Launching a business wasn’t something Lia Valencia Key had considered. Having grown up in homeless shelters in Philadelphia, doing so wasn’t on her radar.
Despite their circumstances, Key’s mother found small ways, especially through words, to create moments of lightness for their family. Those words stuck with Key and later provided a source of inspiration for doing the very thing she had never considered.
In 2015, the Penn State and Arcadia alum officially created her jewelry brand, Valencia Key, which has since garnered a nod from the editors of O, The Oprah Magazine and is sold on QVC.
The line was inspired by her late mother’s words and a pair of earrings she’d given her daughter, at which time Key’s mother said, “Always wear your earrings when you can't find your light.”
That quickly became like a mantra for Key. Inspired by the feeling they gave her, she wanted to share that same message with others. “The jewelry is the byproduct of the message,” Key said. “The message is, ‘If I can, you can.’ All of us can shatter glass ceilings, all of us can go after our dreams.”
A self-proclaimed doodler from a young age, after her mother’s passing and the many ups and downs life threw at her, Key took to sketching as a kind of therapy. One day she realized those drawings could become pieces of jewelry.
At the time she was working at the QVC salon, where she styled on-air hosts and brand presenters. Those women, including Tatcha skincare Founder Vicky Tsai, and founder of IT Cosmetics Jamie Kern Lima, took Key under their wings, encouraging her to pursue her idea. To help her, they brought her into meetings and took her on international trips where Key could gain firsthand experience.
Things finally began to fall into place when Key was on one such trip to Morocco, Egypt and Spain. There, she kept seeing lights and stars in markets and shops. When speaking to a shop owner in Morocco, who also had a collection of keys on display, he told her they represented unlocking the light. On the flight home, she sketched interlocking Vs with a key at the center and her logo was born.
Determined her brand — which has offices in West Chester and West Philadelphia — would one day grow to great heights, she soon sought a manufacturer that could fulfill her small orders at the time but could also scale with her down the road.
That proved a prudent move. In 2017, she had product to market and some of those same women who’d opened doors for her would wear her pieces on air. In 2020, Valencia Key was among those selected to sell their products on QVC through its Big Find — an open call competition seeking new brands. Manifesting her longtime dream, Valencia Key has since grown from its word-of-mouth days to a brand worn by powerful women like "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts.
As the brand gained popularity, Key also expanded her offerings from her initial gratitude stud earrings and synergy necklace, both of which feature three stones, to earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets and hair accessories. Sales are a mix of direct-to-consumer and wholesale which she says are in the thousands.
Those first earrings are an homage to her mother and the earrings Key received as a gift from her.
This spring, Key plans to launch her latest product, a line of beaded bags handcrafted in Ghana. Her goal is to “bring commerce to Africa,” she said. The bags, which she is designing herself, will be exclusive to Valencia Key at launch.
Thus far, Valencia Key has been bootstrapped, but Key expects to seek investors to help her become a global brand. “I want to own 51% to 52% always, but I know to scale I'm going to need help,” she said.
As with all of her products, Key looks for ways to give back in much the same way she was given so much along the way, taking a portion of profits and putting them toward educating women and children at homeless shelters and in schools.
Perhaps one of them will go on to start a business just as Key did. “If people can wear a piece [of jewelry] from someone who was raised in a homeless shelter, then whatever your dreams are, it's possible,” she said.
Why not name the brand your full name?
If you're going to name it your name, then that is you always and forever. And I was like, it is about me, but it's not about me. It's about we. Valencia means brave and strength in Spanish. And my last name happens to define unlocking and that's the intention that I want to give — unlocking of your light and your bravery. And so Lia will be a vessel to send that message out.
How did the pandemic impact business?
Not being able to get supplies, not really being able to sell because no one can really buy in such an emergency, and then the shipping [prices] have quadrupled. Everything is even more expensive, not just to make but to even ship. It's been a major challenge that I'm willing to tackle and continue to tackle because I know my message will touch people and change lives.
What are your goals?
I want a sales team, meaning five people, but salespeople that can really get Valencia Key in more tangible stores, and I would love to do more media opportunities so that I can speak on the power of what Valencia Key is.
