Imagine going to school, doing homework, participating in extracurriculars, all the average high school teen stuff. On top of that you run your own small business balancing school and work life. This is the case for senior Sydnee Williams. Williams has always had a fondness for doing nails but two years ago, she decided to practice nail design and acrylics.

 “During COVID I was bored and I would always get my nails done so I decided to practice on myself with my mom,” Williams said. “I wanted to learn the technique of how to do acrylic nails and all that has to go into it.”

A year later Williams started her home based nail business, Nails By Sydnee. At first most of her customers were only close family and friends but, as she did more nails and people started sharing her work, her business grew now she takes on about 15 to 20 customers a month.

“I started with my friends so they would post on their social media when I would get their set done,” Williams said. “I started my own social media page Nails by Sydnee. I would post daily and then other people from different schools would see that too around the area. So yeah, Instagram has helped a lot.”

While Williams is a business owner she is first and foremost a high school student. Meaning she’s constantly trying to balance both her work and school life and she does that in different ways. One way she does that is by planning events ahead of time whether it’s for school or simply putting nail appointments on her calendar. Another way she balances life is simply by trying not to overdo anything.

“I try not to overdo it because school does stress me out, especially as a senior,” Williams said. “I have college applications to work on. So I don’t [do nails] a lot. But I do it pretty well. Pretty often it’s not that stressful because I get to work around my own schedule.”

One thing that does help with Wiliams’ stress is the support from her biggest fan, fellow business owner and mom Melissa Gray. Gray supports Williams in any way possible from finances and clientele to helping Williams expand her business.

“We are currently building Sydnee a lash & nail room in our basement to help her feel like she has a space of her own,” Gray said. “[a place] where she doesn’t have to find space to store all of her supplies, bringing it out and putting everything away when she is finished. It will allow her the growth I see coming.” 

Sydnee is already certified in lashes and is working towards being a licensed esthetician. As of now Williams plans to get a degree in business and open up her own salon so she can follow her dreams and pursue her passions.

“I really like the different art aspects that nail designing allows me to do,” Williams said. “I feel like if you have a lot of passion and a lot of patience it pays off in the end because I’m helping somebody else. We’re having a good time together. I just enjoy making other people happy and it’s also very therapeutic for me because I get to clean up people’s nails. So I just enjoyed it.”

Senior Vrushi Patel has been friends with Sydnee since sophomore year and has seen first hand Sydnee’s passion turned into a career.

“I was one of the first people and she did my nails when I was on vacation,” Patel said. “And I already thought she was good from the beginning, but she keeps getting better.”