Why Did A Scientist Open An Etsy Shop?

Nov 29

HINT: My friends are also academics

I’m a scientist and I have a career that I love. Why did I then open an Etsy shop?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t enjoy exchanging gifts that much.

I feel like everybody ends up spending a lot more than they intend to, unsure of whether the person is actually going to like their present. And it’s quite hard to anticipate what the other person needs.

On the other hand, I’m trying to keep a simple lifestyle, and gifts, if not well-targeted, may leave me with yet another thing to declutter. Buy me experiences instead!

However, I live in a society, even if I sometimes pretend that I don’t.

And I sometimes need to give friends and family a gift for special occasions.

On the other hand, I’m an academic, or I was… I guess I will always be since I still hold an adjunct professorship position.

And my friends graduated, got married, turned older, and had kids…. lots of little nerdy humans raised by an amazing generation of brilliant scientists.

I didn't want to gift them things they didn’t need. I wanted something meaningful.

So I designed these when my paleoanthropologist friends had children:

These for the Marine Biologists:

And these to have some fun in the department:

Designs for adults, for multiple occasions.

I will explain the meaning behind some of the adult designs in another post, no worries :)

Some time last year, I run into some video or post where someone explained that they had started selling their “fun with friends and family” designs on Etsy and found out that others also found them funny and helpful.

So why not then?!

Maybe there are other people out there looking for a meaningful gift for that nerdy person in their life. Maybe someone wants to celebrate their student’s PhD graduation.

Whatever the case, here they are.

If you check them out, let me know which one (if any) made you smile!

Check my store here!