Nadia Gellani Means Business

   Nadia Gellani is a sophomore here at DHS this year, and she has built a brand for herself. Shine By Nads, her independent small business, has her making and selling her own lip and beauty products, at only 15 years old.
Gellani began making and selling lip products such as chap-sticks, lip gloss, lip scrubs, and lip oils in August of 2019, and she has been working independently ever since. Gellani said she usually takes inspiration from her own desires for products. She looks at where other companies lack and looks for products that aren’t offered yet in the way that she wants them to be. She also occasionally makes custom products for people or fills special requests for friends and family.
Nadia said she likes to sing and participate in choir and theater, is a member of the Women’s Ensemble, the Thespian Troupe, and does community theater, and that many if not most of her customers have come from people she has met through her activities. She is also currently playing Elsa in the Dearborn Youth Theatre’s production of Frozen, which will be presented Jan. 30 through Feb. 2 and in the spring musical here at DHS this year, Mamma Mia, as a singer.
Through these activities she has encountered countless girls who want to buy things from Shine By Nads and support Gellani in her business, both through their personal support and through their patronage. Gellani has been participating in theatre since seventh grade, and she has been in eight productions since then, not including Mamma Mia, bringing in tons of customers.
Shine By Nads currently offers lip gloss, lip scrubs, lip oils, and lip balms and has multiple shades and flavors of each.Shine By Nads can be found on Instagram, and Gellani works with her customers primarily over direct messages through the app.She charges about five dollars per product, and everything is under five dollars.
She does everything for the business by herself, with the exception of help with gathering materials and with transportation that she said she gets from her father. Other than that, Gellani operates fully independently. “I use half of the money to buy more materials, and I save half the money for myself,” Gellani said.  Gellani said she does not have plans to expand the business right away. Being in high school, she said she is happy with where she’s at with it but might want to work on a larger scale when she gets to be older and more independent.