About us

Our founder and CEO, Janne Guo, started Stellar Wonderz because of her close cousin, whom she shares the exact same birthday and grew up closely with, was diagnosed with leukemia at a young age. Her battle with cancer lasted for several years, and Janne’s visits with her always consisted of doing art together. Despite the difficulties of chemotherapy, art was a safe space for both her and her cousin.

In middle school, she began folding paper stars as a hobby, adding smiley faces and gifting them to her friends. Her friends always lit up upon receiving a star, and kept them within reach in their bags and pencil cases. Not only that, many became interested in learning how to make them, acknowledging how addicting it could be. Janne’s friends continued crafting these stars and giving them away to their peers as well. Art and creativity then presented itself as a source of happiness and connection, again, and had become a positive impact within her and others’ lives. 

Janne was then inspired to expand this impact outside of her circle, and began giving the stars to more people. As someone who grew up serving her community through traditional Chinese dance, dancing for elders and spreading cultural awareness, she identified the potential of this movement. Though paper stars are small pieces of paper, they could do so much more. In order to add on to their positivity, she began writing uplifting messages in them before they were folded. This led to the creation of our star bundles, which many across our hospital/center partnerships enjoy today. Other creative opportunities were also added to create greater accessibility to all volunteers to participate in Stellar Wonderz’ and our founder’s initiative.