Every day we have a choice. We can support an up and coming podcaster, try a new family-run restaurant, join a boutique gym started by a local fitness champ or we could keep giving away our money to the handful of giants who already control so much of our commerce. Our daily decisions impact the kind world we live in; if we want a world where small businesses are growing and artists and creatives are thriving then we should support them with our time, money and attention. We’re proud to highlight inspiring creatives and entrepreneurs each week in Hidden Gems series. Check out some of our latest local gem features below.
Bonnie Ramone 
I started my apprenticeship to tattoo in 2010, and started touring as a musician in 2009–both when I was still a teenager. I grew up on a farm in a very small town on the border of the West Virginian Panhandle, and I think I knew I always wanted to do things a little differently than other folks around me. Read more>>
Mark Charry 
I am Mark Charry , life long Philadelphia resident . Operator of The Architectural Antiques Exchange . I started while a student at Temple University in Philly . I was interested in an entreprenurial pursuit ! (not academics !) My first buy was stained glass windows. Read more>>
Kyra Schaeffer 
Bloom & Gathered Floral Company grew from a lifelong love of flowers, gardening, and creating beautiful things by hand. I, Kyra, grew up spending time in my parents’ garden here in Pennsylvania, and that early connection to growing and working with flowers has stayed with me throughout my life. Read more>>
Amber Summers 
My journey into holistic healthcare began long before I ever imagined becoming a business owner. In fact, it began when I was just five years old, struggling with severe health challenges that would ultimately shape the course of my life. After years of debilitating symptoms, hospitalizations, and conventional treatments that weren’t providing the answers we desperately needed, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Read more>>
Eileen Smyth 
My life as an educator began back in 1994, when I taught darkroom skills to photography students at SUNY Old Westbury. From there, I traveled to South Korea to teach English in a ‘hagwan,’ or after-school tutoring program. Upon returning to the states, I was lucky enough to teach art at community arts councils. Read more>>
Jay Cooper 
Printmonition’s story began in 2012 while I was living in Las Vegas. Interestingly enough, I didn’t set out to start a printing company. At the time, I had my own clothing line and was paying other companies to produce my apparel. Two of those companies, 3 Nuts and Nu World, saw how serious I was about what I was building. Read more>>
Amy Babcock 
I grew up in Pottsville. Pottsville and Schuylkill County has a longstanding community theater community. I participated in high school theater, as well as community theater before leaving for college. I lived away in Washington D.C. for several years, but returned to Schuylkill County in 1996. Read more>>
Mark Mammone 
Working as a chef at an iconic Pittsburgh restuarant during the Pandemic, Mark decided to reexplore his passion for pickling and fermentation as an ode to his Croatian grandmother. Before long, his successful pickle company, Bridge City Brinery, expanded to include two award winning local food trucks. Read more>>
David Trudeau Jr 
I basically loved art at an early age. I grew up loving comics and video games. Most of my art revolved around drawing characters. I then got into graffiti art in high school and did tons of projects involving spray paint and clay sculptures. I went to Butler County Vo-Tech while in High School for Graphic Design. Read more>>
Kevin Ogule
M&D Catering really started with our family. My wife, Jennifer, and I started M&D Catering for our two boys, Mason and Dylan—which is where the name M&D comes from. We wanted to build something of our own that we could be proud of, but more importantly, something successful that we could one day pass down to our boys. Read more>>
Genelle Sedon 
C&G Tutoring started in May 2018 with a simple idea: take the knowledge and experience my husband, Chris, and I had as educators and use it to help more students and families in our community. For years, I had dreamed about owning my own business, but I always assumed I needed a brick-and-mortar location and a lot of startup money to make it happen. Read more>>
Alexandra Peralta 
My journey has been a combination of passion, persistence, faith, and learning to trust the path even when I could not see exactly where it was leading. From a very young age, I was drawn to communication. I loved the idea of being in front of an audience, whether through television, radio, hosting, or any platform where I could connect with people. Read more>>
Jaelyn Lepore 
I think I knew I wanted to do hair long before I ever actually admitted it to myself. I grew up dancing competitively for about 13 years, so I was always doing my own hair and makeup, and my mom was also a hairstylist. I was such a girly girl and loved everything beauty-related. Read more>>
Tyler Capozzi 
I started carrying a Hi8 camera around in the early 2000s, filming whatever was happening around me. I didn’t have a business plan then. I enjoyed capturing moments to look back on. That curiosity led me to study Film-Video at Penn State and later to travel the world producing outdoor television. I began working with clients professionally in 2015 and founded TC Cinema in 2017. Read more>>
Rachel Kiefer 
Replate started in 2025, but the idea had really been taking shape at my own dinner table for years. I’ve always loved vintage china and would collect odds and ends from larger sets, mixing different patterns, colors, and makers to create tables that felt collected rather than overly coordinated. Read more>>
Joy Washington 
I am a State Certified Perinatal Doula and PA Medicaid Doula whose calling grew from a deep commitment to supporting women, birthing people, and families through one of the most transformative seasons of their lives. Read more>>
Kristin Grover 
What started as just an idea quickly turned into reality. I stumbled across an old 1980s horse trailer for sale just 45 minutes away, and something about it immediately caught my attention. I could already picture what it could become. The very next day, it was mine! Of course, buying the trailer was the easy part. Read more>>
Jessica Roach 
