Brownsville, Texas couple, Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasquez will celebrate 10 years this November since the launch of their “Pink Latina Power Tee”. The t-shirt that laid the foundations of their trendy lifestyle brand, JZD. JZD is a collection of stylish apparel, accessories, and custom embroidery items. From t-shirts to loungewear, tote bags, jewelry, and even pillows, JZD aims to celebrate the Latino community.
Another important date taking place in 2024 for these entrepreneurs is their tenth wedding anniversary. Before becoming wife and wife and business partners, Serrano and Vasquez were college best friends. They met while working at their university bookstore. “We started getting shifts together and became best friends. A couple of years later, we figured it out and we were like, ‘Hey, we should probably get married’,” Vasquez said.
Though they attended college together, Serrano was the first to graduate and started her “big girl job” working with a foster care agency. She became the breadwinner of the relationship while Vasquez finished her last year in college. Once Vasquez graduated, the roles were switched and she became the breadwinner allowing Serrano to quit her job. While Vasquez was the provider, Serrano used the opportunity to start JZD full-time. Fast forward roughly three years later, Vasquez left the immigration firm she worked for. The couple made a mutual decision to fully invest in their business, despite the risks. “She (Serrano) made the blueprint. All the hard work was done, but she needed help running it. We had a very serious conversation and she told me, ‘If we are serious about this business and what we stand for, then it’s time for both of us to work on this. Quit your job.’ We weren’t ready for that, JZD was definitely not giving us enough money to survive off of just that. But it was time for us to both dive into the business, and we took a gamble and worked out,” said Vasquez.
JZD originated from the sense of community that Serrano felt living in a border town. “We live in Brownsville, Texas, which borders Matamoros, which is where I was born. It’s the people here, the food, the music we listen to, and it’s the story of our community. The products we create are a reflection of our lives. Inspiration definitely comes from our people, and everything that makes us who we are as Latinos,” she explained.
Originally, the brand was known as “Jen-Zeano Designs”. The “Jen” portion was short for Jennifer and “Zeano” was, according to Serrano, “a really terrible combination” of their last names. “Back when we started the brand, several couple names were trending, like Jelena (Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez). I thought ‘Jen-Zeano Designs’ would be cute. Then I realized, nobody could pronounce or spell it because it was made up and getting found on the interweb was a challenge,” she recalled. Eventually, the couple decided to do business as JZD, keeping it short and sweet.
Not only has the brand undergone multiple trials and errors, but it has also reached notable milestones. JZD started off as an online shop on Etsy in 2014. In 2022, they opened their first physical location and a second one this past January. Additionally, in 2022, JZD received a significant amount of national media coverage. They were featured on news outlets such as ABC News, NBC News, and People en Español, something that honored all of their hard work. “It’s just really exciting when people can see what we’ve been working on. When you get press like that, you get more eyes on the brand, and that helps us to expand the mission of empowering our community. Because at the end of the day, everything we do is for the community,” Serrano shared.
Another (surreal) milestone the couple has experienced through their business journey was getting recognized in person by a customer. They were on a road trip and stopped at a Bucces, a famous pitstop for Texas travelers, when they got approached. “This girl comes and taps on our shoulders, and we turn around, and she’s like, ‘Oh my gosh! Are you Jen and Vero from JZD?’ I think it’s so cool. It’s a little weird at first, you’re like, ‘I’m just Vero, how do you even know me?” Vasquez explained. For Serrano, moments like these are important for customer feedback. “I thoroughly enjoy it because it’s a great opportunity to get to know our customers and figure out what we’re doing right, what they want to see, because at the end of the day, what we’re making is for the community. When we hear from them, we can create better.”
On top of receiving public appreciation, the couple’s hard work has also landed them major collaborations. Their latest collaboration was with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. A project with a mission to highlight the importance of having Latinos in journalism. They worked with Tanja Babich, a news anchor for ABC 7 Chicago’s Eyewitness News, to make her vision come alive. After going through several samples, they finally made the “Periodista” t-shirt. “There’s a lot of Latinos in journalism, which is really exciting to see. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about the importance of having Latino journalists sitting at the table and having these important, pivotal conversations. It was amazing,” Serrano said.
