Charm Designed by EG Girl, 11, Hits Nordstrom Shelves

Remember that really cute chihuahua charm you saw on display at Nordstrom? Its designer is none other than Gabriella Weathers, 11, of East Greenwich.

Weathers, who said she likes to design things and might consider pursuing a career in architecture some day, actually was trying to design a fox at first. 

But any good designer knows that a second pair of eyes can elevate an good idea into a masterwork. And thanks to her sister, that fox has become a little yellow dog that will grace the wrists, necks and ankles of people across the country.

"I was just at Nordstrom with my friends," Weathers explains. "We were looking around and then a salesperson invited us over to design our own charm."

It was part of a national contest, the CHARM IT! Design-A-Charm Contest, and Weathers started to draw a fox, which made sense, because her sister was "obsessed" with What Does a Fox Say? at the time.

"We were all just having a funny time drawing charms and laughing about it," Weathers said.

But her sister, Thea, pointed out that it looks more like a chihuahua, and so "I put in the chihuahua details with a big head and big ears and just submitted it."

The salesperson said it was "good" and her drawing, along with her friends', ended up in the contest.

That was in November and Weathers, who was 10 at the time, wondered would would happen.

A while later, she got an e-mail from Nordstrom notifying her she was just one of three finalists in the contest and her design would be rendered in three dimensions and manufactured and sold in Nordstrom stores and online.

With the news, "she was jumping up and down," her mother, Pamela, said.

Along with being named a winner, she got a shipment of 12 of the charms and a monetary reward to spend at the store.

The charm is described by the store as a "too-cute chihuahua" that is "small in size but big in heart."

Sure to induce smiles with its big ears, big eyes and tiny tongue hanging out of its mouth, the charm is just $5 with free shipping at the Nordstrom store online.

It's made in the USA, too. 

The contest was open to artists between 5 and 14 and the charm will be sold through the summer at stores nationwide.

Weathers first CHARM IT! charm was a Hello Kitty charm she got about five years ago. And today, she said she has about 20 in her collection. She told Nordstrom that she has two favorites in a tie — Pup in a Cup and Cinderella. But that was before she got her shipment of a dozen chihuahuas, so it's likely there's a new favorite dangling from her wrist.