The Simple Beauty of Dear Annabelle: Building Connection Through Stationery with Founder Marcie Pantzer

In an increasingly digital world, the art of handwritten correspondence has become both rare and precious. Marcie Pantzer, founder of the luxury stationery brand Dear Annabelle, has built her business on a simple yet profound principle: authentic human connection matters. Named after her daughter and rooted in the timeless tradition of letter writing, Dear Annabelle creates beautifully crafted note cards, notepads, and entertaining accessories that encourage people to slow down and connect with one another in meaningful ways.

Pantzer's journey from magazine editor at Town & Country to stationery entrepreneur reflects a deeper understanding of what women need to maintain and nurture their relationships—particularly the vital female friendships that research shows contribute significantly to longevity, happiness, and overall well-being. Through elegant design and thoughtful messaging that balances sophistication with playful humor, Dear Annabelle has carved out a unique space in the luxury stationery market.

In this conversation, Amy Cohen Epstein sits down with her longtime friend Marcie Pantzer to explore the intersection of female friendship, entrepreneurship, and the enduring power of handwritten notes. From discussing the importance of maintaining close relationships with sisters and daughters to the challenges of launching a business after years away from the workforce, this interview reveals how one woman's passion for beautiful paper products became a vehicle for fostering deeper human connections.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I've known Marcie since she was 18 years old... I really am focused on female connections. There's a tremendous amount of studies that show women who have significant female connections with other women, especially as we get older—and by older I just mean over 40—live longer and healthier and happier lives. And I think particularly post-COVID, we're more focused on that.

Whether you know it or not, Marcie, you're doing that. And that's what I really want to talk about today... Your relationship with your sister and your relationship with your mom and your female relationships, from my perspective, have always been really important to you. Before we get into Dear Annabelle and the company that you've built, tell me about your relationships with your mom and your sister and how they've grown and changed over the years.

Marcie Pantzer: I think connection is super important, especially with the women in your lives. I am extremely close to my sister. She is my best friend. As kids, we used to fight a lot and my dad would say, "Your sister's your best friend." He just sort of ingrained it in us that that's the one person that you can always count on your whole life.

I'm extremely close to my mom as well, but I would say my sister is really my best friend. Over the years, we haven't lived in the same city in almost 15 years, but we talk nearly every day. She's really the person I go to. She's almost like my life coach... I have all my girlfriends from high school, from college, the women I've picked up along the way that I love. And I really try to take time to see those girls and keep our relationships really strong. I think you have to make it a priority. If it's not a priority, then you sort of lose touch with people. Everyone's so busy, but we all make time for the things that we want to make time for. So I try to prioritize those things and I'm trying to teach that to my daughter as well. Annabel is a freshman in college and I'm trying to explain to her how important your female friends are and how you really need to hold on tight to the good ones.

Amy Cohen Epstein: How has your relationship with Annabel changed since she went to college?

Marcie Pantzer: Obviously I don't see her as much. We talk more on the phone and we text. She sort of ignores me a lot. I feel like I'm begging her for attention... Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So I really appreciate the moments that we do get to spend together... She's actually at the school where we went, so it's really fun to see it through her eyes and to hear about what's happening on campus.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Does she FaceTime you a lot?

Marcie Pantzer: Yeah, almost entirely. It's either a text or a FaceTime, and I always try to take the call. I feel like before I might not have always taken the call, but now since I hardly ever can reach her, I'm like, "Okay, please, yay. She wants to talk."

Amy Cohen Epstein: Unless I'm in the shower or on the toilet, I always answer when my kids FaceTime me from college... This is really different because when we were in college, we didn't have cell phones, so to call home and talk to your mom was a big deal. You had to be in your dorm room and they had to be sitting by the phone. Now I feel like my kids don't like to be alone. So if they're ever eating alone, that's when they FaceTime me, or literally walking to class...

Amy Cohen Epstein: What about with your sister? What's your age difference?

