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

Kendra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

In early 2020, just before the pandemic hit, I was riding the NYC subway home while wearing one of the crowns I’d just recently made. In NYC, it’s common to wear headphones on the train and not speak to anyone around you. A woman nudged me and asked where I’d gotten the crown I was wearing. I explained to her that I made it myself, I was a jewelry designer. She said she was a stylist and asked if there was any way she could borrow it for a photoshoot later that week. This woman was a complete stranger, and I had no idea who or what she was even styling! I went home and looked her up, though, and hand delivered the crown to her the next day. It turned out that she was styling for a Vogue Korea shoot! My crown ended up on a full page print Vogue page. I still can’t believe it to this day! You never know who you will speak to, or what could happen in life. You just have to always be open to every opportunity that presents itself, and try to look for magic in mundane spaces- even subways!

Similarly, in 2022, just after moving away from NYC, I took a last minute trip back to the city to attend New York Comic Con, and hand deliver a crown I’d made for Tom Sturridge, the incredible actor who plays the titular Sandman in Netflix’s show of the same name. Tom was incredibly gracious, and our meeting was brief but magical. He wore the crown I’d made him for our photo, and the photo went viral on twitter an hour later. For days, I was hearing from strangers all over the world, and our picture became a meme. It was the absolute craziest moment I’ve ever experienced, even more than Vogue! I’m still so incredibly grateful to Tom Sturridge for being an absolute prince, and to the Sandman fandom for loving the picture so much!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Growing up a dreamer in a poor family, I loved telling my siblings stories to make our lives happier, and creating shiny jewelry to make life a bit sparklier. The desire to share hope through stories stuck with me as I grew up, and for many years I focused almost entirely on becoming an author. After being traditionally published, though, I found that much of the original love I had for storytelling through writing was gone. The publishing process is lengthy and lonely, and I found myself missing the connection I had with people when I was still just sharing my stories for free, or telling stories to my siblings. I found myself drawn to the connection that comes from story telling through a different medium- creating one of a kind wearables.

In 2008, I suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It changed the course of my life. I lost my job, experienced years of debilitating health issues, and had to rebuild from the ground up. Going through such an intense experience at such a young age made me appreciate the importance of celebrating every day we’re alive. Hug your loved one. Tell someone how you feel. Live each day with as much sparkle and joy as you want to.

Half Lucid Jewelry began in 2013, when I was recovering from sinus surgery. I made a pair of tasseled earrings while I slowly healed up, and Fabio Costa from Project Runway jokingly told me that I had created some half lucid jewelry. The name was perfect! For years I focused mainly on earrings, but eventually I introduced a crown to the Half Lucid Jewelry line. It was an immediate success, and became the main focus of Half Lucid. My jewelry business grew every year, and in late 2019, I chose to retire from writing and focus full time on Half Lucid Jewelry.

As a TBI survivor, making crowns is still very personal. It feels like beautiful armor for the head, and for our precious brains.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The absolute most important aspect is transparency. I have been very open with my Half Lucid family about what’s going on in my life, and never just the highlight reels. I find a great deal of comfort in knowing I’m not alone in struggles in life, and know that others do too. There is a terrible lack of transparency in social media, and it’s not doing any of us any good! Everyone has fears, anxieties, bad days, good days, wins and losses. We as humans need to know we are not alone in the darker moments of life.

I’ve made an effort to be honest with my Half Lucid family about my own insecurities, bad days, and living with chronic illness and anxiety, even when it’s not pretty. I find that honesty attracts honesty, and we have created a community of like minded folks who are trying to live their most authentic lives- sometimes in a sparkly crown!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury should be a must read for all creative types, not just writers. It is a short collection of essays and stories that loosely tie together a creative life. It offers hope and encouragement to not give up on the things that make us human, the things that delighted us as children, and give us a glimpse of magic in the mundane.

Girl Boss by Sophia Amoruso came along at a time in my life when I was considering retiring from writing, and I’m so glad it did. The ballsy, at times not-quite-legal tenacity she had for making her dreams come true was incredibly inspiring to me. Starting a business from the true bottom is not easy, and it involves plenty of moments of pure chaos. I found that it unlocked new ways of thinking about business for me, and I got louder and more confident about asking for exactly what I wanted for my small business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.halflucidjewelry.com
• Instagram: halflucidjewelry

Image Credits
I took all of the photos myself, either while holding the camera or with a self timer, except for the photo from NYCC (New York Comic Con) with Tom Sturridge (the photo credit for that one is NYCC) and the Vogue Korea photo. The photographer for that one is Peter Ash Lee/Daria Kobayashi Ritch