We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hailey Reid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hailey , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was the White Christmas collection I did in honor of my late grandma! My grandma loved Christmas! Every year she would pray for snow on Christmas. Mind you, we lived on the coast of Texas where we spent most Christmas Days in shorts. I created this collection to give her the white Christmas and have her love for Christmas & snow live on!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the owner of Highway Hippie LLC! I started my company while in college full time as a biomedical engineering major. I started making jewelry on the side and selling it to make some extra cash to help pay for college! I ended up dropping out of college after 2020 and pursuing Highway Hippie full time! We create boho jewelry pieces that show case different crystals and gemstones! We are a small batch company and only make a few of each of our designs! We also have two amazing employees (Holly & Lydia) who help me run Highway Hippie!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Being a creative means, be ready to wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea that you have to start right then and there or you’ll forget! It’s hard for friends and family to understand that sometimes we have to create or we will forget the idea and drive ourselves crazy trying to remember it. Not spending time or make time to create can also cause frustration! Creativity comes and goes in waves and most of us are chasing that wave to avoid the creative block! If you have a creative in your life, be understanding if they need time to create! Trust me they’ll appreciate you so much more for trying to understand and respect the creative process!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s okay to be vulnerable and emotional. Growing up, I was never allowed to show my emotions around specific family members. I was often told I was being dramatic or over emotional as if it was a bad thing. Emotions are beautiful and some have the ability to feel emotions on such a deep level. Most of those people grow up to be creatives! My best work happened when I allowed myself to be vulnerable with my art. Allowing myself to work with deep blue stones to represent the depression I was feeling, or using citrine to represent a happy time in my life! Be emotional. Feel it. Don’t apologize for it and use it to show the world what they don’t have the ability to feel!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://highwayhippiejewelry.com
• Instagram: @highwayhippie
• Facebook: Highway Hippie LLC
• Other: TikTok: @highwayhippie
  Pinterest: @highwayhippie

Image Credits

N/a