This week, I had the pleasure of attending The Victoria Forum.
Across conversations on business, investment, technology, trust, sustainability, and economic growth, one idea continued to return: the role of business in contributing to something beyond itself.
As the founder of a young luxury brand, this left me thinking.
When I first developed the idea for STUDIUM, its purpose was relatively simple. I wanted to explore MIREA YANA’s silk hair ties within an academic environment on Instagram.
Books, libraries, lecture notes, research, and the rituals of study felt particularly natural to me because they reflected something that had always existed at the root of the company: my own relationship with learning and intellectual curiosity.
What began as a visual exploration eventually became something larger.
STUDIUM became the first of MIREA YANA’s worlds—a space where refinement and intellectual curiosity could exist alongside one another.
Following the conversations at The Victoria Forum, however, I began thinking about what it might mean for these ideas to extend beyond aesthetics.
If intellectual curiosity and education are part of the world MIREA YANA represents, could they also shape what the company chooses to support?
I have increasingly found myself thinking about the relationship between profit and purpose. I do not believe the two need to exist in opposition to one another. A company must be financially sustainable in order to grow, invest, create opportunities, and continue building for the future.
But perhaps growth should also create the opportunity to contribute to something beyond the company itself.
This is a question I am beginning to explore through The Dulcinea Initiative, a developing long-term initiative I am centering around education, intellectual curiosity, and opportunity.
As MIREA YANA grows, I hope to develop meaningful ways of supporting education and opportunity for girls, while also exploring ways to contribute within my own community.
That larger vision is still developing—and I think that is alright.
Purpose does not have to arrive fully formed.
Sometimes, it begins with paying attention to what already exists at the heart of what you are building—and asking how it might eventually become something more.
For now, MIREA YANA is taking a first step.
Moving forward, 5% of proceeds from each purchase will be donated to Plan International Canada to support initiatives advancing the rights and opportunities of girls.
I still believe in building a profitable company. During one of the panels I attended, Rita Parikh, Chair of the Board at Vancity, reminded us that we should not be ashamed of being profit-based.
Profit is not the opposite of purpose.
Financial sustainability allows a company to grow, reinvest, create opportunities and, in turn, expand what it is capable of contributing.
I believe in growth, investment, and creating something economically sustainable.
But I also want to ask what that growth can make possible.
For MIREA YANA, perhaps that answer begins with something that was already there from the beginning: the pursuit of knowledge.