Credit to Jupiter Stephens

Nadiyah Collins is a current sophomore at FHN, and enjoys doing hair and nails outside of school. She also found a deeper passion for doing things beauty related during COVID and decided to take it more seriously.

It is not uncommon for teenagers to have jobs during high school, but it is a little unusual for a teen to start their own business from the ground up. Sophomore Nadiyah Collins did just that by setting up a nail studio in her basement to pursue doing nail art for other people.

“I was looking for a way to make money and I enjoyed doing [nails] on myself,” Collins said. “People asked me, so I just started.”

Collins started doing nail art in 2021 and improved by watching YouTube videos and practicing designs on herself. Once she realized that people admired her talent and also wanted their nails done by her, she started taking clients in 2022 and began to advertise her services.

“[Students] saw me doing my nails and they would come up to me like, ‘Oh, who did your nails?’ ‘I did,’” Collins said. “And then they would say, ‘okay, can you do mine?’”

Even though her business is small, Collins provides lots of creative nail designs at an affordable price with sets starting at around $35, depending on the set, and the time for each set taking from one and a half to two and a half hours.

“I do think her prices are reasonable, she always posts about sales on her Instagram story,” sophomore Ava Bartlett said. “So, she has Hoco and Snowco sales, and then she has holiday sales. I think that’s really cool.”

With her business running for a bit over two years, she has continued to be successful with her nail art and her customers. She has never received any negative feedback about her designs and she even gives care packages and punch cards to her customers that allow them to eventually get a free set.

“It’s a really good, efficient business,” Bartlett said. “She has a good Instagram on it, she always has deals and I love her little package she gives at the end.”