Meet Jemariz Arzobal & Julissa Fierro | Co-Founders and Co-Editors of JELLi Magazine

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jemariz Arzobal & Julissa Fierro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jemariz & Julissa, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
We actually started off as a duo hosting local meet-ups for Sonny Angel collectors in San Diego! We saw these community events for Sonny Angel trading popping up in the bigger cities, such as Los Angeles and New York. Feeling discouraged from a lack of events like these in our hometown, we decided to take matters into our own hands and host an event ourselves. It was an unexpected hit with over 100 attendees! We were so excitedly overwhelmed at the prospect of meeting so many like-minded individuals with the same interests. This was the start of our not-so-little community. We started to wonder how we could expand this community in areas we could not physically go to.

At the same time, we had begun to notice a lack of physical media and third spaces. It felt like not that long ago we were tweens looking through the magazines sold at big department stores. Teen Vogue, J-14, Tiger Beat, and The Cosmopolitan, to name a few, were some of our inspirations from our nostalgic memories. Now, it feels like these fun, tangible magazines have been long forgotten especially with the rise of social media. Magazines and books were once a place where one could escape from the outside world. It saddened us to think that the new generations after us would not be able to experience this special form of escapism. A lot of our peers on social media had noticed the same issue and it pushed us to think creatively about how to revive the now-overlooked magic of physical media.

This prompted what is now JELLi Magazine. We combined the things we love, such as collectibles, with our passion for building community. Not to mention we are proud of our hometown of San Diego and have always wanted to shine a light on it and all of the amazing creatives that live here. You can see in our first issue how important San Diego representation is to us. We showcased Pixley’s Oddities, an amazing business located in University Heights, and did all of our photoshoots in some of San Diego’s prominent areas like Downtown and North Park. Although half of our team is based here, the other half is composed of like-minded people outside of San Diego, spanning from different states and across the globe. This helps provide us with global perspectives on the love of collecting, which in turn has helped us connect with readers around the world.

We’re so thankful for all of the love and support we received on our very first issue that dropped last November. It has been so heartwarming to see how this magazine has connected with so many people regardless of age, race, or lifestyle! We’re achieving our dreams step by step, and we’re so excited to see what the future holds for JELLi.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We like to believe that what sets us apart from others is our understanding of what our audience likes. This comes naturally to us because we like to create things that we ourselves would buy. This is why we’re so proud of our magazine, because we were able to release something that we wanted to see as consumers but no one was really making. The process was definitely not easy as we faced several bumps along the road. However, we are so grateful to have a well-versed team that constantly helped us along the way! We’re also lucky to live in the digital age where you can Google or Youtube pretty much anything. At the end of the day, we hope that everyone who comes across JELLi can see themselves in the magazine and walk away learning about a new artist, collectible, or even San Diego.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Here’s what a fun itinerary of must-go spots in San Diego would look like for us!

Cafes:
-Lovesong Coffee
-Hatzusakura
-Chikita Cafe
-The Keep
-Saigon Coffee
-Asa Bakery

Restaurants:
-White Rice Bodega
-Born & Raised
-Fire Spot
-Monsta Ramen Curry
-In-n-Out

Stores:
-Pixley’s Oddities
-Haha Fashion
-Gunnzo
-Bandai Gashapon in Plaza Bonita
-Tokyo Central

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Wow!! This is such a hard question because there are so many people, books, and other media forms that have not only inspired us but helped us get where we are now. However, since we can only pick one we’d love to shoutout Nocaut LLC. They’re a Mexican printing service specializing in books and magazines. We had the lovely pleasure of working with them for the printing of our first issue. Specifically, a shoutout to Steven Rodríguez who helped us immensely, especially in guiding us throughout the printing process and helping us achieve the highest quality we can! He actually helps run an amazing magazine, Cynthia Magazine which focuses on the groundbreaking genre Regional Mexicano.

Website: https://www.jellizine.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejellizine/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jelli-zine/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@JELLiMagazine

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thejellizine
Pinterest: https://pin.it/49g6yfdNs

Image Credits
Ashley Pineda
Andre Adan
Nikki Babasa