Brooke Bluestein’s Biz Has a Bling

At the young age of 12, Brooke Bluestein already has a keen sense of what it takes to start a business. Growing up in Atlanta, she attends The Davis Academy and is in sixth grade. This bright business owner launched her company with appearances at the Dunwoody Farmers Market, which debuted her business and from there, she’s on a path to progress. She also appeared at Brook Run Park on March 28 and she plans to appear once a month at local farmer’s markets.

Bluestein’s runaway best sellers include skillfully applied diamond-like bling on a variety of products with a thoughtfully executed detailed pricing strategy based on the cost of the item, time spent applying gems to create a design and a markup. Her creative works of art range from $7 to $30 and even though rainy weather can impact outdoor market appearances, her sales are steady.

Her business idea has been an instant hit, and she turned her artistic hobby into an opportunity with sales to prove the demand. Bluestein’s popular craft is tedious and includes covering objects with tiny, sparkly gems, often using special tools to adhere rhinestones to surfaces like journals, cases, hats, or books to add glitter and create designs that pop.

In sharing a little about herself, Bluestein thoughtfully described her life and said, “I live with my mom, Sheryl, dad, Greg, sister, Nicole, and my dog, Charlie.” In Brooke’s free time, she learned to master the skill of diamond art which is the inspiration of her passion, adding pizzazz and a pop of rhinestone bling to items and transforming them into stylish and colorful creations.

She added, “I also enjoy being with friends, shopping, running track, and swimming. I love traveling to different places with my family. I have always loved doing arts and crafts and started when I was young by doing simple things like coloring and painting. When I was about eight years old, I learned about diamond art. Diamond art is a craft where you create a sparkling picture by placing tiny diamonds onto a sticky, color-coded canvas. I realized that I really liked it so I also then learned how to bedazzle other things that I could keep and use.”

While Bluestein’s other hobbies include competitive swimming, she swims at Dynamo about three to five times a week and enjoys swimming at competitions and swim meets. Bluestein is also on the track team at her school, where she competes in running events and the long jump. When asked about who her inspiration is, she shared, “The person who has probably inspired my creativity the most is my Bubbie (Lisa Karesh). She has always bought me different art and crafts kits that she thinks would be fun for me to try. I love doing the crafts that she gets for me and sometimes we work on them together.”

Bluestein said, “At the beginning of my bedazzling journey, I made hats for one of my mom’s friends. They were plain white hats with her business name on them. The name of her business is MyFriendMD, and I designed that on every hat. At first, each hat took me about eight hours to finish but as I practiced and got faster, I was able to finish them in about two hours. I earned $10 for each hat. By the time I stopped making them, I had made around 70 to 80 hats. I saved the money I earned and used some of it to help start my bedazzling business. One of my family friends, Sarah Siegel, helped me think about ways to sell my products. I wanted to sell them, but I had never thought about setting up a booth at the Dunwoody Farmers Market. Sarah and I talked about different ideas and farmers markets, and craft fairs came up. We emailed them, got accepted, and signed up for several.”

Bluestein’s favorite part of running the business is choosing the products to order for the next market. She likes doing this because she gets to decide what she will buy and bedazzle. This is an important part of preparing for the market. She commented, “The most popular items I sell are picture frames, mirrors and hairbrushes. I usually make about 12 of each for every farmer’s market, and they usually sell out. Those are also my personal favorites to make.”

While Bluestein’s business is off to a great start, when she grows up, she wants to be a surgeon. She shared, “I have wanted to be a surgeon since I was little because my grandma encouraged it and I want to help people. I think bedazzling could help me become a better surgeon because it helps improve fine motor skills. When I am older, I would like to become either a surgical oncologist or a plastic surgeon.”

Whether Bluestein becomes an MD or entrepreneur, she’s off to a sparkling success. There is no doubt this soon-to-be-teenager will continue to dazzle. Look out for Brooke at the Dunwoody Farmers Markets and she can be reached for custom orders at sherylblue@gmail.com.