What happens when you put two extremely capable, talented mothers together with a shared passion for educating little ones? You get something like Lulu and Lacey of Bitty Bao, a new bilingual book series I discovered just a few weeks ago and who I can’t help but be obsessed with. “Bao” for those who don’t know, typically refers to the character 包 in Chinese, which means “bun” (typically ones filled with meat but can be anything). But, in the context of a child, it also refers to the character 宝, which means baby. Incidentally BB (short for “baobao”) is also my nom de plume for my child. The logo for Bitty Bao is a play on both these characters. Here’s the incredible story of how Bitty Bao got started!
Please introduce yourselves!
Hi! Lulu and Lacey here, and together we created Bitty Bao.
Lulu: I grew up in Taiwan, majored in Hotel Management at Cornell, but after working in the hotel industry for a year, I decided that my true passion and enjoyment came from working with children in education. I earned a Master’s Degree in Teaching from USC and began teaching. This year, I began homeschooling my two bitty babes fulltime, and at night you can find me working on the business end of Bitty Bao – the legal documentation, sales tax prep, and our year-end taxes.
Lacey: I’m a firewife, mom of an 18-month-old wee bitty babe, and the other half of the dynamic Bitty Bao duo. I was an elementary school teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and received a Masters in Public School Leadership and an administration credential, leading to a leadership role. With the birth of our child, we made the tough decision that I would be a stay-at-home mom for a few years before pursuing my goal of leading a school site as a principal. For Bitty Bao, I can often be found in the middle of the night hand cutting tiny bits of paper into cute images for the Bitty Bao books, formatting layouts, managing our social media accounts, and packing orders for shipment with lots of love.
What is Bitty Bao?
Bitty Bao started as our own personal venture to bring more options of cute engaging Chinese bilingual books to our own bitty babes’ bookshelves. We want to support families in their journey towards multilingualism through cute books spotlighting fun elements of Chinese culture
We feel passionate about creating high-quality, engaging, and culturally relevant Chinese bilingual books for Chinese speaking families, non-Chinese speaking families, and all of the families that land somewhere in between. To be inclusive, our books include engaging pictures for the youngest of readers, 拼音 (pīn yīn) for non-native speakers, and traditional characters with 注音 (zhù yīn) for those who are native Chinese speakers or learning to read Chinese.
In September 2020 we released our first three books: Counting with Dim Sum, Everyday Heroes, and The Colors of Snow Ice.
How did the idea for Bitty Bao come about? And how did the two of you decide that you would work with each other?
Lulu: I cherished and loved all of my responsibilities as a mom of two young children, but I also felt an emptiness when being called “just a mom” by my own daughter. I wanted to be able to fill this void by creating something that would contribute to the world. I enjoyed reading books with my children, and I’m always searching for cute children’s books that contained great storylines and educational components. There are very few books that have traditional Chinese with Pin Yin and Zhu Yin – the very tools that I needed in order to help my children learn Chinese while including my ABC (American Born Chinese) husband. Bitty Bao books are the very books my family needed and would enjoy. Lacey and I met in at LAUSD in 2006. We were friends and housemates. Lacey often expressed her love to her friends and family by creating handmade cards. Her work was unique and full of talent. I couldn’t think of a better person to have as my business partner and the creative soul behind Bitty Bao.
Let’s rewind to your childhood. How influential was your upbringing and / or your family on you being an entrepreneur today?
Lulu: My family exemplified the ideals of hard work and perseverance since I was young. My grandfather provided for nine children. My father runs his own business and never let challenges hold him back. He would always put on a smile and tell me he would figure things out and make it work no matter what. Growing up, I participated in extracurricular activities including ballet, swimming, playing the cello, and competitive badminton, which helped me with goal setting and having a strong business mindset. Bitty Bao is definitely an embodiment of that outlook on life and is a part of who I am today – a mom, a wife, and business owner.
Lacey: In my family, a hard work ethic is a family norm. I also hold a deep desire to reconnect with the Chinese culture and language for my daughter. My grandparents immigrated to America in their early teenage years and opened a restaurant in East Los Angeles. It was a matter of pride for them to speak English (and some Spanish), so much so that the Chinese language disappeared from my family completely by the time my generation was born. As an American-Born-Chinese woman, raised without the gift of Chinese as a second language, I now hope to now prioritize language acquisition for my own bitty babe. Bitty Bao was the perfect passion project for me to positively impact my family, and families like mine.
