Meet  Mirjam van Aalderen!

Hi Mirjam! Where are you from?

I’m from the Netherlands (But I plan on spending quite some time in Ireland soon!)

How long have you been a ZOX VIP?

I placed my first ever order on November 17th in 2019.

I joined ZOX VIP as soon as I reached the VIP tier which was on February 4th in 2020.

What does your ZOX collection look like? (i.e. is it all straps, metlets, rings, etc)

My collection mostly consists of straps and singles (apparently, I am already way over 200 where I thought I was just a little over 100 still). Besides straps, I also have a small collection of imperials, imperials+, strings, rings, one awesome daily and of course a hoodie!! Seriously though, I love the variety of products and I’ve practically been living in my hoodie lately. 

Which ZOX started your collection, and what is your most recent piece?

After being tempted by Facebook ads for a while, my collection started with 2 straps: Reflect and the path less travelled. After that I fell in love with the straps, and it escalated quickly into the collection I have now. The latest strap that landed on my doormat was Hum your own tune (a blue stitched blog release), another amazing design that went straight from the ZOX baggie to my wrist.

What’s your favourite ZOX and why?

Oof… that’s a tough one. My favourite kind of depends on my mood and besides, it feels impossible to pick just ONE. I managed to bring it down to like eeeeehm 10? :’) Here we go:

Blue holo daily – It’s not a strap but I love love love it! I got it as a reward (which is already amazing in itself) and it’s the perfect little bag for me! I absolutely love the look and I use it to keep my phone, keys, and other necessities at hand whenever I’m roller skating.

Euphoria – This strap was gifted to me by my best friend and both the gorgeous art, and the message perfectly resemble how I felt when I started winning the battle with my mental health.

Who are you? – My blood, sweat and tears went into collecting this set to be able to redeem my very first moonstone. Alice in Wonderland is one of my all-time favourite stories and this moonstone (besides being my favourite character) asks the question that is most important to me. 

Don’t hide your talents – The design is just really cute, and this is a really great reminder for me. I used to think I wasn’t good enough at everything I did, but I learned that I AM talented, and I should show myself to the world.

Nymph – This was one of my first grails! The design is absolutely stunning, and I’m just really drawn to this strap in so many ways!

Lucky ducky – Okay so I just have a thing with duckies, I love the word ducky. This strap also is the symbol for my dream to study in Ireland next year.

Warrior – I believe this strap speaks for itself.

Oh boy and Fish bowl Fred – Everyone who knows me would say these two little monsters perfectly sum up my personality. Whenever I’m excited, I’m just a clapping, jumping little goof and I’m super clumsy so it might as well could’ve been me stuck in that bowl!

Hierarchy – I have a deep strong spiritual bond with wolves and the portrait that’s centred on this strap has a huge resemblance with one (the most important one) of my three wolf spirit guides.

F&F – Last but not least is my first F&F strap. To me, a symbol for the wonderful friends that became my family.

 

If you could design your own collection, what would it be?

It’s kinda hard to answer this question, because there’s already so many wonderful straps/designs out there made by incredible artists! 

I love that there’s so much variety in all the designs! My collection also definitely shows the variety in art styles and I mostly love everything that’s creepy and cute, goofy, cartoonish, realistic, mysterious, fantasy inspired or nature designs. 

If I WERE to design my own collection I do have loads of ideas of what I just love to create in general. For example, I love to create mythical designs/stories, one of my ideas would be a series of straps with each a different person with either a wolf or a made-up creature as a companion inspired by gems. (Think of Sapphire, emerald, amethyst etc.) I also think it would be really fun to design a series of straps with each strap resembling a “mood” to match your mood of the day. 

One strap in particular I don’t think exists yet is a sibling strap. We have several straps for mothers and fathers, but I don’t think there are really any straps yet for siblings specifically and I would love to see one of those made! 

Maybe I’ll get creative sometime soon and try to turn one of my ideas into a design to share in the ZOX idea factory!

What do you love about VIP?

The generosity of the people in VIP is just amazing and I love to see how everyone genuinely cares for each other and tries to support each other in any way they can from the distance that separates us all over the globe. I’ve got to “meet” such amazing and wonderful people through VIP and quite a few of them I now call my dear friends. VIP truly is something special and this community is absolutely amazing. 

To add to that I immensely enjoy going live in VIP to either open my mystery packs or share other exciting ZOX things I got or even to just ramble a bit about my collection. Each livestream I receive so much love and shared excitement from the community! Also watching others being live and get a chance to share THEIR excitement is just something special. 

What do you love about ZOX?

Well I obviously love the amazing art, the beautiful and strong messages, the variety, and the different products! But what I love most of all is getting to share the strength and power I get from wearing ZOX with other people all around me! The giftability of these little hugs around your wrists is amazing! For the fun of it I just counted how many straps I’ve gifted so far, and I must say I’m surprised myself I actually just passed 50!! I made myself a special sheet to keep track of all ZOX I have ever owned and I also love to write down where they went if I don’t have them anymore. So whenever I gift a ZOX I colour the box on the far left yellow to mark it as “no longer in my possession” and “gifted” and I always write down whom I gifted it to, because each gift brings its own special story and I love to remember them all. 

 

Which ZOX are you planning on acquiring next?

I would really love to complete my wolf collection one day! Wolves have an immensely important meaning to me, and I would love to collect all existing wolf straps out there. I’m getting to the point where I only need the rare and really hard to get ones, so it’s a (really fun) challenge!

Besides those I really hope to pull a twinkle strap, because I know my angel (who became one of my best friends) really wants that one and I’ll probably want whatever super awesome stuff will be released next, because they just keep surprising us with the amazing things they come up with!

Thank you, Mirjam, for sharing!! We absolutely love your pictures. Thank you for your kindness and positivity!

Keep an eye out for more of your friends to be featured soon!

Be bold,

Landri

 

** Disclaimer: All photos and stories are property of the VIP. Their featured collection in this blog does not mean that what is shown is for sale by the VIP.