What started out as high school graduation gifts, eventually became the business that won Mission Beach resident Bea Doheny the “Entrepreneur of the Year 2018” award. She may have moved to San Diego only five months ago, but the reputation of Doheny\u2019s Astronobeads bracelets proceeded her, having distributed more than 9,500 jewelry products across the globe in the past two years.
\n“The cool thing about astronomy and space is there\u2019s so many things to be inspired by,” said Doheny, who continues to receive orders from Australia, Israel, Romania, and Budapest, along with local requests across the U.S. “We\u2019re discovering new stuff every day and it\u2019s fun creating jewelry that embodies that.”
\nDoheny grew up in Columbia, Mo., and harbored a fascination for astronomy since she was 7 years old. Since she worked in an art studio during high school, Doheny decided to make bracelets as celebratory grad gifts for her friends. Each bracelet was made up of nine beads, representing each planet in the solar system, and included a note from Doheny that read, “Every time you look at your solar system bracelet, remember I think you\u2019re out of this world.”
\n“It was cheesy, but I loved it,” said Doheny with a laugh. “And funny enough, that\u2019s the bracelet that really started it all.”
\nDuring her sophomore year of college, Doheny was studying business marketing at the University of Missouri and saw the uniqueness of her product and its potential. Using the resources available to her \u2013 experienced business professors, graphic design students, and website mentors \u2013 Doheny started building her budding brand. But it was her younger brother who came up with the name, “Astronobeads,” not only combining “astronomy” and “beads,” but also pointing out Doheny\u2019s first name, “Bea” fits in with the title. “I guess it was just fate,” said Doheny, who received the national title “22 Under 22 Most Inspiring College Women” her junior year. “What I love about entrepreneurship is that you learn the most by getting out there and trying it yourself. Even though it was a huge balancing act between classes, online orders and my social life, the reward was so much greater, and I learned so much more than I could have in a classroom.”
\nAfter graduation, Doheny knew she wanted to move to San Diego to tap into its plentiful, coastal art scene. While she\u2019s busy with online holiday gift orders this season, Doheny has also been navigating her way through the Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach farmers markets, selling her Moon, Jupiter and Mars bracelets along with Pluto chokers and cosmos hoop earrings. Her original solar system bracelet continues to be the best seller. “I just love being in an environment that inspires me and there\u2019s so much creativity in San Diego,” said Doheny. “It\u2019s just a dream everywhere you go. I decided I just was going to get out there and make it happen and make it work. My products just fit so well with the vibes here on the West Coast.”
\nAstronobeads\u2019 appeal has extended to the East Coast and is even a sale item for New York City\u2019s “StarTalk Radio,” hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Doheny connected with the radio station\u2019s social media manager, Stacey Severn, and after sending samples of her bracelets, Severn fell in love.
\n“Our whole thrust is to make science interesting and approachable to people, and Bea\u2019s jewelry seemed symbolic of bringing the solar system a little closer and making it accessible and fun,” said Severn, who herself wears a solar system bracelet on her left wrist. “The beads were like the first thing I wanted to get into the store.”
\nThe beads have also become a regular gift given to celebrity guests on the show, including Bill Nye and Whoopi Goldberg, who wore her solar system bracelet for two weeks on “The View.” That\u2019s one of Doheny\u2019s favorite stories.
\n“I was just getting my nails done, sitting in the pedicure chair watching TV, and there\u2019s Whoopie on \u2018The View\u2019 wearing my solar system bracelet,” said Doheny. “I saw the Saturn bead pop out from under her sleeve and I was like, \u2018No way.\u2019 Thank god I got my nails done that day, otherwise I would have never known.”
\nDoheny is currently in the process of building new ideas for a horoscope and zodiac line and is hoping to get into more retail locations in San Diego. Until then, Astronobeads products may be purchased at astronobeads.com. For a limited time, there\u2019s a 20 percent-off coupon for online purchases. The discount code is “sandiego.”
\n“Astronobeads is more than a bracelet,” said Doheny. “It\u2019s a cosmic perspective. We\u2019re all connected in this universe and, through this business, I want to help build that connection.” Astronobeads Products may be purchased at astronobeads.com. For a limited time, there\u2019s a 20 percent-off coupon for online purchases. The discount code is “sandiego.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What started out as high school graduation gifts, eventually became the business that won Mission Beach resident Bea Doheny the “Entrepreneur of the Year 2018” award. She may have moved to San Diego only five months ago, but the reputation of Doheny\u2019s Astronobeads bracelets proceeded her, having distributed more than 9,500 jewelry products across the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Mission Beach entrepreneur wraps the solar system around wrists of San Diegans","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}