Los Angeles native Shaindel Shemula Leyton was invited to speak at the L.A. Huddle event last June for local entrepreneurs, business owners and vendors. The event, hosted at the Village Synagogue, drew around 300 people. Leyton led a roundtable of women entrepreneurs, including a gynecologist, a business owner, a photographer and others. Leyton herself is a business owner of Shain Leyton Jewelry at 7421 Beverly Boulevard, which she founded in 2016.
“I was supposed to talk about how to balance entrepreneurship and family life,” said Leyton. “I was thinking, what am I going to say to the women entrepreneurs? I thought, instead of trying to compete with men in a male-dominated business world, why don’t we focus on using our feminine attributes that God gave us to succeed in entrepreneurship?”
She continued, “We do better as women entrepreneurs when we use our feminine ability.”
Leyton got in touch with Chai Lifeline, an organization she has been active in for the past eight years. The organization, which has branches on the East and West Coasts, supports families with children who have terminal illnesses. They offer emotional and financial help, pay hospital bills, send meals to children’s hospitals and provide camps for the children and their siblings and more.
The organization connected Leyton with 10-year-old Skyler, who has been battling an aggressive form of cancer and has been in and out of hospitals for an entire year.
“I called Skyler’s mom, Flora, and said I heard that Skyler has been sick, and I would like to visit her. She said, ‘You know, it would be so nice of you if you brought over jewelry to the hospital. It would make Skyler so happy and would make her day.’”
The jewelry maker thought it was a splendid idea and that’s what sparked the idea to establish the Pretty Princess Project. If a simple set of jewelry can make one girl happy, why not offer it to girls who are struggling with an illness?
That week, she arrived at the hospital with a 14-karat gold Star of David necklace and star earrings. She also had an offer for Skyler. “I asked her if she would like to be my model for the Pretty Princess Project and her eyes lit up,” said Leyton. “She said, ‘Yes!’ and was so excited and couldn’t wait to go shopping for outfits. She asked if she would have a hair and makeup lady, because she had lost all her hair.”
“I asked her if she would like to be my model for the Pretty Princess Project and her eyes lit up.” – Shaindel Shemula Leyton
On the day of the photo shoot, Skyler looked like a true princess, with a pretty dress, makeup and even a crown. It was clear she enjoyed the process so much, she was glowing.
“It was a three-hour shoot, and it was unbelievable to see how we breathed life into this girl,” said Leyton. “We are talking about a girl who can hardly walk up and down the stairs at her home. Just by giving her jewelry, doing a photo shoot and making her feel like a princess, she had all this energy. She still wears the necklace I gave her, she doesn’t take it off.”
Leyton said this was the best merger of the two passions in her life, her volunteer work and her business.
On July 1, she officially launched her Pretty Princess Project and since then, she has donated a dozen pieces of jewelry. “With every sale, we donate a jewelry set to a girl or anyone who struggles with femininity. I also sent three necklaces to Israel to wounded soldiers or a wife who lost her significant other. It’s not only about children.”
With the help of Israeli actress Swell Ariel Or (“Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”), she sent three necklaces to Israel to hand them to Yasmeen Ohebsion, a senior at Tulane University, who had testified in front of Congress about her own experience of antisemitism at her university. “She went to Israel to speak in front of the Knesset and visit hospitals, so I gave her the necklaces to pass them on,” Leyton said.
Leyton has been married for 12 years and is a mother of three, ages nine, seven and four. Her children, she said, are familiar with her volunteer work and she hopes one day they’ll learn the importance of giving back and volunteering themselves.
“We took them to Chai Lifeline events, and they saw all the pictures. I make it a big priority for them to know what I’m doing. When I’m going to the hospital to help a mom of a small baby, I tell them, I’m going to watch this baby for an hour so the mom can get a break and then I’m coming home. My goal for them is to see what is meaningful in life and the importance of giving back.”
For more information, visit shainleyton.com, or on Instagram at shainleyton_.
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