Brave Bella Bead Co. Written By: Erin Moore Cowser PHOTO BY: PAIGE HENDERSON
W
hen you meet the motherdaughter team behind Brave Bella Bead Co., you quickly realize Bella isn’t the only brave one. Her mother, Robin, has instilled in her daughter a desire to give back and help other children be brave, too.
Less than a week after her diagnosis, doctors removed Bella’s right eye and fitted her with a prosthetic eye. As she has grown, she’s received new prosthetic eyes, the most recent one designed especially for the St. Tammany tween aspiring to become a professional soccer player.
Bella’s bracelet-making hobby, which started from two jewelry-making kits she received as gifts, has now turned into an LLC. Bella says she imagined her first designs by looking at pictures of characters and creating colors and patterns that reflect them. As avid Disney World fans, it was Robin’s post of one of Bella’s bracelets on a fan group that launched Brave Bella Bead Co.
Bella started playing soccer when she was four years old, and has been playing ever since. In fact, she now “plays up” an age group on an elite team. While some might think soccer - or any sport for that matter – might be difficult for someone without full peripheral vision, Bella hasn’t let that stop her. “I had a social worker tell me that I might want to pick a different sport because I wouldn’t be able to play soccer,” Bella says with a smile. “I didn’t listen to her.”
The Cervantes family visits Disney World annually, a tradition that began when Bella chose Disney for her Make-A-Wish trip at two years old. “I was diagnosed with cancer of my eye when I was one year old,” says the soft-spoken young lady with a speciallydesigned prosthetic eye featuring an intricate soccer ball pattern instead of a plain iris. Retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer that rapidly develops from the immature cells of a retina, typically occurs in early childhood, usually before age five. With early detection and treatment, it has a high survival rate. Robin came across an online post about a mom who noticed that her child’s photos didn’t have the usual red eye reflection, but rather a white glow, which is a reflection of tumors in the back of the eye. It was something she’d noticed in photos of her daughter. “As I was reading it, I knew,” Robin said. “We sought medical advice the very next day.” 44 INSIDE NORTHSIDE
Bella regularly visits St. Jude Children’s Hospital for check-ups and has decided to donate $1 from every bracelet to the hospital. She also plans to author a children’s book for patients there. “I want them to be brave, too,” says the young entrepreneur. While the book does not yet have a title, it will be a family project, with her three younger brothers Leo (9), Matthew (8), and Jacob (5) helping to illustrate it. When asked about her brothers’ artistic skills, Bella responds, “We don’t know for sure yet, but we’ll find out!” Bella, who balances playing midfield, homeschooling, and making Brave Bella bracelets, is also enrolled in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) at Southeastern Louisiana University through the Louisiana Small Business Development Center. The year-long program involves market research, writing business plans, pitching to investors, and launching companies.
Brave Bella Bracelets launched in May, ahead of her classmates in the YEA! program. In a short time, with Robin’s help, Bella has incorporated her business, received orders for over 1,000 bracelets, and secured placement in five shops and businesses in Hammond. She’s shipped bracelets as far as England and Puerto Rico. “We’re learning about wholesale versus retail price points and the importance of packaging,” Bella says. Robin adds that they’ve also learned about copyright protections, requiring future bracelets to represent general, not specific, characters. Bella has since designed bracelets inspired by intergalactic characters, sports teams, schools, holidays, and personalized nicknames. Bella is now incorporating stones and metal beads that don’t tarnish into her designs. “Dalmatian jasper has been a big hit. We have to stay on trend,” says the 11-yearold entrepreneur.
Brave Bella Bracelets can be found on Facebook and Instagram. While there’s no website yet, one is in the works.
