FSLM Student Profile November 2024
/Meet Charly McNiel
By Baylor McLelland
When a teenager gets their first job, it is usually somewhere like a waterpark, a fast food restaurant, or a retail store. With these part-time jobs, teens have to appeal to their managers and juggle their school and work schedules. Pleasant Grove sophomore Charly McNiel, however, works as her own manager, running her crocheting business, Faithful Made Crochet.
Charly’s venture began when schools closed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In 2020, I started with the little Rainbow Loom rubber bands and would sell [small items woven from those],” she said. “After a little while, it was really hard to get [the supplies], so I decided to start [creating items] with yarn.” She used YouTube to learn basic skills, and before long, she was crocheting all sorts of plush animals and other creatures.
Charly’s mother has been her biggest fan since the beginning. “I originally started making stuff for my mom,” Charly explained, “and she would put them in her office. She’d have people come in there and ask where she got them. I eventually started getting orders and started promoting online.” Both of Charly’s parents, she said, support her business, especially by sharing her posts on social media.
Charly began by crocheting turtles, bees, and succulents. As her work has gained popularity, she has broadened her design offerings to fulfill the requests of her customers. This keeps her challenged and growing her in craft. “There was this one elephant that took an entire day, but it ended up being my favorite thing I had ever made,” she reflected.
“It’s a stress reliever for me and helps me stay calm before performances.”
Four years after the pandemic shutdowns, Charly has found a good balance between all that she does. In addition to running her business, she is a dedicated dancer and performs with her school’s drill team, the Pleasant Grove Showstoppers. “We [practice] from 3 to 5 every single day, and then we have football games on Fridays,” she said. “We perform up to two different dances each week, in addition to training and preparing for regional and national competitions. It’s a lot of fun, but sometimes it’s stressful having to manage that and my business.”
Charly is also a dancer with the Judith McCarty School of Dancing; last year, she performed as the Dew Drop Fairy in the local production of The Nutcracker. “It’s a lot of work, and sometimes I can put a lot of pressure on myself, but getting to be in The Nutcracker is such a privilege,” she said.
Through ballet and drill team, Charly has gotten to perform in “so many cool places,” she said, including Kilgore College, where the world-famous Rangerettes train. “I’ve gotten to take classes with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and I’ve even gotten to take classes or be evaluated by influential dancers and choreographers like you might see on So You Think You Can Dance or World of Dance through competitions and conventions,” she said.
Charly works hard to balance dance and business. “I get to do a lot more [crocheting] on [school] breaks, but when I get busy with the drill team, I usually just try to fit crocheting into whatever time I can,” she explained. “I have even crocheted backstage during the Nutcracker and other recitals. It’s a stress reliever for me and helps me stay calm before performances.”
Even during the busiest seasons, Charly crochets. “I try to make one [item] a day, sometimes more,” she said. “Even if it’s just something small, it still adds up in the long haul.
“The smallest things I make take about seven minutes,” she continued. “If it’s my first time making a new design, I’ll pretty much spend all day working on that. It’s usually a lot of material, since you’ve got the eyes, the stuffing, and the yarn. It’s a lot of work.”
Charly promotes her business through arts and crafts markets, as well as social media. Submitted Photo.
Beyond social media, Charly promotes her business at arts and craft markets, as well as through her Etsy page. She also finds customers organically.
“Sometimes, I’ll just crochet in public, and people will end up noticing, and that sparks conversation,” she said. “It’s a really nice way of getting [the word] out there, since people end up sharing with their friends and on their social media.”
While she’s only a sophomore, Charly is already thinking about her post-secondary plans. With more flexibility in college, she envisions herself “going to more markets and trying to reach out farther than I already have,” she said.
To other entrepreneurial teenagers, Charly encourages risk-taking and finding community. “Just try putting yourself and your business out there,” she said. “If you’re truly passionate about it, there’s nothing that can go wrong. Just make sure you find the right group of people to help you and support what you’re doing.”