The first custom Funko pops I ever made weren’t perfect—as first drafts never are, which every writer knows—but I still fell in love with the process and creativity of making them. I consider it my own form of fan art, since I’ve never been very good at drawing. The pops were of Aelin Galathynius from Throne of Glass, Feyre Archeron from A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Adeline Amouteru from The Young Elites. You can always tell which are my first custom pops because they have the worst eyebrows. I can barely even do my own. As everyone always says, practice makes perfect, and over a period of time, I bettered my techniques. Though I’d been asked before if I’d consider selling them, it wasn’t until several friends of mine asked me to make them pops for gifts that I realized it was an actual possibility.

As a bit of a perfectionist, I always thought that my pops were never truly ready to be sold. Until then. The feedback from my friends and family and just people who contact me through social media has been so amazing. I love being able to create a little piece of the world that readers fell in love with. My favorite part of making them is the vision—the less it looks like the original, the more I consider it a success. For example, Julian from The Forbidden Game who was made from a Karl Mordo figure and required a complete makeover. New skin tone, new hair, a silver rose. He was one of my first literary crushes, so I had to make sure I did him justice. Some of the smallest details are the most important (Feyre Archeron’s tattoos, Kaz Brekker’s scars, Blue Sargent’s colorful hair clips) when it comes to a character. After all, these tiny quirks are part of the reason we fall in love with them. I love when fans of a book are able to recognize right away exactly who a custom pop is meant to be. It means I’ve done my job.