Vietnamese Culture Is Not Just the War, the Resilience, and the Pho
Part of CULTR’s AAPI Heritage Month Maker Series, where we hand the mic to the founders shaping our shared culture.
This May, we are featuring AAPI makers all month long, and we want our community to really know the people behind the brands they love. Not just what they make, but why.
Ann Morrissey didn’t set out to build a brand. She was pregnant with her second child, searching for something that felt like home — a onesie, a sticker, something Vietnamese — and couldn’t find it. So she made it herself. That’s how Nuoc Mami started: one sticker, one sale, one feeling she recognized deeply and couldn’t shake.
The Story
Origin
How did Nuoc Mami start?
Shortly after finding out she was pregnant with her second child, Ann made a Ham Choi sticker and onesie for her oldest daughter. Seeing their culture reflected back on clothing brought something she hadn’t expected: pure joy. She listed on Etsy and made her first sale that same month. Growing up in Brooklyn as the only Vietnamese person in her circle, then moving to Orlando where Vietnamese culture was more visible, she kept noticing the same gap: not enough product that was actually, specifically Vietnamese. So she stepped up.
Foundation
Where does your cultural heritage show up in the brand?
Heritage isn’t an aesthetic choice for Nuoc Mami — it’s the foundation. Every product starts with a feeling Ann recognizes deeply as a Vietnamese woman: the chaos of family gatherings, the way a Vietnamese mom shows love through food instead of words, the everyday language that carries whole worlds inside it. The brand exists to reflect Vietnamese culture in a real way, not a flattened or decorative one.
“When someone buys from Nuoc Mami, they feel like they found their people — and then laugh, because the brand is funny and sassy.”
The Work
Who it’s for
Who are you making for?
The generation of Vietnamese people who grew up code-switching between two worlds — late 20s, early 30s, people who have been waiting for a brand that actually gets what it means to be Vietnamese. Not Vietnamese-adjacent. Not pan-Asian. Vietnamese.
Most Meaningful Product
Which product means the most to you?
The chao onesies — featuring different ways to say hello to Vietnamese grandparents. They started as a fun way to announce pregnancies to Vietnamese parents, a way for babies to carry the language into the world from day one. Language is how culture survives. When a baby wears that onesie, it’s not just cute — it’s a small act of preservation.
This Moment
AAPI Heritage Month
What does AAPI Heritage Month mean to you?
Visibility for communities that have been flattened into a single story. As a Vietnamese-American, Ann is acutely aware that “AAPI” is a wide umbrella — and that the most meaningful thing isn’t to celebrate the category, but to celebrate the particular foods, languages, histories, and humor that make each community distinct. The loudest table at the restaurant deserves its own spotlight, not a shared footnote.
One Thing
What do you wish more people understood about your culture?
Vietnamese culture contains multitudes. It’s not just the war narrative, not just resilience, not just pho. It’s the loudest table at the restaurant. It’s moms who say “eat more” instead of “I love you.” It’s deeply funny and deeply warm. Ann wishes that fullness — that abundance — was what people led with when they thought about Vietnamese culture. Not tragedy. Not survival. The joy, the chaos, the food, the language. All of it.
“Vietnamese culture contains multitudes. Moms who say "eat more" instead of "I love you." The loudest table at the restaurant. Deeply funny. Deeply warm.”
What’s Next
Next Chapter
What’s coming for Nuoc Mami?
Enamel pins and keychains are on the way. Ann is also growing the brand’s wholesale presence — the goal is for Nuoc Mami products to live in AAPI-owned shops and cultural spaces. The dream: someone walks into a museum gift shop and sees her work. She’s building toward this being her full-time job, running the entire brand on her own while raising three kids, including a brand new baby.
Nuoc Mami started because Ann couldn’t find what she was looking for — so she made it herself. Every product comes from a real feeling, a real memory, or a real thing her Vietnamese mom definitely said. That’s not a brand strategy. That’s just who she is.
Find Nuoc Mami on CULTR and follow along as the brand grows.
CULTR’s Maker Series spotlights the founders shaping multicultural living. Follow along on @shop_cultr and at createdforculture.com for more features all AAPI Heritage Month long.
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