Marcie Pantzer: We're actually nearly three years apart, but we're two grades apart. When we were younger, we would fight over clothes and fight over boys... Our friend groups overlapped a lot, but as we've grown up, we've just always been there for one another and we complement each other. She's extremely supportive of my business and I try to be extremely supportive of hers. Yesterday we launched a new product and she was the first person to put it on her Instagram. It's so nice to have a cheerleader and someone that you know you can go to. And if you don't have a sister, hopefully you have a best friend or a mom or someone that can fill that void for you.

Amy Cohen Epstein: How are you guys in terms of supporting each other raising your kids? I found with my sister—we're 11 months apart, which is insanely close... When we had kids, we found out we're really different parents and in the way we parent. It was an interesting way to learn more about ourselves and each other. Did you and Lori figure that out with each other?

Marcie Pantzer: That's really interesting. I hadn't really thought about that before, but I think we have different parenting styles. My sister's strict about things that I'm not, and I'm strict about other things that she isn't. She's really into her kids eating super healthy and not having a soda, whereas I'm like, "Oh, order a soda, whatever." I think she thinks I'm too lax—I don't punish my kids enough... I think I'm sort of an authoritarian parent style. My kids are sort of scared of me, but then apparently I never follow through on my punishments... Some of that also is [influenced by] your spouse. She has a husband who was an only child, Jordan had a brother. So Jordan's used to boy interactions or maybe is more forgiving when our boys fight because he's sort of used to that from growing up.

Amy Cohen Epstein: What's it like having one daughter and three boys, especially your daughter being your oldest?

Marcie Pantzer: I think having a daughter first is so lucky. Annabel sort of takes care of our whole family. She takes care of me and my husband Jordan. She certainly takes care of the boys. She's sort of our balancer. With her away at college, it's been a huge adjustment. We sort of lost our best part of our unit... We have a lot more testosterone running around here. It's just not as balanced. She's a bit of a peacemaker, which was great to have... When she comes home, it's like everything goes back to the way it's always been.

I feel really lucky to have a daughter. I do feel sad that she never got a sister. When I was pregnant with Luke, our youngest, and we had to break the news to her that it was another boy, she started crying hysterically. She's like, "I don't want another brother." I felt sad [that] I wanted her to have a sister experience. It is so special. She's extremely close with her cousins, so those kind of fill that role for her.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Tell me why you started Dear Annabelle.

Marcie Pantzer: I've always been a stationery collector as a kid. I loved paper products. I loved Hello Kitty stationery and the pens and the stickers. I was really into my bat mitzvah invitation... I loved picking my camp stationery. That was a big deal for me, what I was going to bring to sleepaway camp.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Did you love actually writing letters too or was it more just about the stationery?

Marcie Pantzer: It's a bit of both. I actually love the paper products. I love the design. I love the feel of them. I love stickers, stamps, pens, everything that goes with it. I would go to Kate's Paperie—that was a store here in New York—and they would have these enormous invitation books and I would sit there for hours just looking through them, not even with an event in mind. I just loved seeing the different designs. I'm not a graphic artist, but I really appreciate design... I started collecting stationery as I was working and had more disposable income and would seek out different designers to make me special stationery. I went to Bernard Maisner who was doing amazing calligraphy, and I was like, "Can we make stationery?" I don't think he'd even made personalized note cards before that. I just always thought it would be great to have my own business and my own stationery collection.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Walk backwards and tell me about what you did after college in terms of your career, leading up to this.

Marcie Pantzer: I had a bit of a winding path. I graduated Duke as an economics and public policy major, and I thought maybe I would go to law school. I actually didn't know what I wanted to do... My first job out of college was at Ralph Lauren in something called investor relations, which is the group that interacts with Wall Street. It had just gone public... I quickly realized that I'm good at numbers but don't really like them. I can do it, but it's not that fun for me.

