Meet Trailblazer Jennifer Fam

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Fam.

Jennifer, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In the beginning it wasn’t easy, being a teen mother, I had to put my dreams to the side so that I can work full-time. Graduated from high school at 16 years old and my plan was going to college then go to medical school. Two months before graduation day, I found out that I was pregnant. It was pretty scary knowing that my life would change forever. I was alone in my room just thinking how am I going to support a new baby and how would I give my baby all the love he or she deserve. Would I be able to give him or her the best life I could give? After graduation, I started going to beauty school to get my manicurist license. I had to work full-time in my family salon so I can support my son. Seven and a half years later, I had my baby girl. Now with two children, I needed to start hustling, I can’t keep living with my parents. I need to work hard so I can have my own place, provide food on the table and making sure they are well taken care of. Couple years later I decided to go back to beauty school to get my aesthetician license, so that I can offer more beauty services to my clients and this would help me to build up my clientele. I love working in the beauty industry and it’s always awarding when my clients are happy and feels confidents about themselves. This  makes me happy!  But I always think back of my head, how it would be if I decided to go back to college, follow my dream and be in the medical field. Is it the right time to go back? Would I be able to manage family, working and school? Finally, I made a big decision to go back to school. My son was ten and my daughter was two at the time and the longer I waited, I know I probably wouldn’t go back. I just needed to do it. I started at Front Range Community College then transfer to Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Go back to school wasn’t easy, I was working full-time, being a full-time mother and traveling for work when I was on break from school so I can keep learning new advanced beauty skill and keep up with the new beauty trends so I can provided them to my clients and to the salon. Such as eyelash extension, IPL, microblading to powder brows, lash lift and tint and many more. It was tough with restless night and lots of coffee got me through the eight years to complete my BS in biology in December 2018. It took me a long time but I did it, I finish! Now what is my next plan? Well….. last year 2019, I took a little break from school to volunteer at a hospital. Love it! I know I wanted to help others and able to educate them about healthier lifestyle and so much more. This year 2020, is going to be one of my busiest time. My next goal is to start my Bachelor of science in nursing for my RN in April and another exciting news is that our family salon is going to expand soon. We are going to add more beauty service for our clients that I can’t wait to share with everyone, once it’s all done. Like I mention earlier, I love the beauty industry and I would love to be in the medical field too. The main point of my story is that as a woman, there’s no limited, we can dream bigger if we show dedication and hard work, we can do it.  Also, we are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. Keep pushing and keep going even if time gets tough, we will get there. I wanted to be a good role model for my children and they could be proud of their mother. I really hope my children sees that everything I do, it’s because I do it for them. I struggle so they don’t have to struggle, I work hard so they can do all the things they love to do and don’t have to worry.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Life, it’s never a smooth road. There are lots of struggles and stress but the love and support from my family it helps a lot. Imagine, trying to manage family, work and school, it was rough. What works best for me is to manage your time very well. My planner was like my best friend. It’s important to be organize, this will make things so much easier. Not to mention, it’s okay to ask for help, when is needed.

We’d love to hear more about Beauty by jfam/American Nails.
American Nails has been our family salon over 20 years. My mother was a hard working women, she would always have more than 2 jobs at a time and making very little income. She would always making sure my siblings and I are well taken care of. Like mother, like daughter! One day my mother decided to changed her career, she decided to go to beauty school to be a manicurist. After beauty school, she worked at a salon for couple of years, then in the mid 90s, she decided to open her first salon, American nails. American nails has been growing from 5 employees to 20 employees and It’s still growing. Without my mother going into beauty industry, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I been doing nails for 20 years and aesthetician over ten years. In 2016, Beauty_by_jfam started on Instagram, where I can post pictures of our work and hope to brings new clients into our salon.  Social media does help, people love to see your work and they love before and after pictures or videos. We offer most everything from nails, waxing, lash lift and tint, lash extension, microblading to powder brows. Henna Brows and so much more. Our salon is going to expand sometime in 2020 and I can’t wait to share it with everyone once it’s all finish. It’s going to be one-stop salon for our clients for all their beauty needs.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
I think women nowadays are very empowering and there are so much opportunities out there for women. We just need to find out what we are passionate about and go get it. In the past, women’s salaries are lesser then men. They think women’s job is to stay home, clean house, cook and take care of children. But now our Society, women is overcoming everything and we can do it all. We can multitask and will get things done. I love seeing when women are independent and  it’s okay to invest in yourself because it’s one of the best returns on investments you can have such as, Learning a new skill or  developing yourself personally and professionally. We just need to push ourselves and go get it.

Contact Info:

• Address: 901 East 120th Ave
  Unit C
  Thornton, CO, 80233
• Phone: 303-254-8730
• Email: beauty.by.jfam@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Beauty_by_jfam

Image Credit:
cassandrasuttonimages@gmail.com, Cassandra Sutton Images

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