Madelyne Guard is a senior at Rancho Cucamonga High School. From crocheting stuffed animals to teaching kids how to swim to keeping up with her AP and honors classes and being a member of the RCHS TV Bulletin, Guard is constantly a hard and ambitious worker, always reaching for more. She continues this passion throughout her life. She strives for success and loves to work with children. On top of everything she does, she also has her own business.
Appealing to cuteness, Guard runs a crochet shop, where she crochets stuffed animals. Her creations can be different characters or custom orders. Her shop is called Madanimals Crochet Creations, and her Instagram is @madanimals_official.
Guard has had her business for seven years now, and it only has grown so much since she started it. She had the idea to crochet through a gift she received, and according to Guard, she learned how to crochet on her own by watching YouTube for two months.
“I was given an animal as a gift, and I didn’t know that was something you could actually make with crochet,” Guard said. “I actually wanted to do it myself and that’s when I started teaching myself.”
Several publications have also showcased Guard’s work. For example, she was featured on a whole page in “Sewn” magazine. Her work was also seen in a potty training book, “Pep Pep Loo Loo’s Tummy is Full: (a potty training guide)” where her animals were the featured characters, and her animals were sold with the book. Various Instagram pages have also featured Guard’s business. In addition to selling her creations online, she also sells them at various boutiques she is invited to.
Guard started her business as only selling locally, then she started getting orders out of state, and eventually, later on, was receiving international orders. In the future, she said she hopes to be able to make a website for her business to help it expand.
Ms. Megan Womack, an English teacher at RCHS, had Guard in her AP Language and Composition class in Guard’s junior year. This year she is a teacher’s assistant for Womack.
Womack said she has bought two characters from her: a Winnie the Pooh and Piglet doll. She bought them for her two nieces. According to Womack, her nieces loved them.
“They were very great quality and they came with directions on how to take care of them,” Womack said.
According to Guard, running her business means a lot to her, and it showed her a lot of great skills. She loves communicating with people and hearing about what they want, especially if it were custom orders. With custom orders, she always enjoys hearing the stories behind why people want to get what they want and the meanings behind the gift. For example, hearing about how a customer’s dog passed away and they wanted it remade through crochet was one Guard’s more memorable moments being a business owner.
For Guard herself, the business means a lot to her, as it shows that she loves it and it is a part of her. She began crocheting after she stopped playing water polo.
Guard runs her business by herself with the money, shipping, posting, and more. According to her, she has learned valuable skills such as accounting, proper customer communication, and more.
On top of being a successful business owner and being involved on campus, Guard is also an exceptional student who maintains more than a 4.0 weighted gpa.
“She is a very good student and always willing to share and help others around her in the class,” Womack said. “Her dedication to understanding topics shows her hard working skills.”
After graduating high school, according to Guard, she plans to be a teacher for pre-elementary and special education.
“I know she will be an amazing teacher,” Womack said.
Guard plans to have her crochet business while teaching. She knows that kids love them as sensory toys. Guard is very caring and sweet, and she only plans to help people more in the future with what she plans to do with being a teacher, and her crochet business continuing to grow throughout the years.
