On Saturday mornings in the lobby of Lewis House, sophomore Julia Lee can be found hard at work, painting the nails of fellow students. Lee runs a nail-painting business on campus under the Instagram account @juljamnails.
Lee began painting nails towards the end of high school as a method to stop biting her nails. She struggled at first, improving her skills by using herself as a model. She would paint her left hand first, then replicate the design with her non-dominant hand, a process that took more than four hours.
“I don’t do my nails anymore, and they’re still bitten, which is kind of ironic,” Lee said.
However, Lee slowly got more skilled by practicing various designs and taking inspiration from social media.
“For any hobby I do, I just watch TikToks or Instagram Reels about how to do it,” Lee said. “So I think I learned a lot of technique from that.”
By the end of her senior year in high school, Lee was consistently doing her friends’ nails, especially during prom and graduation season. Around this time, she began charging for her services, working alongside a friend from her high school.
When Lee arrived at Vanderbilt, she didn’t intend to start a business but did bring her nail supplies from home. During icebreakers with her floor in Crawford, her fun fact was that she does nails, and word spread from there. Her first client was her roommate, who was then featured as the business’s first Instagram post.
Lee was surprised by the amount of interest she got at the beginning of her first year at Vanderbilt. Her Instagram quickly received many DMs from students asking to get their nails done, and the business took off.
“I thought it was just my hobby, my little thing. But now it’s actually something that I can be proud of, something I can invest time in and put on my résumé,” Lee said. “I think I’ll remember it as a fun part of my college experience.”
However, Lee struggled during her first year to balance running a business with being a college student. One issue was pricing. As a first-year, she charged a maximum of $40 to $50 for her services, assuming students wouldn’t be willing to pay more for a “newbie.” However, many clients told her that her prices were significantly lower than those of other Nashville nail artists, and Lee realized that she could raise her rates without losing clients.
Lee now charges $65 or more for her services and is still often told she should raise her prices.
“My client base is all students,” Lee said. “It’s kind of a moral thing for me. I don’t want to be charging my friends over 100 bucks for two hours of me hanging out with them, basically.”
Lee also struggled with balancing the number of appointments she accepted.
“I almost contemplated not doing it this year because last year I would do maybe two to three people per week. I would be so burnt out by the end of it,” Lee said. “Every time I was doing nails, I was basically also doing a blind date, trying to become friends with them, and so that tired me out a lot, and it almost became like a chore.”
This year, Lee decided to limit herself to one or two clients per week, which she has found much more manageable. Although she initially struggled to balance her academics, social life and nail business, she now views doing nails as a side hustle rather than a traditional part-time job, which has helped her manage her time better.
Lee has fond memories of her floor in Crawford, where she painted nails last year while chatting with clients and friends nearby. She recalls one interaction with one of Crawford’s maintenance staff, who had often seen her painting nails.
“She passed by, and she was like, ‘When are you gonna do my nails?’” Lee said.
Despite the challenges of learning how to run her business, doing nails has been a rewarding experience for Lee.
“It gives me confidence in my own creativity,” Lee said. “It gives me confidence that I have something of my own here because that’s what everyone tries to look for when they come to college.”
