As a high school student, most of us are still thinking about who we are and what we can bring to the world. That’s not the case for Ivana Que. Que is a junior at RHS with her very own nail business. She’s been doing nails for about one and half years and her clientele has skyrocketed.

Que is such an impactful role model for the students here at Rogers. She never intended to do nails until her friend suggested for her to learn so they don’t have to do press on nails anymore.

“Honestly it started because I had a friend her and I did a lot of press on nails together and I didn’t like how much they fell off,” Que said. “So one day she was like ‘hey you should get a polygel kit or nail kit and see what happens’ and I was like okay. I started to do it then, and I guess it turned into a small hobby”

After that she started practicing by figuring out the shapes of the nails and how to apply the acrylics to the nail perfectly. After she was able to figure out shapes, she then went on to doing design.

“Designs are pretty straight forward when it comes to technique, because with nails its really just line art and gel and blending,” Que said. “With that when it comes to a design that looks difficult in my head, I just take it as oh there’s a lot of steps. I don’t look at the end result I look at how many steps are in between.”

When she started to get better, a friend asked her if she was willing to do her nails. Though Que was a bit scared having never done anyone else’s nails before, she still proceeded to do them. After she finished, she realized it wasn’t so bad.

“Then I had another girl come up to me asking if I could do her nails, but at that point I’m not really down to do peoples nails,” Que said. “But then I was like ehh why not, so I did it and things started to escalate! I got more clients, and I got better and it turned into something I didn’t think it would turn into”

After that she started getting more and more clients and recognition from her peers.

Que does the nails from her garage which has snacks, water, and its very own sink. Her nail area is very well organized and clean.

Her father Boen Que, started to help Ivana with her money by putting her earnings into monthly savings then dividing the money into different percentages.

“So basically, our process is the money I make for one month I can’t touch any of it,” Que said. “The next month he’ll finance all it the separate it into percentages and he’ll put some into my business savings personal savings and personal budget. That’s how we started doing it and what we’ve been doing ever since.”

Her dad is trying to ensure Ivana knows to always have a backup plan. She is doing running start and is planning to get a degree in radiology or maybe even sonography (the first imaging test performed when disease is suspected according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). All she knows is she would like to be somewhere in the medical field.

Even though she has a successful business that just continues to thrive, Ivana wants to make sure no matter what, she’ll have a backup plan.

“My dad likes to make me aware of everything I do he always tells me to be self-aware and realistic,” Que said.” Like obviously the nails are good right now I’m not going to lie it’s doing well for me, but when it comes to business like this it’s not consistent because your money comes from clientele. For a normal job it’s consistent, so for me I don’t want to put everything into this then it end up not working out.”

One of Ivana’s biggest supports, Kallen Adele, has always found a way to express her gratitude towards Ivana’s work.

Kallen found Ivana from a mutual friend some time in March of this year. She has seen improvement from personal experience as well as through Ivana’s Instagram account. (SculptedbyIvana)

“I think It was a mutual friend or I think it was from Instagram, and I thought I should get my nails done,” Kallen said. “Then I went in and she was the sweetest woman ever.”

Kallen has stated how inspirational she is to other students who are looking to go into the cosmetology field.

Both Kallen and Ivana’s sister, Alex Que, have both stated how kind and approachable Ivana is.

“She’s a hard worker, very kind (and) approachable so don’t worry about being nervous. She’s very pretty too,” Alex Que said.