities than she was afforded and never want to take any of them for granted, so I try my best to work hard with what I’m given and be grateful for everything. Even when things seem difficult or aren’t going like I expected them to, I try to realize how fortunate I am to be living the life I am and be surrounded by people I love. No matter what you’re going through, you can find something to get you through it.
My mother is also the person who introduced me to fashion as a form of self-expression. Growing up, she was always sewing something and would frequently take me on shopping trips–typically just to look at clothes. She always wanted to try her hand at fashion design–something she never got the opportunity to do. This inspired me to always be creative with my style, even when I was focused on bioengineering degree. This would prove useful as I would end up launching Hot Girl Secondhand and soon I’ll be launching Mavira.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
I personally believe that you should do things for yourself, not for the approval of others, so I believe that I would still do everything the same, even if no one ever praised me for it. I’ve had the choice many times in my life to choose between doing things that would get me the most approval from others and things that I find personally fulfilling and have typically chosen things that I find fulfilling. There have been many moments where my family or friends have told me that they don’t understand what I’m doing or feel like I should follow another path, but I like to follow my gut (even if I did have to get my gallbladder removed from it). I just know that if I don’t pursue the things I feel passionate about that I’ll live to regret them later and that’s something I never want, and to me, this feeling will always override my need for others’ approval.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.maviraai.com
- Instagram: @aubreyyystevens