I have worked in the field of Occupational Therapy for 21 years in many different setting, such as pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation hospitals and as Director of Rehabilitation. Presently, I spend much of my time working with children that are in cyber school setting providing therapy virtually. Read more>>
Skylar Lewis 
My journey began in conventional medicine 15 years ago. I spent nearly a decade working as a Physician Assistant, caring for patients and eventually stepping into leadership, where I helped oversee nearly 200 advanced practice providers. I loved medicine, but over time, I found myself becoming increasingly passionate about what happens beyond the exam room. Read more>>
Emily Arndt 
Observation has been the theme of my life. It helped me survive difficult childhood circumstances, and later move through a challenging adulthood alongside my found family. Life experience taught me to extend empathy to myself, and then, more deeply, to others. Read more>>
Tayler Popalis 
I originally started creating content because I genuinely love trying new products and sharing my opinions on them. I started using platforms like Skeepers and Influenster to discover and review products, and that eventually grew into me creating more consistent content around the things I was already interested in. Read more>>
Paige Horst 
I quit my job of 5 years in September of 2025. I spent time looking for a new job, but realized I didn’t want to spend my time working a job that i wasn’t passionate about. So I decided it was time to set my dreams in motion and so I got to work on opening my coffee trailer. Read more>>
Jason Seaux 
From a very early age I’ve always loved drawing. I was given a box of old comics as a kid by my mom and it changed my life. I’d never seen anything like that before and knew Illustrating was what I wanted to do. I learned by making every mistake as far as producing books goes and illustrating them . Sometimes a few times. Read more>>
Camille Hunt 
My path to becoming a full-time artist really began around the start of COVID. I had closed the business I was running at the time, and around then I had painted a portrait of my own dogs. People seemed to really connect with it, and I had this internal voice telling me, “Paint the pet portraits.” So I listened. Read more>>
Claudette Minnotte 
I’ve been a Pennsylvania native my entire life. I grew up on the eastern side of the state in Lehighton, PA, just north of the Allentown/Bethlehem area. My father is originally from Aix-en-Provance, France and my mother is a PA native, resulting in an upbringing that was anything but normal. Read more>>
John Hanks Jr 
I founded Make It Happen Events in 2001 after more than a decade of experience in the events industry. Starting as an intern working on a statewide conference, I went on to serve as the Director of Catering at the Penn Harris Convention Center, and Rental Manager at the Zembo Shrine, learning many facets of the profession. Read more>>
Luis Espada 
Music found me at five years old. My father made sure of it — he introduced me to Latin music and American music side by side, insisting I hear everything, not just the sounds of our own culture. Growing up in Philadelphia gave that education room to grow: by adolescence I’d been exposed to more genres and traditions than most kids twice my age. Read more>>
Christie Holloway 
Hi, I’m Christie—a wife, mom, Delco native, engineer-turned-floral entrepreneur, and the founder of Rooted Farmstead, a full-service floral design studio specializing in weddings, events, and creative experiences. A few years after graduating from Villanova University, my career led us to Central Pennsylvania, where I spent years in construction and facilities project management for higher education. Read more>>
Andrew Domanski 
While the gallery in Chestnut Hill is only eight years old, the owner Andrew Domanski has been collecting and selling art for over 30 years. Andrew received his Master’s in Art History from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland with his study year abroad at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more>>
Mackenzie Check 
My journey into wellness really began in 2019, right before COVID changed so much about the way we lived and connected with one another. I became deeply interested in wellness, healing, and personal development, initially as part of my own journey. Over time, that interest grew into something I wanted to share with others. Read more>>
Zachary maslany 
My martial arts journey started when I was 14 years old, when my dad got me into karate because he was a huge Chuck Norris fan. What started as a hobby quickly became a lifelong passion. Over the years, I went on to compete professionally in MMA and in high-level jiu-jitsu matches. Read more>>
Antonielle Whitmore 
I hail from the small island of Jamaica and migrated to the United States at 17, pregnant with my now-15-year-old daughter, Serenity. Years later, Serenity and I moved from New York to Philadelphia in November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not long after our move, I became pregnant with my son, Kaaliph. During my second trimester, I decided to start vlogging on Instagram. Read more>>
Brad Cline
My mother taught me to play chess when I was 5 years old after bringing home a plastic set that she bought at a yard sale. I developed my skills over the years and thought I was a pretty good player. Read more>>
Garrett Shultz 
I found my love for tattooing through the process of being tattooed myself. I was gifted a tattoo appointment for my 18th birthday and after one I couldn’t stop going back. I think I was in a darker point in my life and I found tattoos as a way to hide myself by just covering the surface of my skin. Read more>>
Treisha M 
My love for makeup began when I was 12 years old. My mother was a Mary Kay consultant, and I loved watching her work with makeup and help women feel beautiful and confident. That experience sparked my passion for the beauty industry and inspired the career I have built over the past 35 years. Read more>>
Isabella Trichilo
Little Tides began from a combination of my professional background as an occupational therapist and my own experience becoming a mom. After more than a decade working as an OT, I found myself looking at play, development, connection, and the everyday experiences of childhood through an entirely new lens once I had my own children. Read more>>
Mel Brown
I loved doing nails at the age of 17. When COVID-19 hit it was in high demand. What salon is opened? I need my nails done. So in 2021 I graduated and got my license. I am the only Philadelphia mobile nail tech. Read more>>
