Jewelry is versatile. Ava Distasi, a BHS junior, provides an example of one of its many uses. She creates jewelry for a purpose: charity donations.
All of the money Distasi makes is donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds. The pieces she creates are each modeled after people she is influenced by, whether they’re close friends or idols. This includes the nuances she adds, the
overall style, and what she names the piece. One such piece is a necklace she created based on Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of King Henry VIII. In this piece, Distasi carefully selected red beads amongst the white to somewhat resemble bleeding from the neck. These small touches, along with the cause she works for, are what make her art so unique.
Distasi started curating jewelry when she was about 12 years old, but only started selling it in the past year or two. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Distasi felt a renewed sense of dedication to the cause she was supporting. While she felt she didn’t have enough money to personally contribute at the time, she decided to take another path rather than abandoning the cause altogether.
“It’s something that I really care about, and even if I’m just donating the little money that I make from my peers buying my jewelry, it’s still something that I can feel good about and I feel like I’m contributing at least slightly to a cause that really matters to me,” Distasi said. “Just doing whatever I can.”