I met this woman in a cooking class—Jordan and I signed up for some weekend cooking class for fun. Her name was Melissa Milad... She said, "I work at Town and Country and there's a job opening, you should come interview." So I did and I met the most fabulous people working there. I ended up there for five years.

Amy Cohen Epstein: That's a long time... in this generation, that's like a lifetime working somewhere.

Marcie Pantzer: I covered jewelry and accessories first... You cover those markets and then you pick the things that would ultimately end up in the magazine... I think working at a magazine in the early 2000s was the coolest thing ever. You met all the fabulous magazine girls, all the PR girls. It was such an enormous network, especially of women...

It was there [that] we used to have this bridal issue and sometimes I would treat paper as an accessory. So I'd cover some of the stationery people... I remember going to [Dempsey &] Carroll and meeting with Bill because I thought, "Maybe I could buy that business." But it was his grandma's business and he was never going to sell... There was a time that John L. Strong came on the market, but it was very high priced. I couldn't afford to buy an established stationery brand. So I put that to rest for a while and I had kids—four kids—and took this enormous hiatus.

Amy Cohen Epstein: But you were thinking about "I want to buy a stationery brand."

Marcie Pantzer: When I left Town and Country, I told those women "I want to start a stationery company." But then it took me forever to actually do it... I was out of the workforce for a very long time, longer than I was ever in the workforce. Finally my kids were older, they were all in school, and I was like, "If I don't do it now, I'm never going to do it."

I worked with this fabulous life coach. I know some people are down on life coaches, but I felt like I needed a little push and I had some fear of failure that I think a lot of women have... She kind of gave me little assignments: "Go find five stationery brands you're interested in. Go speak to three people that might be able to help you." It forced me to get the ball rolling.

You can talk about doing something forever and then never do it... I was like, "Well the world doesn't need another stationery brand. How is mine different?" And she's like, "Marcie, there's like a thousand different brands of rosé. They're all just rosé. They're just a little bit different... It doesn't matter just because there's other companies, it doesn't mean there's not room for yours." I really needed someone to say that to me.

Amy Cohen Epstein: It's really easy to talk about things. It's really hard to do it. It's hard to start and then it's hard to follow through.

Marcie Pantzer: At the beginning I was really hung up on the name of this company because I think a name is so important... I went through a naming exercise with this branding group and didn't like any of the names. Then I realized that was almost just a delay tactic. I wasn't sure if I was ready. Analyzing and overanalyzing the name was, I think subconsciously, just a way of not going to the next step... It was a big leap to get back into the workforce. When I left, there was no Dropbox, no Google anything. I was still working in Word documents and Excel. I didn't know how to do anything.

Amy Cohen Epstein: When I worked my first job after college... the biggest thing I learned was how to use Excel and Word and email, how to organize an outbox and make folders... When I graduated college, we didn't know how to do that. That was a foundation for how to do work and how to work on your own... Learning how to just do the work and get up every day and figure out how to run your own business—all the minutia of it—is a big deal.

Marcie Pantzer: I also really had to learn how to ask people for advice. I was really bad about doing that... People generally want to be helpful. You just have to ask them.

Amy Cohen Epstein: People, especially people who are successful, want to help you. [Helping] makes them feel good... The best part of being at this stage of our life, in our forties, is knowing what we're good at and knowing where you thrive... And then knowing what you're not good at and being comfortable asking for advice. When we're younger, at least for me, asking someone for advice made me feel like I wasn't smart or was a failure... But now I'm like, "I know what I'm good at. And if that's not my area of expertise, I'm actually quite empowered when I ask someone else to help."

Marcie Pantzer: Circling back to where we started about connection, I feel like that's the underlying thing of my whole business. It's about helping people connect with one another... In this digital world, sometimes you need to connect on a more real, tangible level and that's the beauty of Dear Annabelle—send someone an actual letter, take the time to write it down and actually find their address and get a stamp and put it in the mail. That means so much.

