This is part of WTOP’s continuing coverage of people making a difference from our community authored by Stephanie Gaines-Bryant. Read more of that coverage.
A Prince George’s County high school student has discovered that lengthening lashes can be an eye-opening business.
Kaci Harris is a student at Bowie High School and the owner of KM Beauty in Bowie, Maryland. The business specializes in eyelash extensions.
“I do individual eyelashes, all different styles, classic, hybrid, volume,” Harris says.
Harris began doing eyelashes two years ago after taking a course in lashes under a professional cosmetologist and has since earned a $500 award from the Psi Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to support her business.
The award is part of an effort to support young Black entrepreneurship.
Benita Swindell, President of the Psi Epsilon Omega chapter of AKA in Prince George’s County says that Harris has done so much and the organization “wanted to help her business thrive.”
“If you find that niche or that something you really want to have as a business, go for it,” Swindell advises young entrepreneurs.
Harris will be attending Bowie State University in the Fall of 2022 where she will be part of the Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community — the university’s newest living and learning center for students.
“They just let me know that they’ve built a hair salon and barbershop in there so I could do services, teach other students — and they would pay me,” Harris says.
She said she developed an interest in chemistry at a young age as well and began creating her own beauty products like homemade chapsticks and colored lip gloss.
“If my mom had expired food in the cabinet I would take it over to my play kitchen and just concoct things,” Harris says.
Harris was born and raised in Bowie, Maryland, and has lived in the same house all of her life. She calls her mother, father, brother and sister her biggest support system.
You can see more from KM Beauty by visiting @KMxBeauty on Instagram or reaching out to the owner via email at harriskaci7@gmail.com
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been changed to reflect the correct name of the AKA president.)
