Trinity Shiroma, a 25-year-old artist in Orlando, Florida, earned nearly $18,300 (£14,500) in profit from the May edition of her subscription snail mail service, CNBC wrote.
Shiroma runs The Architecture Club, where more than 2,700 subscribers pay $8.88 (£7) a month for a hand-painted postcard of a landmark building, a letter about its architectural history and a small craft. Each envelope costs her roughly $2 (£1.58) to produce. She holds a master's degree in architecture from California Baptist University. She sent her first batch in September and by December, she had 1,300 subscribers.
'It's not like I knew it was going to be a reliable source of income,' Shiroma said. 'But I had already done the calculations. Even if I had one person subscribe, I'm still making, like, a $6-and-something profit.'
She is one of a growing number of Gen Z creators building monthly income from physical mail at a time when searches for snail mail gifts have risen 110% on Pinterest and over 150,000 TikTok posts carry the tag.
Hannah Gustafon's The Tiny Post, based in Austin, Texas, has reached 5,000 subscribers paying $11 (£8.69) a month.
Christine Tyler Hill, for her part, ships roughly 3,000 copies of The Cloud Report from Burlington, Vermont, Creative Lives in Progress wrote.
Klassen and Natakhin Join Gen Z Snail Mail Wave
Kiki Klassen, 28, runs The Lucky Duck Mail Club from Niagara, Ontario, packing roughly 900 envelopes a month with a typed letter, an original art print and a quote. Subscribers pay about $8 (£6.32) per issue. She averages roughly $4,385 (£3,465) a month in revenue, she told CNBC.
Klassen started the club in October 2024 while working as a barista. Her late mother was a member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the project holds a personal link to physical mail. Subscribers now span as many as 36 countries, she told Fortune in January 2026.
'I definitely got brave because of how Lucky Duck was going and making money,' Klassen said. The side hustle gave her the confidence to pitch herself for a social media role at her employer's restaurant group.
Bo Natakhin, another creator, runs Little Kitchen of Bo, a food-themed mail service. He went full-time in March after earning income mostly through photography and gig work, and hopes to save enough to enrol at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
Not Every Snail Mail Club Turns a Profit
The global art and craft materials market was valued at $23.56 billion (£18.6 billion) in 2025 and is projected to reach $24.68 billion (£19.5 billion) this year, according to Fortune Business Insights.
But not every founder is seeing returns like Shiroma's. Christine Tyler Hill cautioned that viral growth is far from guaranteed. 'The only reason mine grew so fast is that I went viral, which is like winning the lottery,' she told Creative Lives in Progress.
Others have walked away entirely. Martina Calvi, who shut down her own club, described the format on Substack as roughly 20% creative work and 80% physical labour. Shiroma spends three weeks per cycle on production, and her parents help pack envelopes. Klassen has described spending six hours a night for a full week sealing mail at her dining room table.
A 2026 Harvard and Gallup study found that 65% of young adults believe artificial intelligence discourages deep engagement with ideas. A separate Talker Research survey put the share of Gen Z respondents actively trying to cut screen time at 63%. Both figures help explain the demand, even if the supply side remains gruelling.
Shiroma picks a new landmark each month. Past subjects include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cafe De Flore in Paris and The Painted Ladies in San Francisco. She sells the original paintings through her website.
