Anna, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

As an avid piercing fanatic, I was excited to see what you've opened and started as an incredible alternative to what I grew up with, which was just Claire's.

So I'd love for you to share with the

listeners what Studs is and what gave you the idea. Sure. So Studs is an earpursing and earring

experience that my co-founder and I founded and brought to life in 2019, we were really trying to reimagine

the combination of, let's call it, the tattoo parlors and a more elevated experience than

maybe what you had referenced. And the origin story really came when I went to go get

another piercing and I was probably, you know, 33 or 34. And I went to go get another piercing and I was probably,

you know, 33 or 34.

And I went to a very high end piercing place slash jewelry shop in New York and they didn't take

appointments and they told me they were going to have to wait.

I was going to have to wait two hours.

And I ended up going to the tattoo parlor.

And while the piercing experience was great, it was done with a needle, which is healthy

and safe.

And I really liked my piercer.

The jewelry was not to my liking.

And also I was very personally out of place at the tattoo parlor.

And then obviously the tattoo parlor doesn't sell earrings, right?

And I really thought to myself, oh, wow,

like, what do you do if you've graduated as an example from Claire's? Where do you go? And the answer

...