When someone gets it in their mailbox and they see your [handwriting]—I mean it's pretty sad. I can still remember my grandpa's handwriting, but I don't know that my kids really know their grandparents' handwriting... Handwriting is so signature to people and their style and what pen they use... When people get mail, you can just see from the envelope, you know exactly who it's from. My friend Jill Kargman has the most distinct handwriting. When I get something from her, I'm like, "Oh, it's from Jill." It's so fun to get something like that in your mailbox.

Amy Cohen Epstein: My friend Carrie just sent me a thank you letter for a birthday gift I gave her... Her handwriting is so distinct. I've known it since we were 11 years old, and I love it. I loved getting it. It was so obviously Carrie and it made me feel so good. Of course I kept it. It's in my drawer next to my bed... Her children always write me thank you notes and it was clearly a taught thing.

Marcie Pantzer: I think writing notes shouldn't be a chore. I'm always making my kids write thank you notes... But I think Carrie probably got a lot of joy by writing you that note, and she probably felt like she was really expressing her gratitude that way... For some people writing notes is almost cathartic. It's really nice. It can be relaxing and fun. For other people, it's a huge chore... But I think most people aren't going to be sad when they get a thank you note... It usually sparks joy to get some kind of note in the mail, and especially when people are going through tough times, I feel like that's when notes really matter. When you have a friend whose parent has died or is going through a health thing, it's those times when notes are definitely appreciated.

Amy Cohen Epstein: How do you come up with your sayings on your notepads and cards? Because they're really cute, they're whimsical, they're funny... You've got a really good sense of humor... It's very quick and whimsical and fun in many ways. How does it work?

Marcie Pantzer: I don't think of myself as that funny. I appreciate humor a lot. It's very important in the people I surround myself with. My husband is the funniest person I know... When I was dating, that was really important to me... I really appreciate humor, but I didn't want the brand to come off as too crass. So there's a fine line between having cheeky humor and not [being too crude].

Most stationery brands when I started—this has been maybe eight years since I really started thinking about the business—most of the stationery and paper products out there were fairly traditional. There would be a sailboat or a palm tree or it would just say "thank you" and it was from Crane's or some other fabulous stationery brand, but I felt like stationery could be a little bit cheekier, a little bit more fun, but it didn't need to be too crass.

We have products in our collection—we have naughty note cards. Those have curse words and they're definitely for a very certain audience. They're my favorite product. But we wanted to make sure that we balance that out with things for the girls who are a bit more conservative or traditional and wouldn't feel comfortable signing their name to a card that said "holy shit"...

All of our products are engraved in gold. So it's something [that could be] kind of crass [but looks] really fancy—elegantly crass. That's how I would put it. [It] balances itself because it's beautiful and engraved and gold-foiled on really beautiful cardstock.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Elegantly crass. Yes.

Marcie Pantzer: That balance allows us to be a little bit [more adventurous] on our cheeky side, but because it's such good quality, it's a little bit forgiving... In terms of coming up with the designs, I'm always thinking of cards I would want to use. Something will come up in my life and I need to write a card. I had a friend who was just turning 40 and I was like, "I wish [we had a] 'What the F[uck]' card"... I'm always thinking "What kind of card would I want to use?"

Lately there's been things that are sort of out there in the universe that I think are funny for note cards. We just made caviar note cards. They're so fun to send someone for their birthday. It's festive and fun and no one's going to expect to get that on a note card... When you open an envelope and it's not anything you expected, that's so fun. It's like a little surprise moment.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Have you always been an entertainer? Have you always loved to set the table? Were you a tea party girl as a young girl?

Marcie Pantzer: I don't think it goes quite that far, but I do remember really thinking about my birthday parties a lot. They were really important to me and I would plan them out. I've always been a planner like that. I actually wanted to be an events planner [but] my husband's like, "No, you can't work on the weekends."

But I love throwing parties. I actually love throwing them more than being at my own. I love entertaining. I love bringing people together... I always find a dinner at someone's home [creates] so many more memories than going to a restaurant... Right when I graduated college, I would organize a girls' Hanukkah dinner... I love to think about the invitations, the party favors, all the fun stuff.

