If you’re looking to be inspired to start a business on your own, freshman Ella Garlington is the girl to go to. Garlington has made her very own jewelry business from scratch, and one can only wonder how she does it. 

Garlington not only owns her own business in ninth grade, but she does it all on her own.

“I’m self taught. Learned most all of my stuff off of the internet,” Garlington said.

Not many people can say they chased after their dream. Garlington has made this her passion since she was five years old. She started selling jewelry at the ripe age of nine, and now she’s formed her own business out of it.

“I’ve been doing arts and crafts since I was little, and it turned out that it’s my favorite thing to do,” Garlington said.

Garlington mainly makes earrings and necklaces, but she also does a little bit of everything. What she uses to make them and how she does it, however, is a complicated step-by-step that only she can explain.

“I use a lot of different materials. One of my primary materials is polymer clay, which I sculpt into the shape of the jewelry I’m making and then bake it. Once it cools and it’s hard, I’m able to paint them,” Garlington said. “Another thing I use is resin. I use UV light to harden the resin, and one more material I use would be wire, which I bend to the shape I like.”

Someone could buy one of these pieces for “$3 – $35,” and as it turns out, a lot of people do invest in Garlington’s jewelry. Juggling school and a successful jewelry business would probably be difficult.

“When I started, it was really casual, but as it has grown, I now see that it’s becoming more challenging, and I am putting in more investments,” Garlington said.

All of this hard work gets turned around into something amazing for Garlington and her customers. 

“It’s great because I get to express myself, and then when someone else wears it they get to express themselves also,” Garlington said.

Garlington is continuing this career and turning it into something more serious for herself, as she is creating more jewelry and turning her once hobby at nine years old into a career at 15.

“I’m currently working on a website to move my sales there, and I plan to market more online and go to more in person events,” Garlington said. “My dream is for this to be my career or at least part of it.”