Salvaging Lost Innocence: Mamaroneck High School Grad Launches Jewelry Line With Heart

She saw them lined up outside restaurants in Cambodia, waiting for customers.  Girls of all ages—many of them very young—were working for their next meal or, perhaps, working off the debt incurred when they were sold by their families into prostitution for as little as $150.

Larchmont resident Jessica Hendricks, 24, was in Cambodia on a side trip while in Southern Thailand teaching English, when she was confronted with the dark side of a nation whose people and countryside she had fallen in love with.  For many, the realities of abject poverty had forced them to weigh the benefits of survival against morality and the value of human life.

“It was a very intense experience to be there,” she said.

According to humantrafficking.org, Cambodia is a destination country for women and children trafficked in from Vietnam and China, with approximately 2,000 victims being sexually exploited.  Up to 1/3 of trafficking victims involved in prostitution are children, according to End Child Prostitution, Abuses and Trafficking (ECPAT) Cambodia.

Upon returning to New York, Hendricks read two books that helped her process the atrocities that she witnessed in Cambodia: The Road of Lost Innocence by former sex slave Somaly Mam and Half the Sky by NY Times Columnist Nicolas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. In a serene community like Larchmont, however, her attempts to engage others in discussions about human trafficking, however, fell flat, with many people “shutting down.”

“I wanted to create a way to talk about this issue that was inviting, welcoming and not too upsetting,” said the 2010 NYU Tisch graduate and self-proclaimed “storyteller.”

It was then that she realized that jewelry would be the perfect medium to communicate her message without necessarily silencing a room.

“Jewelry is sentimental and fun…and special to people,” she said, a lesson she learned by working in the family jewelry business; her mother, Dawn, owns in Larchmont.

“I wanted to make the issue visible—women who are trafficked don’t know that they are victims…their voices are silenced,” said Jessica. 

Partnering with a fair-trade team of Cambodian artisans, The Brave Collection’s bracelets are simple: silver, gold or cord chains with the Khmer (Khem-eye) word for “Brave”-“Klahan” (Klaa-han) hand-cut of recycled, Cambodian brass. They are meant to be layered with other jewelry.

Who are the bracelets for?

“A woman who cares about this issue but has many things going on—the bracelet is a reminder,” she said.

For now, though, Jessica is content to sell her bracelets locally and on her website, one day moving onto bigger platforms to spread the word.

“Change will come eventually—I’m finding ways to spread the word,” she said.

The Brave Collection can be purchased at Peridot Jewelry on 134 Larchmont Ave. or on the website here. A portion of every sale is donated to partnering non-profit foundations that combat human trafficking. Peridot Jewelry is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this weekend; the store also has a location in Greenwich, CT.