Dear Annabelle started as a stationery business, but a lot of women who enjoy stationery also enjoy entertaining. So I think the two categories are a nice mix.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Do you have any thoughts of where you would want Dear Annabelle to go in the future?

Marcie Pantzer: I'm always thinking about how Dear Annabelle should grow and pivot and what makes financial sense for us. We started with note cards and notepads and then quickly I was like, "I love place cards. There's no good ones on the market. I have to make place cards"... Place cards were next. Then all these women kept asking me for place card holders... So then we created these holders and people love them, and then we created cocktail napkins...

I don't see Dear Annabelle as a tabletop business. There's lots of great ones... Really at Dear Annabelle, we do really well with things that you can gift, things that are giftable—that's sort of our business... I want to make things that are easy to give [for] an anniversary... a hostess gift... a graduation. Can we be there for all your gifting?

Amy Cohen Epstein: Your playing cards are gorgeous. I love them.

Marcie Pantzer: I think those are an awesome gift. If your grandma plays bridge, that's a great gift.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I think you could go into Mahjong...

Marcie Pantzer: We launched our new Mahjong set actually this week and we've nearly sold out... They're called Pray for Jokers.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I love this... That's huge. When it's great and it's when like, oh my God, this stands on its own two feet. And I do believe when you build something that can grow, and as you said, you can pivot and you can change and you can grow with the times... But if you always stay true to why you're doing it in the first place, and for you it's about connection, then you'll have that brand that can stand on its own two feet.

Marcie Pantzer: I want everything to be perfect. It's taken me like three and a half years to try to make a candle because I want it to be perfect... I could have just taken a glass jar, thrown a sticker on it and called it a day... But that's not what I want to do... I'm extremely particular... I want to make sure everything we do is intentional. I don't want to make junky stuff just to make better margins. I want to make sure everything I sell is beautiful and perfect and we do so much quality control because our cards are made by hand... I would never want to sell someone something that's not perfect.

Amy Cohen Epstein: And it shows. That's your brand. And it's your name on it. It's your daughter's name on it for sure.

Marcie Pantzer: Back to the name... My son Chase was like, "Why didn't you call it Dear Chase, Mommy?" [I said,] "You have a whole bank named after you"... "Dear Chase doesn't sound that good."

Annabel, it was really funny. A year and a half ago, some random boy at Riverdale came up to her. He's like, "Are you Annabel [from] Dear Annabelle?" And she was like, "I am." He's like, "I have a [notepad] on my desk. That's that company"... A lot of people call me Annabel. They think I'm Annabelle... It's sort of supposed to be a nod to letter writing. I'm writing you a letter "Dear Amy." And also, "dear" is such an endearing word. It's a loving word.

Amy Cohen Epstein: That's literally the cutest story ever... That's the biggest compliment ever that a teenage boy had your notepad on his desk.

Marcie Pantzer: As I travel and meet people, when random strangers know the brand, that's the best moment. I have a lot of friends in New York and around the country from Duke, from high school... so of course those people know. But when complete strangers know it, that's like, "Oh my gosh, yay. Something's working."

Amy Cohen Epstein: ...when you build something that can grow... if you always stay true to why you're doing it in the first place, and for you it's about connection... then you'll have that brand that can stand on its own two feet, which is amazing.

Marcie Pantzer: Another really important part of the brand is giving back... We love to support different charities with our note cards and that's really important to me... We have a set of dog note cards that supports the ASPCA and we have some booby cards that support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and it's so nice to make sure that your company has that kind of moral compass too... I think of Veronica Beard. They are constantly supporting all different women and charities and female founders, and I just think that giving back is so important.

Amy Cohen Epstein: It's organic and it's meaningful. I totally agree... This was so fun. I got to learn about the whole line and about the story and about really how you led up to this wonderful building of this brand.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.