17 Years Old And Running A Successful Jewelry Business? It’s About Time Y’all Met Sara Caroline.
Let’s start from the beginning. Last fall, Sara “Sar Car” Caroline, Junior at Oxford High School, needed a necklace to wear to picture day…
She found one at a boutique in Downtown Oxford but was in huge trouble when it broke the next day, leaving her again without a piece to wear on picture day.
That’s when she had the idea that would change the course of her life forever.
She took a suede cord lying around the house and restrung the necklace the night before picture day.
This was when the choker came back on the scene. She had the idea to combine the necklace with a choker, using a really long cord.
The next day at school, her friends were OBSESSED.
Her friends started bringing her their broken necklaces, and she’d string those up too.
Everyone at school kept asking her about them, so she started making them as gifts.
But it wasn’t long before her parents had enough. The operation was taking over, they said, she needed to start selling them.
She made an Instagram, @jewelsbysarcar, and everyone started tagging their friends.
She made a website where she’d release 15-20 pieces at a time, and they’d sell out in 10 minutes.
That was so exciting to watch them sell out so fast. I would put them up on Sunday afternoon and they’d be gone in 10 minutes. ‘People must like them!’ [Laughing]
Then Archer + Arrow, a boutique in Corinth, MS, invited Sara Caroline to sell her line in her store. Her first batch sold out in a week.
The same thing happened in Oxford when she started selling at Therapy, and at their location in Memphis.
Every time I’m making something, I think about the person that will end up wearing it, and the memories they’re going to make while wearing it.
The Instagram blew up and started to expand to different towns. People started tying them in different ways, like wearing the choker necklace as a bracelet.
She put out a request for people to apply to be Ambassadors, and 370 people applied. It took her a week to sort through them, even with the help of close friends.
Now Jewels by SarCar is sold all over the South, and her most sales come from Tulsa, Oklahoma, very far from Oxford, where it all started.
This week only: Get 25% all orders on Nimble with code SARCAR25.
Need some inspiration? Here are Sara Caroline’s Nimble picks
You can find Sara Caroline’s collection at her website and follow her on Instagram.