Dear Pennies & Pens,
Happy anniversary, ISLP!!!
ISLP turns six today, and if I’m being honest, I’ve gone back and forth on how I wanted to write this post.
ISLP has never been a neat founder story with a straight line from idea to execution. It grew through writing, experiments, survival jobs, layoffs, and figuring it out in real time. I was still sharpening my voice and trying to understand what kind of work I wanted to do.
How ISLP Actually Started
ISLP did not begin as a perfectly mapped-out business idea in 2020. The roots go back much further than that.
Before I ever moved to New York or started trying to break into magazines, a friend encouraged me to start blogging as a way to get my writing out into the world. That advice changed everything.
Long before ISLP existed, I had already created The Loudest Pen Ever, my first blog and later the title of my second book. In 2010, I launched de la Pen as a fashion blog while living in New York and covering fashion. I was building a platform through writing and original storytelling long before I had the language to call any of it brand strategy or fan marketing.
My work also started reaching farther than I expected. In 2010 and 2012, I traveled to Uzbekistan on sponsored press trips to cover Style.uz Art Week. At the time, I probably did not fully understand how unusual that was. I just knew I was building a body of work around my voice, my perspective, and the kinds of stories I wanted to tell.
Around that same time, I also tried to build a creative business with a former business partner. That experience taught me a lot about collaboration, ambition, and what happens when a vision is not supported the way it needs to be.
By the time 2020 arrived, I was not starting from scratch. I was starting with years of writing, creative work, hard lessons, and a much clearer understanding of what I did and did not want to carry forward.
That is the version of me who started building ISLP: not from a blank page, but from everything I had already written, built, learned, and survived.
The Original Vision for ISLP
ISLP officially entered the picture in 2015 when I published my first book, #MakeUrPenLOUD: How To Be A Lifestyle Blogger.
I knew I wanted this book to belong to something of my own. I did not want to self-publish it under LoudPen alone. I wanted it to be attached to a company, a brand, and a bigger vision for the kind of work I wanted to create.
That is how ISLP was born.
From the beginning, I launched ISLP as a creative production company because I wanted the freedom to create and produce my own work, then sell it directly to the people already connected to my world.
Books were part of that vision. Pennies & Pens became part of that vision too. I wanted to build original products, tell stories through multiple formats, and create a business that could hold both the creative work itself and the people it was meant to reach.
Over time, the vision got sharper.
The more I immersed myself in music, fandom, and the way K-pop fans respond to artists, releases, and experiences, the more I realized ISLP was never just about creating my own work. It was about helping artists communicate with fans in thoughtful, meaningful ways too.
That realization changed everything.
Built in Real Life, Not Perfect Conditions
What I know for sure is that ISLP has never existed under perfect conditions.
The journey included relocations, layoffs, contract jobs, survival jobs, and the constant work of figuring out what came next. It followed me from New York to Texas, then from Houston to Dallas, through jobs in social media, copywriting, tech writing, and now the service industry.
And even with all of that, I kept going.
I published more books. I hosted events. I launched Pennies & Pens. I created content, produced photo shoots, and kept finding ways to turn my ideas into something real, even when the timeline was messy and life was doing what life does.
Travel became part of that story too. Some trips were tied to work. Others I paid for myself. But all of them expanded the way I thought about music, storytelling, fan culture, and the kind of creative work I wanted ISLP to hold. From Seoul and Jeju to Tokyo and beyond, those experiences gave me a firsthand understanding of what it looks like when fans travel, buy, show up, and build community around the artists they love.
And now, in this current chapter, it lives alongside 3 a.m. alarms, airport café shifts, and the kind of exhaustion that comes from spending all day on your feet before coming home to figure out how to keep your own work moving too.
That is part of the story too.
ISLP did not grow because life cleared a perfect path for it. It kept moving because I kept making room for it, even in the middle of everything else.
When the Vision Finally Clicked
For years, I thought I was creating a creative production company. What emerged was a point of view.
For a long time, ISLP held a lot of different pieces: writing, books, Pennies & Pens, marketing, and copywriting. None of them were random. I just hadn’t figured out how they all fit together yet.
Over time, I became fascinated by how people connect with artists, what builds trust, and the creative decisions that turn casual listeners into lasting communities. I wanted to understand what makes people show up, stay engaged, and keep coming back.
That is when ISLP started to feel less like a collection of skills and more like a point of view.
I stopped thinking about the business as a place to put every creative thing I knew how to do. I started thinking about the kind of work I want ISLP to be known for.
Six years in, I’m more certain than ever about the work I want ISLP to do and the impact I want it to have.
Where ISLP Stands at 6
Today, ISLP is home to the work I’ve spent years creating: books, Pennies & Pens, and fan-focused marketing.
It is also the clearest reflection of where I’m headed next.
The next chapter of ISLP is about working with artists, labels, and creative brands. It is about creating fan-facing copy, strategy, and experiences that recognize fans are more than numbers on a dashboard.
Happy anniversary, ISLP.
Six years later, I’m still here. Still building.
And there it is. de la Pen…All Pen Everything. With us, keeping it real never goes wrong.
