In the heart of Southeast Queens, one creative entrepreneur is proving that big empowerment can come in small packages.
Kamille Cooper is a Rochdale resident and self-taught creative. After clocking out of her 9-to-5 marketing job, the 35-year-old entrepreneur spends her evenings on her e-commerce business, She Got The Juice. This Queens-born brand celebrates boldness, individuality, and empowerment through unique lapel pins, patches, and accessories.
For Cooper, She Got the Juice started as a holiday gift to friends and family in 2018. Cooper explained that she would create annual holiday cards for friends, and at that time, she decided to share an empowering message for the New Year. “The card said women empowered on the front of it. Then, I ended up having some extra art that I had designed that I wanted to do something with. And I was like, “You know what? I’m going to just try to turn this into a lapel pin.”
Cooper said she wanted her friends to wear the pin as a reminder of the message of female empowerment. “Everyone loved that set. Everyone loved the card,” she said. So much so that when their friends saw them wear it, there were questions like, “Where did you get this?”
Cooper said she welcomed the enthusiasm and was inspired to launch her brand. Although she was apprehensive at the time since she had never operated an e-commerce business, she decided to move forward. By August 2019, Cooper officially launched She Got The Juice with five unique pins. Later that year, she did a small business pop-up, and from there, she built momentum. “I thought it was going to be done in December 2019, but something told me, you know what? Just keep it going,” she said.
As the pandemic brought the world to a standstill in 2020, social issues encompassing police brutality in the Black community became a focal point for Cooper’s business. “I believe that there were many of us that were just frustrated by everything going on with this massive pandemic, but at the same time, black people were literally being murdered for doing nothing other than just being Black, if we’re being quite honest,” she said.
Cooper said she wanted to do something to show that she stood with her community. She launched a collection of three pins, “Black Lives Matter,” “Protect Black Women,” and ‘Protect Black Men,’ and donated half of the proceeds from the sales to Black Women’s Blueprint, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit. “My intention was not to make money off it but to pour back into the community,” she said.
After the pandemic, Cooper continued doing small business pop-ups and has found success in partnering with corporate organizations and selling her pins and patches for wholesale at their internal events. Additionally, in March, Cooper launched affirmation cards. As someone who uses affirmations constantly and hypes up her friends with unique, uplifting phrases, Cooper was inspired to impart similar impactful phrases to her audience. “One of the things that I sometimes notice is that they can maybe feel a little bit soft,” she said.
“Like I hype my girls up in a very different way than I see what’s available. So for me, I wanted to do something where it really resonated in a way that… it just like speaks to us, especially,” she said. “I mean, they’re for everyone, but of course, there’s also a special emphasis on the Black voice and how we talk to ourselves.”
Cooper’s art is constantly evolving. She says she purposefully makes her pins and patches in limited edition series and, at times, will further expand the volumes with new phrases or sayings.
“The first pin that sold out was ‘Empowered Women Empower Women, and I just launched a new volume of that,” she said.
“Anything with the brand logo would probably always be on the site,” she said. I want people to just feel…special, so I do limited quantities of the products that I do have, so…once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
One of Cooper’s favorite previous collections is She Got the Juice Too, based on an MTV interview with rappers Missy Elliot, Da Brat, Lil’ Kim, and Aaliyah. “I will never forget. You just saw the power that was among them across these four very, very different women and just the love and support they have for one another,” she said.
Another collection that stood out to her is Bloom, based on her late friend Christina. “With Bloom, it was the idea of just propelling, just growth and allowing oneself to just evolve,” she said. “It’s specific to just everyone, just to reach that new stage,” she said
Cooper describes the series of 4 pins and stickers as a “love letter” to her friendship with Christina. “It’s just a way that I wanted to keep remembering her and also just have a little piece of her with everyone who purchased a pin from that collection.”
Although many of Cooper’s messages on her pins and patches are geared toward women, she says her items are meant for everyone. “I want to say, as a whole, it is for all women. It’s also for allies. People who support women, too. There is something for everyone who likes pocket-size reminders of who they are.”
Cooper’s design background is self-taught. Growing up with MySpace, she said she always wanted to have the “flyest” page.
“I ended up teaching myself PaintShop and eventually Photoshop. And then from there, I just started learning more digital programs like Illustrator,” she said. Her merchandise designs are created using a combination of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Procreate.
Cooper recently hit her 5-year business anniversary in August and said her future plans include partnering with other Black woman-owned businesses. “I want to start with New York, so I’m definitely looking to collaborate with Queens and Brooklyn-based businesses… I want to do collaborations and meaningful ones, and of course, I want to tap into those cultural moments, like Women’s History Month, Women’s Equal Pay Day, and, of course, Black History Month too.”
