LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — 16-year-old Ananya Uddanti is like any other teenager, she's a student at Central High School and when she's not busy with school she has hobbies that she enjoys— one of those is making jewelry.
“One of my favorite parts about it is being able to like, take things I found around the house such these game pieces and turning them into like jewelry that people can wear,” said Uddanti. “So, giving like old things a new purpose.”
She started making jewelry in 2020 when there wasn't much to do other than stay home.
“I’ve always been into arts and crafts since I was younger so I was kind of looking for different creative things that I could do,” Uddanti described.
Eventually, she decided to sell the pieces she was making, by starting her online business called Creations by Ananya.
“My first few customers were some of my friends,” said Uddanti. “But after that, like once I started getting people in California in New York, it felt so much more real.”
With the pandemic front and center at that time she saw how people around the world were being impacted and wanted to help, so she decided to donate the money she was making.
“Dancers in India lost their livelihoods because they were in lockdown and so they were like taking donations to buy them groceries,” said Uddanti. “So that was kind of my first project that I did.”
She wanted to do more so she created a nonprofit called Help 2 Inspire. Through her nonprofit, Ananya has been able to work towards closing educational gaps.
“I sponsored two girls’ education in like they're kind of in the rural part of India. So, they get to go to a proper school that has like, proper educational programs,” said Uddanti.
She’s also been working to close healthcare gaps by working with other nonprofit groups in India.
“We donated a complete blood count machine so that they could do testing and so they run a couple of free camps a month,” she explained.
Uddanti plans to continue using jewelry as a way to help those who need it most.
“It's clear to me that you can take something small at home, and just turn it into something a lot bigger than yourself,” she added.
For more information on her non-profit organization, please click here.