Aaliyah Janai
Designer
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Aaliyah Janai is known as an artist and entrepreneur who has created the collection Animated Beads, a line of beads to wear in hair, that is detailed and designed to jaw dropping perfection. The trend is fairly new to the world and has people mesmerized and astonished. All Animated Beads' collection(s) are hand-crafted.
THE STORY
Animated Beads was created in 2020, but the collection has just made its grand opening, launching for the holiday, Black Friday. Aaliyah is an African-American from Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, Anthony Jones (A.J.), was a merchandiser who made jewelry, amongst other things. He let Aaliyah and her two brothers play with all kinds of beads and materials as creative activities. They would all go to vendor events and set up tables filled with products of all sorts. She always knew she could draw, but never took it serious until she made her first bead drawing. She wanted to give her daughter the best hairstyle for her fifth birthday and saw beads trending. Aaliyah decided to see how good in beading she was and the results were amazing! After her daughter's hairstyle turning out so beautiful, she knew this would be the beginning of a new wave. She called this wave "Animated Beads". Aaliyah is an artist who makes art pieces for the hair community. She does fall in the "Natural Hair Stylist" category, but she is mainly here to bead and make art for hairstylists and people who like her work. Aaliyah believes her brand is a gift from her ancestors. She feels they know she will deliver. Her dad used to always say, "Patience is a virtue" and this particular gift stands on that.