Whatever you were doing at 16, it probably wasn’t launching your own business.
That’s what Los Angeles native Annabelle Chang is doing, however. Just after Thanksgiving, she opened doors at Annabelle’s Book Club L.A. in Studio City, taking what was formerly a pop-up and e-commerce operation to a brick-and-mortar Ventura Boulevard storefront. The enterprise brings a dedicated young adult fiction bookstore to the market.
“It’s been busy so far and I love seeing people come in and be excited,” Chang said. “There are so many families in the neighborhood, and I love seeing kids run to the middle-grade section and get excited about books that I love.”
Chang, who boasts a reading habit of six to eight books a month, said she fell in love with reading thanks to her mother, “Legally Blonde” author Amanda Brown. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chang said friends and others began querying her on good books to read with their newfound spare time. She began a blog as a result.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved books and bookstores and I’ve always loved recommending books (to) people. When quarantining hit, I had so many requests for recommending books,” she said. “Through my blog, I started to interview a lot of young adult authors and bookstore owners and I realized that even though young adult is a hugely popular genre, most bookstores only have a small section of them.”
So, she set off to address that lack. At first, she sold titles online and then tried pop-ups, including at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. After a consistently positive response to her work, Chang decided to locate a real storefront.
“I just really wanted to fill that gap in the market,” she said, adding, “It’s been a really fun, definitely difficult, but very rewarding project.”
Chang added that she had another source of inspiration in establishing a bookstore. Actress Mindy Kaling — well known for her on-screen roles, screenwriting and memoirs — last year launched Mindy’s Book Studio, which in collaboration with Amazon publishes books and stories of her own selection and also retains screen-option rights for the titles.
“I love her work as an actress, producer and writer, but I also really admire that she’s launching her own imprint,” Chang said. “I’m very inspired by her.”
