Hi there! My name is Reina and I'm a 25 year old co-owner of Nibbles & Crumbs Co. - established in 2018! I started my business when I was 17 with Jack Skellington cake pops around October of that year. My school classmates absolutely loved them and the best part about it all is that it came to be from a complete whim from my mom. Extra cake pops just to spoil? Absolutely not, she saw opportunity. "Mija, why don't you go and take them to school just so that way someone can enjoy them? They're freshly made. I'm sure $1 is more than enough." Sure enough... Sold out of 30 my first day. So, I would spend countless hours after school coming home and making however many I could to sell them for $1 the next day, and the day after that! It was a total hit. I had started baking with my grandmother from the ripe age of 7 years and would continue on with her until her last days battling cervical cancer. It was and always will be a gift, a bond, and a place I run back to so that I can make her proud. We sold throughout COVID the best that we could and can never forget the support we received. Even during my visitation period abroad to Quebec, Canada from 22-24, when I would come back for a few weeks my mother and I had started to advertise pop-ups in our front yard and curate elaborate holiday menus. It's been an amazing journey so far, and I have so much love to keep it going. Family, friends, friends of family, and family of friends - all of you alike have been the fuel to my fire. The absolute backbone and the reason for the "why." My industry idols that helped start it all on the business level are Casey's Cupcakes, as her store in Downtown Riverside was always extremely iconic to me as a Riverside native, and Candance Nelson, the owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes. Casey opened her first retail location at The Historic Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside, California, in 2009. I was 10 years old when I felt like I wanted to be a business owner for the first time. My grandma and I would watch Food Network like it was a ritual! I got to watch Casey Beau Brown win Cupcake Wars in 2011 and taste victory so close to home. I remember the first time I had a Sprinkles cupcake and that experience made me want to move to Los Angeles. She helped put together "The Dreamer," and that was so important for my age. That dream was rooted in shared family amazement at gourmet baked goods and it felt validating to be able to take in an origin story of a great home baker turned truly professional. It was hope on a frontier that felt worth navigating.