ECU student and cousin open jewelry boutique

An East Carolina University student and her cousin recently created a website for their online jewelry boutique, Bodacious Behavior, which aims to provide affordable unique jewelry to the community.

Brooke Edes, senior communications major, is one of the co-owners of Bodacious Behavior. She said she and her cousin, Brittini Malone, have had the idea for a jewelry boutique for a while. During quarantine, she said they realized they had the time to put the idea together.

Edes said she has always looked for different types of styles and that she isn’t a “trendy” person. She said whenever she shops, she studies how other boutiques price their items and the types of items others may sell.

“We definitely wanted to have flexible prices and have something affordable for everyone,” Edes said.

Bodacious Behavior would soon like to be able to sell clothing, according to Edes. She said it is in the “testing” stages now and they are excited to show their customers.

Edes said at the start it was a struggle because of the money that had to be put in. She said a lot of people that start a business put in more money than they may get out at the start but they wanted to keep “pushing, growing and expanding.”

“Our goal is to not appeal to one group but to have a little something anyone would enjoy,” Edes said.

Brittani Malone is the co-owner of Bodacious Behavior along with Edes. Malone said she has history working at boutiques and describes herself as the “shopaholic” of the pair.

Malone said she wants to have different styles and have something that fits everyone. She said she may only get a limited quantity of a particular item instead of buying a lot of one item, especially if the pair does not know how well the item will do.

“A lot of pieces we have been skeptical about bringing out because they are more for going out and being flashy, and since COVID-19 is still going on right now, we are debating on when to release these pieces,” Malone said.

The pair was worried about whether their items would sell as much because of COVID-19, according to Malone. She said the pair has not had many problems since the boutique opened and their sales are still strong.

Malone said having her business online and not in person is a “plus” for her, as she does not have to risk COVID-19 spreading through herself or any of her customers.

“I think our future goal is to be bigger, have more people buying from us, having a more broad selection of items to pick from and things like that,” Malone said.

Mary McElvey is a recent East Carolina University alumna and a customer from Bodacious Behavior. McElvey found out about the boutique through its Instagram page and bought two sets of earrings and a necklace.

The items were great quality compared to other websites, according to McElvey. She said when she received the jewelry, it looked like it did online, which is not the case for a lot of other websites.

McElvey said she will definitely buy jewelry from Bodacious Behavior again. She said she knows that the jewelry is made by Edes and Malone personally and that is what drew her to the pieces even more.

“I have bought three different pieces from them and every time I have ordered from them it has been fast and easy,” McElvey said.