Meet Jennifer Noonan: Owner, A Token Of

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Noonan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always wanted to have my own business. When I was young, I never heard the word entrepreneur, I didn’t even know that was a thing!

So instead, I went down the traditional path of college then working in Corporate America. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my second child that I started my own business ( a maternity line, of course:) After that, there was no going back. I just loved the excitement, creativity and fulfillment I get from owning my own business.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Wow. Well, the first thing is, it took me a while to call myself a Creative. As I said, I was a corporate gal for a few years before I began designing. My first foray into designing was challenging as I had no formal training or contacts in the garment business. I knew I wanted to make sexy maternity clothes, and that was it. I had a lot of false starts and made many costly mistakes. I would say the reason I was able to make a success of it, was I never, ever gave up. I was just determined to create this line of maternity wear, I can’t really tell you why I was so driven, but I was.

My current brand, A Token Of, is really a labor of love. I’ve always loved jewelry and wanted to create a line, but didn’t know what that would look like. Once the locket concept was conceived, I knew I had landed on what I wanted to do. I love that we make all the pieces here in LA and that a portion of each sale goes to charity. I also love hearing the stories from my customers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that when someone received the locket, they cried.

I’m always thinking and creating new, fresh ideas to incorporate into the brand. That’s the best part:)

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh, this one of my favorite things to do. Ok, here we go:

Places to eat/drink:
Sugarfish
Brothers Sushi
Bui Sushi
Giorgio Baldi
Tel Aviv Fish Grill
Mauros Cafe
The Old Place
The Sunset
The Rainbow
Chateau Marmont
In and Out
Malibu Seafood

Visit:
Malibu Creek State Park
Escondido Falls
Little Dume
Westward Beach
The Malibu County Mart
The Brentwood Country Mart
Melrose Place
La Brea Tar Pits
The Getty Villa
Disney Conert Hall

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When I launched my first company, I had no idea what I was doing! I was lucky enough to hire some amazing women and with their help and support was able to grow the company and learn so much along the way. These women are still some of my closest friends to this day, some 20 years later. Shoutout to you Jen Willner, Missy Hansen and Ziba Afshar!

Website: www.atokenof.shop

Instagram: @atokenoflockets

Image Credits
Gina Main Photography