We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annika Thomas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Annika, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
While other first grade girls were building friendships, eating lunch at their lunch tables, and making their way through elementary school, I was in a hospital bed. I had a birth defect that required major surgery to create a hip joint for me. I would need to learn how to walk again, and it was terrifying!
In the hospital, I had my crayons, my markers, my dreams, and my imagination. I wished for days that I would be like my friends and belong and go to school.
We all struggle; we all experience dark times; and life brings us to our knees. But we make it through, in our own tragic, smiling-with-tears-in-our-eyes perfectly imperfect way. It is all part of the complexity and weight of being human. We are all just FINE: Fucked up, insecure, neurotic, and emotionally unavailable. WE ARE THE FINEST on the planet! The top of the heap. And we keep shining, shining above the struggle, and become stronger and wiser!
That was the inspiration for the brand name: ‘FINE.’ A double entendre for fine jewelry and the acronym F.I.N.E. (Fucked up; Insecure; Neurotic; Emotionally unavailable) people– that is all of US! We all are going through something. Change in life is a definite. Life is in constant flux and transformation (like the clouds), but we will come out on the other side… still there and still shining, still making it along.
After my Dad died in 2016, I went into a tailspin. I spent a lot of time outdoors, wondering about my purpose, wondering how people see their way through pain, recognizing pain in others’ that was much greater than what I was feeling. I needed guidance. Something bigger than me. And I found that in the clouds. Creating became an outlet for me, and I found clouds became a theme. Dad left some money for me, and I knew then that I wanted to honor him, but include all of us. I found a spark and I wanted to let it go! Our energy affects others– and that energy can pull us through hard times if we allow it. We have to CHOOSE our way through. Even if it is just staring at a cloud and knowing that someone else, somewhere, is also staring at a cloud feeling the exact same way. Watching the clouds has helped soothe me, ground me, and guide me through some hard times. Clouds, like our emotions, may be powerful and intense at times, but they are also constantly changing, and smooth sailing will return– the light will return. Sometimes life is intense, like the roiling, tumultuous black clouds; sometimes it is calm, like the soft, fluffy, gentle ones gliding along. I knew I needed to go forth!! And so I rooted out all of my sketches and designs, and got to work.
So…”Why am I here?” I believe I am here to spread love and to heal and help us navigate the weight of being human. To me, beauty is being kind to others and how you make people FEEL. We all want to revisit things that are beautiful and things that make us FEEL good: memories, stories, places, art, music, books, jewelry.
I have created these beautiful pieces as a testament to our indomitable spirit and offer a way for us to express ourselves and our feelings using only the finest materials ever offered by this earth, because we are worth it. As humans, we all want to feel seen, understood, and valued. I believe that we shine brightest when we reveal who we are, acknowledge the darkness and shadows of life, and include them as part of each of our tragically beautiful stories– and that takes enormous courage! We are all part of something greater, and together, connected by our shared stories, we can illuminate the world!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Annika Thomas, a Virginia native and solo founder, is the creative force behind The Finest Stack, a jewelry brand borne from love, loss, and resilience. Inspired by her father’s passing and a lifelong belief in finding light through hard times, Annika designs pieces that reflect life’s duality—delicate yet strong, joyful yet soulful. With ethically sourced materials and thoughtful craftsmanship, her work celebrates the beauty in choosing light, even when life feels a little F’d up.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
This is all wrapped up in the name of the brand. So much thought went into my brand name. There are multiple meanings that reflect my journey– all of our journeys– because we all have a story and they are all filled with strength and resiliency. I will discuss the double entendre here of the word “fine” in my brand name. Certainly what I am selling is very fine. It is all fine jewelry. The finest, actually. But let’s hone in on the word “fine.” What does it REALLY mean? It is my least favorite word and in my mind, the word ‘FINE.’ means this:
Fucked up
Insecure
Neurotic
Emotionally unavailable
This is ALL of us! For me, it reflects my struggle to develop confidence. I was born with a birth defect that required me to have major hip surgery at age 6– when all I wanted was to make friends, belong, and run and play like every other first grader. My head was shaved (necessary, but a sacrifice nonetheless) and I was in a hospital bed for months. Art and crayons and plastic fashion plates plus my imagination became my way of expression and comfort. I had to learn to walk again and make friends again. But we CAN do hard things! And some of the most beautiful and creative ideas are rooted in pain and vulnerability, and spurred by resilience. I became a physical therapist and loved my job and worked for years. I love helping people and I love helping people heal. I was invested in each patient’s story. And step for step all along the way, my love of color, making things, beading, dreaming about jewelry and fashion only grew. I began designing my own jewelry. I continued dreaming while working as an as-needed therapist, and I helped out at my favorite clothing boutique.