In other collaboration news, the JZD team is thrilled to currently be working on a dream collaboration, which will launch in April of 2025. JZD and the unrevealed collaborator have been working on this project for two years now. For Vasquez, this partnership is a dream come true. “It’s taken up two years of our life, of our brain capacity. I’m just so excited for the community to see it and to be a part of it,” she said. Aside from this dream collaboration, Serrano hopes to someday also collaborate with big brands such as Barnes and Noble and Nordstrom. “I just feel like there’s so many opportunities to get Latina made products in front of Latinas. Work in Progress. Work in Progress.”
Certainly, the couple has seen their hard work pay off. But, two individuals who have given their full support has helped their success along the way. According to Vasquez, her father and mother-in-law have been their “number one fans”. She explained how they’ve stood by them since the start. “Even when we said, ‘We might not have enough money for rent, you might have to help us.’ I don’t think they understood when Jen told them, ‘Yes, I have a degree I’m no longer going to use and I’m going to pursue this thing of having my own business.’ I don’t think they understood it to the full extent at the moment, but you better believe that they were like, ‘We’re right behind you, you tell us how we can help you, and we’re going to help you’. So to me as an outsider, they have to be the number one supporters.”
After ten years of marriage and owning a business together, the couple still enjoys working side by side. “I absolutely love working with my wife,” Vasquez said. Adding, “I think what works for us is we’re best friends before we’re wife and wife. Also, she already knew whose job was what and we take turns being leaders. I like to follow her when she knows exactly what she’s doing and she’ll let me lead when maybe something else is in my expertise. We’ve figured out, ‘This is your job and this is my job, then let’s come together and you can help me with my job and I can help you with yours if you need it.’ We’re not perfect. There are days that I’m like, ‘Maybe you should be upstairs and I should be downstairs.’ But I think it just works out.” Serrano shares a similar point of view, elaborating on their ability to balance each other out. “We’re really good at drawing boundaries and we respect the fact that we are each better at something than the other, and we come together and we’re like, ‘Your strength and my strength together is larger.’ So we focus on, ‘You do what you love to do, I’ll do what I love to do.’ And it works for us,” she said.
When it comes to challenges they may face in the business, the attitude they take on is, “Come what may,” Serrano said. “Challenges are inevitable. The longer you’ve been in business, and the more your business grows, the more challenges come up. We have this attitude where we’re like, ‘We’ve made it this far, and we can keep making it.’ So, we just try to maintain a positive outlook. It’s harder on some days, but we surround ourselves with people who support us and rely heavily on our team. There’s always a solution, we just have to find it.” For Vasquez, being diligent and having her wife’s and team’s support is also key in handling challenges. “We’re go-getters, we know how to grind, we know how to get our hands dirty. There’s always going to be problems, it’s just a matter of who you’re choosing to be on your team to help you through them. Jen and I always choose each other. As long as we’re united in whatever issues are put in front of us, I think we can deal with anything. And we surround ourselves with our team which is also very supportive. Being a business owner is hard, it’s like a marriage. You’ve gotta always be willing to put in the work. So it’s a matter of how you react to the challenges.”
Over the last ten years, Serrano and Vasquez have evolved in many ways along with JZD. Yet, they look forward to continue flourishing as they encounter new opportunities in the future. “We are so excited to continue growing the brand. I think in 2025 we’re going to see some changes with the kind of products we offer,” Serrano revealed. “There is still so much potential, we have only tapped into the surface of how wide we can take our brand. We’re excited to partner with brands. I want to highlight the Latino voice in a positive way. And I think as the world changes, inevitably, we have to pivot our business, and so we’re excited to see where that leads.”
To browse through JZD items check out their website here.
