Charm It! is a line of interchangeable charm jewelry geared toward girls aged 5 to 14. Hundreds of the whimsical, enameled charms are available to that younger population at specialty toy stores, online, and in several big box stores across the nation.

The selection of tiny charms runs into the hundreds, and appeal to just about any young girl’s interests. Sports icons, Disney characters, animals, friendship, love, foods, and sweets are just a few of the charms to choose from, and each one can easily be switched from bracelet to bracelet, or to a necklace chain. Since this fall, a dozen new charms have been added to the collection, created by 12 winners in the Charm It! Crayola Creativity Design-A-Charm Contest. Among those winners is Sandy Hook resident, Lauren Milgram.   

Lauren is an enthusiastic 9-year-old, who loves being creative.

“I love to do crafts and baking, and I like to draw and do yarn crafts,” said Lauren, who is a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “Art is one of my favorite subjects,” she said.

“We have a craft room, so we craft a lot at home,” said, Erin Milgram, her mother, giving Lauren ample opportunity to play with a variety of art products. 

Lauren’s flirtation with design fame started late last summer when she visited The Toy Tree in Newtown. The Toy Tree carries the children’s charms and charm bracelets from the Charm It! line, which Lauren happens to love. She and her mother had stopped in to buy a new charm, and as they left, were offered the contest information. The contest, said Ms Milgram, was open to any child who made a Charm-It purchase.

What was especially appealing, said Lauren, was knowing that simply by submitting a design, she was eligible to receive a free charm.

She was under a time constraint for entering the contest, though. The entry had to be in by September, and the next day the family was headed to Florida for an end-of-summer vacation. She went home and began thinking about a charm that would appeal to girls her age.

Design-A-Charm winners are determined mainly by three criteria. Most importantly, the design must be easily reproduced as a Charm It! charm. It must have “creative appeal of design and colors” and  “uniqueness of design,” according to the Charm It! website, www.shopcharm-it.com.

“I knew there wasn’t a Charm It! butterfly,” said Lauren, so she started with that idea. Magenta, a hot pink, had been a favorite color of hers for years, so she decided on pink for the wings, with a yellow body. The butterfly sports a tiny smiling face looking out from the body. “I didn’t want it to be plain, so then I thought, ‘Yay! Peace signs!’” said Lauren. Miniscule multicolored peace signs dot the wings. Topping off the antennae are two sparkling gemstones.

She handed it in to The Toy Tree the day before vacation, claimed her charm to clip to her bracelet, and the family left town. Vacation fun and the start of a new school year quickly eclipsed the excitement of entering the contest.

Then, in late September, Lauren received notification that her butterfly was one of 12 winners in the contest.

“I was jumping all over and screaming,” said Lauren.

“We were just excited to have gotten that free charm, that we had actually forgotten she had entered the contest,” admitted Ms Milgram.

For her efforts, Lauren  — now officially a Charm It! Guest Designer — received 12 charms created from her butterfly design, which arrived this past December. Each one comes attached to a small Charm It! card that highlights Lauren as the creator of the design. Those charms have been shared with the girls in her third grade class, she said.

She also received a $100 gift certificate to Charm It! and what did she do? She bought 20 new charms.

“We actually had to buy a second charm bracelet for her,” laughed her mother, “because she has so many charms now.” Prominent among the cheerful charms, of course, is the pink butterfly charm.

Crayola also donates $1,500 worth of Crayola product to Art Start, in the names of the winners, providing art and craft workshop opportunities to homeless and at-risk children in New York City.

The Toy Tree, located in the plaza at the corner of Queen Street and Church Hill Road, hopes to receive a shipment of Charm It! charms by the end of January, including several of Lauren’s butterfly design.

 “It was really fun,” said Lauren. She hopes to encourage more of her friends to enter the contest next year. Will Lauren submit another design?

“Of course!” she exclaimed.

To view Lauren’s original design, select the “contest” link at www.shopcharm-it.com.