And then my father died. I lost my rudder. I went into a tailspin. I was lost. He was gruff, domineering, wickedly funny, intelligent, stern, brutally honest, but also was my biggest cheerleader. He was the handrails for me on the swinging bridge of life. The months after his death were the darkest days of my life. Many times I found myself asking, “Why am I even here?” I can say now and with confidence that I am here to spread love and to heal and help us navigate the weight of being human. Beauty is being kind to others and how you make people FEEL.
I hope for my life to be about not just the battles we fight but about the resilience it takes to follow your dreams, and continue to dream, and the courage, strength, and determination it takes to KEEP TRYING… even when the odds are stacked against us!!! I have a giant (but fragile) heart and I hope that my spirit can be a beacon of hope plus a little humor and a lot of edge and to create beautiful jewelry borne from the earth’s finest materials. found myself outside a LOT. I needed to spend time outside. Nature grounds me and lessens my anxiety. When I look at the sky and the clouds I feel both small and infinite all at once. My mind just opens up. The same natural force that shapes me and carries me also moves those clouds and carves mountains. And though there are storms and there is tremendous sadness in nature, there is also beauty and renewal in the sunlight. We are all connected both to each other and something so vast, so beautiful and equally as enduring, something that stretches beyond all comprehension, and it is amazing to be a part of it and know that it is a part of us. So, onward!! The only choice is to put one foot in front of the other, shift, move forward and trust that we all have the capacity to navigate that swinging bridge that is LIFE!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I KNEW I was having a heart attack. I just KNEW it. My ears were ringing, the light in the room was fading moving from my peripheral vision into the center…. in my line of vision instead of my desk I could see snow, like what you see on the tv. I couldn’t find a deep enough breath, my fingers were trembling, my palms were sweating, my mouth was dry, and my temperature fluctuated between feeling cold but noticing beads of sweat forming all along my hairline. I thought to myself, “I need to sit down,” though I was already sitting. Racing on its circular track in my head was only one thought: “oh my God oh my God oh my God…… oh my God…”
Now let’s rewind to six months prior: I was excited at the prospect of building a beautiful fine jewelry website, optimized and built from scratch, written with code, and fully customized filled with fun ideas generated from lots of brainstorming in collaboration with a reputable and female-led marketing firm. I did all of my research, checkout out Reddit, talked to a few personal friends, all of whom had used the agency for advertising (not for website building, mind you), and everything checked out. I entered into the contract, paid all of my bills on time, arrived to every meeting on time (even early!), organized my books and notes the night before, organized each thought with bullet points and images before every meeting– the last thing I wanted to do was waste the time of this well-respected marketing firm. Just walking through the lobby, I remember thinking, “I can’t believe it’s me going to a meeting here, in this beautiful building, and conducting real business. Me! All by myself. And confident in myself! Me!” I was beyond excited.
After six months of meetings and hearing that my website was going to be incredible, “built from scratch,” have a wonderful user experience, I held in my hand a document that almost shattered my dream, my belief in humanity, my hopes. The document concluded what I had grown to suspect: that my “from scratch, fully customized” website was exactly the opposite: what was delivered was a website constructed from a pre-existing template installed onto WordPress, and presented to me as a “website built from scratch.” What I believed to be fully customized caused me to enter into an extremely expensive contract (of which I had already paid 3/4 of the contract) with a marketing firm who had deliberately and intentionally misrepresented what they could provide to me, continued to do so, and attempted to bully me into releasing this subpar website so I would be contractually obligated to paying their monthly maintenance fee in a two-year contract.
The lesson I must unlearn is the belief, when given the opportunity, people will choose self-interest, exploitation, and to take full advantage of someone who is at a disadvantage or have less expertise on a particular skill or subject. Perhaps the real lesson would be discernment. I must believe that, though some will exploit, others will support you, be honest, and uplift. Living a life in a guarded state and always expecting the worst is exhausting and I must believe that that is no way to truly be alive. It is most important to remain as knowledgeable as possible and remain wise enough to recognize when it may happen, but to also trust in goodness, continue to hope, and believe in the unexpected kindness of others– because those people are out there!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thefineststack.com
- Instagram: @thefineststack
Image Credits
Anthony Musmanno, Shannon Honaker, Alexis Corry, Annika Thomas