It was the early 2000s when then-high schooler Maria Dueñas Jacobs would run, arms filled with fashion magazines, into the cafeteria at lunch hour. There, she would pour over copies of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and ELLE. She treated the periodicals as textbooks, studying looks and then matching clothing in editorials to the brands in advertisements.
She applied to New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), got in, and immediately got to work.
“In August of my freshman year, I cold-called the agencies I’d heard of through magazines,” she remembers. “I’d say, ‘I’m Maria and I’m a freelance assistant stylist. I’m available on these days to work.’”
She called magazines too and landed internships at SELF Magazine and Vogue. Soon after Dueñas Jacobs graduated from FIT, she was making her way up the editorial ladder at Glamour and ELLE before becoming director of brand development at personal styling company Stitch Fix.
A Dazzling Conversation
Eventually, her life started changing. Gone were the days of jet setting to far flung locations for glamourous photo shoots. Her life now was fulfilling in a few new ways: she had three daughters. One day, a conversation with her oldest sparked an idea.
“My daughter Luna was five at the time, and she loved my jewelry,” she says. “She’d love to look at it and touch it, and I’d explain to her that my jewelry wasn’t for playing with. She told me in her little voice, ‘I’ll stop taking your things if you find me something as pretty as your jewelry.’”
To Dueñas Jacobs, this was the equivalent of throwing down the gauntlet. She had a mission. Plus, she had the experience as a longtime fashion editor to find exactly what she was looking for.
For the next few days she searched online for kids jewelry. While she found a few things, nothing was up to her taste level. Her goal, she says, was to create a “Tiffany's unboxing experience for my five-year-old – made for play.”
The Birth of a Company
Though not a trained designer, Dueñas Jacobs knew what she liked and designed everything for launch on her own. She reached out directly to manufacturers and received many unanswered emails, but eventually found some to help achieve her vision. On November 11, 2019, Dueñas Jacobs launched Super Smalls with six SKUs. She sold out by Christmas.
“I remember thinking, ‘What do I do now?’" she says. “Like so many entrepreneurs, I hadn’t really thought past launch.”
Thankfully, her sister was helping her, and they spent the next few months regrouping. In January 2020, they restocked and sold out quickly again. At that point, the pair was doing everything themselves – packing the boxes, designing the jewelry and packaging, and shipping items. Inventory was stacked high in her apartment.
Every day is a challenge, but I want to feel the challenges. They aren’t scary to me.
—Maria Dueñas Jacobs, founder, Super Smalls
When the pandemic hit, Dueñas Jacobs used the first few months to make another game plan. She called her contacts from her magazine days – experts in branding, styling, photography – many of whom were now working freelance – and assembled a team. Not too long later, she got the call from Oprah’s Favorite Things: Super Smalls had made the list.
“I remember getting off the phone and running two blocks away to my sister’s apartment, bursting in her doors and just screaming, ‘We made it!’” she says. “My sister was freaked out, but when she realized what I was talking about, we started jumping up and down together. It was huge validation.”
Super Strategic and Successful Growth
Super Smalls has now been on Oprah’s Favorite Things twice. The company is largely direct-to-consumer, but last year opened up wholesale and now is found at high-end department stores like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, along with over 150 independent stores and boutiques.
“We are growing very strategically. We don’t want to be everywhere, we want to be in the right places with the right partners,” Dueñas Jacobs says, noting the company now has a team of designer and manufacturers around the world that help bring designs to life.
Today Super Smalls sells nearly 100 products across jewelry, crafts, dress up, accessories, and more. The space, Dueñas Jacobs has found, is largely untapped and therefore challenges can come around product development. When she decided to make a potion kit, for example, she was told those don’t exist.
"I said, ‘I know it doesn’t, that is why we want it to exist,’” she says. “We are approaching the kids' market through a different lens, one of fashion and fine jewelry. If I don’t get a 'no' to start [from product development], I don’t think I’m pushing hard enough. Every day is a challenge, but I want to feel the challenges. They aren’t scary to me.”
Be Different, Passionate, and Scrappy
For budding small business owners, Dueñas Jacobs recommends putting thoughts and ideas on paper first.
“It's OK to have competitors, but how will you be different?” she asks. “Dig deep there.”
Next, you can ask yourself if you're passionate about what you’re looking to create, she says. For her, Super Smalls aligns perfectly with who she is.
“It's about making products that bring joy to children – I’m cool with that, thinking about it all the time,” she says. “Ask yourself if you're OK waking up and thinking about your company, going to bed thinking about your company. If you’re going to do this, it's going to take up a giant part of your life.”
Finally, she says business owners can read up and be scrappy. Books like Self-Made Boss by Jackie Reses and Lauren Weinberg and Sweet Success by Candace Nelson can be starting points, she says.
“Look up anything you have a question about,” she says. “The internet is amazing. I learned so many things. Try to use all of the tools out there.”
Photos courtesy Super Smalls and Jeff Holt