Tell me about the Bitty Bao book launch! It sounds like a huge success and I found out about it via networking. How did you get the word out about the books?
We began our social media accounts back in February 2020 (Instagram and Facebook). We began by posting time-lapsed videos of our papercutting art and drawings as well as pictures of our kids. We focused on building a community with our followers and interacting in meaningful ways. We hosted two interactive challenges on our page before our book launch (an art challenge and a friendship challenge) and I believe that by putting in that extra effort and care, we have built some real relationships with people all over the world supporting Bitty Bao.
Bitty Bao did a soft opening for friends and family on September 10, 2020. We made sure our website worked, learned to fulfill orders, and shared our excitement with the people whom we love most in this world. Public sales began September 14, 2020. Lulu and I held our breath as we launched our website online to our Instagram and Facebook followers and in our first day had 50 orders! We crossed 200 orders and 1,000 books sold within 1.5 weeks. Our social media definitely enhanced and continues to spread the word about our books and merchandise well past the bounds we would have available to us organically.
We have had so many friends and family who were encouraging and supportive. They’d share pictures and testimonials on social media, which then resulted in their network of friends and family seeking out our books. Lulu’s husband has been so proud of the work that Bitty Bao has done – his social media posts have also helped tremendously. We also used Facebook networking groups like Asian Hustle Network, Subtle Taiwanese Traits, and local mom groups.
I am all about mindsets and mental health! What is a healthy mindset that keeps you going as an entrepreneur?
Lulu: Being a mom, a wife, and an entrepreneur is not easy. You can’t maintain a strong image and be positive at all times. I’ve found it essential to my mental health to speak to other moms, working professionals, and entrepreneurs alike about the struggles and challenges we all face today and to gain some understanding of how they each manage. My husband and friends are very supportive, and that’s what keeps me going.
Lacey: I have a ridiculously supportive husband who encourages and believes in me, my capabilities, and skills even more than I do. Having a business partner to divide the responsibilities with definitely makes the workload more manageable, and Lulu is competent, efficient, and detail-oriented. It has been great to have someone to brainstorm, learn besides, panic with, and celebrate with throughout this whole process.
What is your current approach to personal finance? What is most important to you when it comes to building wealth?
Lulu: My current approach to personal finance is finding balance. Balancing the financial needs of my family, my own financial security (outside of my husband and kids), and the financial needs to retirement. My first foray into investing was a result of some early distributions from a family trust, which my siblings and I invested into real estate. The returns are minimal but just enough to maintain my own rainy-day fund. With my own savings from my teaching career, I was able to purchase a rental property with my husband shortly after we married, which is our biggest investment to date. I’ve also further diversified my own investments in some purchases of mutual funds and CD accounts. My husband works a full-time job and also maintains a real estate brokerage for investment opportunities and assisting friends and family. Our main goal is to find ways to generate passive income. Real estate has been the best vehicle for me and my family in achieving that goal.
Lacey: I still have a ton to learn about personal finance and building my own long-term and sustainable wealth. My family financial story is humble, but a few approaches have stuck. I never use my ATM card, I limit myself with paper money, I always pay off my credit card at the end of billing cycle, and I LOVE and utilize my earned credit card incentive points (we barely ever pay for hotels, rental cars, or vacation flights out-of-pocket!). My husband has taught me how to diversify assets through owning rental properties as investments, and planning for the future with college accounts and savings accounts. I am so grateful for people I can learn from, such as my husband and accounts like Save My Cents to improve my own financial future and mindset.
You can find Bitty Bao at:
Website: Bittybao.com
Instagram: @bitty.bao
Facebook page: bittybaobooks
Thank you Lulu and Lacey for sharing glimpses into your beautiful souls as such multi-faceted people and for creating gifts I can now share with my son and the rest of the world who might be interested in teaching little ones Chinese. Save My Cents readers – Bitty Bao books will be included in my 40K Instagram follower giveaway in fall 2020!
