At a time when most 21-year olds are working through university timetables and casual jobs, Alana Maria was quietly emptying her bank account. Not on travel or rent … but on beads. “There was no ‘aha’ moment,” she tells marie claire.
“I just knew that if I didn’t try, I’d always wonder what could have been. I’ve always learnt more from real-life experience than classrooms. Asking questions, experimenting, applying lessons – that’s how I work. Uni wasn’t my path.”
What began as a late-night instinct, deconstructing $3 Vinnies necklaces on her bedroom floor, has become one of Australia’s fastest growing jewellery brands. She laughs now at how scrappy the initial setup was, but insists that those early days shaped her more than any textbook could. “I was creating something people genuinely wanted to wear out of almost nothing,” she says. “Designing with experimentation and freedom.
That’s still the heart of Alana Maria today.” She made those early pieces with the women around her in mind – friends, cousins, acquaintances – who would give honest feedback. Each time, “I was thinking about how a piece made someone feel,” she says. “That foundation has never changed.” Some of her brand’s bestsellers – such as the Sia and Elsa earrings – were designed in that first year.
Today, Alana oversees a team of more than 75 people across the three stores and head office. Yet she still hesitates at the title CEO. “To be honest, I don’t often think of myself as a CEO,” she says. “I’m more a visionary.” The moment she felt that her influence was real came unexpectedly: onstage at her old high school, speaking to girls wearing her designs.
“It hit me that being a young female founder gives you this opportunity to inspire,” she says. “That’s what it’s really about.” “Alana Maria grew out of my bedroom, then the living room, then the kitchen bench,” she recalls. Customers began knocking on her parents’ door. “Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I felt fully committed. I just ran with it.”
By 2018, Alana had signed her first lease – in Freshwater, NSW. A Byron Bay store followed, then Westfield But the journey hasn’t been without heartbreak: she’s had her designs copied, sometimes by people she knew. “It really affected me at first,” she says.
“Now I see it as a backhanded compliment. No-one can be me, and our ‘why’ is about much more than the designs. We’re with customers from their first earrings to their engagement rings. You can’t copy that.”
Despite the company’s growth, Alana has never taken on investors or loans. “People assume that my parents funded the business [but] they didn’t,” she says. “I juggled multiple jobs. I had offers early on that could’ve accelerated things, but I wanted to learn through my own experiences, even if it was slower and harder.”
Her entire management team is female; something that wasn’t intentional but now feels inevitable. “Women designing, making and marketing pieces that empower women – it just makes sense,” she says. “I’m obsessed with my team. The culture we’ve built trickles into everything.”
As for what comes next, expansion, new categories and international growth are already in motion. “We’re exploring the US and Europe,” she says. “With cost-of-living rising, there’s huge demand for well designed, timeless pieces that don’t have the hefty price tag. There’s so much in the works. It feels like I’m just getting started.”
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