TCNJ

29 SUMMER 2026 accompany her to street fairs and sit behind her as she sold, pitching in to customize bracelets on the spot. "This product has been about customization from the very beginning," she says. It's also been about empowering women (the majority of the company's customer base) and, yes, spreading kindness — ideas that are essentially baked into the brand. Today, the brand's bestselling words include "strength," "you got this," and, of course, "good energy." Each bracelet features a small tag carrying a number to register it on the company's website, allowing a customer to track a bracelet's journey from one wrist to another. In 2015, a little more than a year after starting the business, Carrig moved her operations out of the basement, even though not everyone shared her faith that Little Words would succeed. Some local retailers called her wares "childish," noting that they could make the bracelets themselves — responses she also occasionally received from customers at street fairs and even a few acquain- tances. Luckily, she was, as she says, "delusionally confident." Eventually, that confidence paid off. She hired a rep group — sales representatives who pitched her product to retailers — who, in 2019, clinched a partnership with Nordstrom: "one of the most pinch-me moments of all time," Carrig says. That same year, Fortune published a feature on Little Words, highlighting the company's rapid online growth. Meanwhile, the rep group wanted to pitch the line to Target's kids' buyers, but Carrig says she was adamant "about sticking to the demographic we knew best, which was adult jewelry." She was right. Three years after the Nordstrom deal, Target followed suit. An unexpected jolt of momentum arrived when Taylor Swift's fans began making and trading beaded bracelets bearing song titles and other messages. Suddenly, the media wanted to talk about bracelets and sisterhood, and Little Words became a go-to source. "We were able to get into a lot of articles that way," she says. Even as the company picked up steam, Carrig never entertained the notion that she could open a retail shop. That idea came from her husband, Bill Carrig '12, whom she'd met and dated at TCNJ and eventually married in 2017. She credits TCNJ with her happiness "because I found him there." Bill had built a successful career in business, working at Johnson & Johnson and then at the multinational investment firm BlackRock. All that time, he'd been offering his wife not just support but sound — and sometimes inspired — business advice. It was Bill, for instance, who'd come up with the company name. Then, in 2021, he left BlackRock to join Little Words as chief operating officer. "It was a family decision," he says. "I'd been at my job going on eight years, and it was great. But Little Words was getting big enough that Adriana really needed support running it." His suggestion that they open a retail shop that would include a communal experience where customers could sit down and make their own bracelet "made perfect sense," he says. Though Carrig wasn't convinced at first (her initial response: "That's not possible."), the idea aligned with what she'd envisioned for the company from its inception. "The bar really helped dial in on the community we'd been trying to build from the very beginning." In 2021, the first Little Words Project store opened on Bleecker Street in New York City's Greenwich TaylorSwift'sfansbeganmakingandtradingbeadedbraceletsbearing songtitlesandothermessages.Suddenly, the media wanted to talk about bracelets and sisterhood, and Little Words became a go-to source. ShecreditsTCNJwithherhappiness "because I found him there." Bill Carrig '12 FACING PAGE (CHARMS) CHELSEA SANTANA

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