Alexia Canto, a 2024 Gulliver graduate, saw Hailey Bieber sporting an Emi Jay hair clip on Instagram and then bought one as a Christmas present for herself in 2021. She showed her friends – Alessandra Sanchez ‘24, Emma Remy ‘24 and Katayoun Meyer ‘24 – her “papillon claw clip,” packaged in pink tissue paper with a sheet of girly stickers. They immediately shelled out $34 for their own and, with Canto, started @emijayfanclub on Instagram. “You want to be the girl with the Emi Jay,” said Sanchez, who plans to wear the clip at the University of Michigan this fall.
It’s hard to walk through the halls without seeing dozens, if not hundreds, of Emi Jays. “They are everywhere. I think over half of the high school has one,” said Alejandra Martinez-Fraga ‘25. Their popularity is still growing, much of it apparently thanks to the girls behind @emijayfanclub.
Fifteen years ago, founder Julianne Goldmark started Emi Jay with her mother in California to make hair accessories “effective and effortless,” according to their official website. She wanted to find a way to showcase her personal style amidst her mundane school uniform. “There are very few ways to feel expressive, so I chose hair as one of them,” she said in an interview with Vogue.
Last school year, Goldmark donated 100 free pink clips to the @emijayfanclub girls for a breast cancer awareness fundraiser called Clips for a Cause. Sanchez worried about the $34 price. “At first I was like, ‘What if people don’t buy them, that’s so awkward,’ but when I got to school that day everyone was like pre ordering them,” she said. “There was a line wrapping around the building.”
Clips for a Cause generated over $3,000 in sales, the most of any student-organized fundraiser in Carrollton’s history.
As the school year approaches, it seems like Emi Jays are staying in style not just in Miami, but all over the country as the @emmajayfanclub continues to amplify the “Emi Jay girl aesthetic.” “At first it was kind of like a joke,” said Sanchez. “Now we are taking it nationwide.”
