From “Aggie Brat” to “Aggie Mom,” Princess Creations likely has a design that can pair perfectly with any style of Aggie spirit. The artist behind the work, biomedical sciences senior Melissa Cubas, began selling custom canvas paintings before her modern-day success with totes, keychains, buttons and more.
Cubas said she began her business — centered around her Instagram account @princess.creationz — in 2021 after a childhood in New York City, where she grew up in a culture that deeply valued art and creativity. She attributed her passion for design to the city and to her supportive family that always motivated her to pursue her artistic passion.
“There’s a lot of graffiti in New York,” Cubas said. “That was always so pretty and inspiring to me. I would point it out and be like, ‘That is so pretty. I want to make something like that.’”
Cubas’ first semester in Aggieland was the first time she wasn’t working while going to school. With few expectations, she said she took a chance and used her creative ability to start Princess Creations.
“I had never imagined how much it would grow in just the one year when I began in 2021,” Cubas said. “I began seeing people wear something that I created and designed with my own mind, and it just inspired me to keep going and just building it into what it is today.”
Painting custom canvases was time consuming and became hard for Cubas to manage while staying focused on pursuing her degree — but then she discovered Canva.
“I started just designing Aggie-themed designs,” Cubas said.
When at Michaels the following summer, she used the first paycheck from her new job to buy a button maker. The following semester, she launched a button collection centered around Aggie football’s game day.
“Instantly, [my] DMs were being flooded,” Cubas said. “I was gaining followers, and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is so cool.’”
Cubas said seeing people wearing her designs and feeling good about them has been one of the most rewarding parts of Princess Creations.
“It’s almost like a confirmation as to I’m doing something right at the end of the day,” Cubas said.
When Cubas graduates in December, Princess Creations will not be left behind. She said she has plans to expand the business online before hopefully going to physician assistant school.
“I’ve had this idea since I started Princess Creations, but because I do gain a lot of local traffic in College Station and balancing that with my school responsibilities, it just makes it hard to manage both local and online [sales],” Cubas said.
At the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship’s Student Marketplace, Cubas was a vendor along with other student-owned businesses. Cubas said the Student Marketplace is a great start for student entrepreneurs, but she wished A&M would host the markets more often or even do it outside Kyle Field on game days.
“I think universities can really start showing off their student entrepreneurs by hosting more markets on campus,” Cubas said.
Her advice to college students thinking about opening their own business? Take that leap of faith.
“My advice is very simple: just start it,” Cubas said. “I actually had this idea of starting Princess Creations two years before I actually did it, and if I had known how much growth I would experience in just those two years, I would have started way sooner.”