Janna King has spent the last year building her boutique, and starting next Thursday, she’s taking the Teal Gypsy to the streets to try and spread awareness for ovarian cancer.

King started her shop online, but with increased interest, she now has a permanent spot at Walker’s Business.

“I started last July selling clothes only online,” King said. “I had more local support than anything, so I had a lot of local pick-up and delivery. So people coming in and out of my house and me having to drive to peoples’ houses. Then I did my first pop-up shop with Walker’s and some other businesses as well, like Sanders Jewelry. During Christmas, I had gotten so busy that I just stayed at Walker’s permanently.”

King envisioned buying her airstream “Silvia,” several years before turning her idea into a reality.

“I really envisioned this about four years ago,” King said. “I made the little camper sign last April before I even started everything. I just didn’t think that it was going to happen so quickly. My dream was to have something that I could travel with to do like festivals, concerts, house parties and different rodeos. Just everything that I wanted to do, I wanted to take it with me.”

She can only describe how she found “Silvia” as a God thing.

“I was at the gift market with Walker’s helping Allen,” King said. “I took Sunday to shop for the Teal Gypsy and was finishing up with my last vendor of the day and she was just making small talk and asking questions about my store. I ended up telling her that my goal was to have an airstream to travel in one day with my store and she told me that she had one. My first thought was that she just had one to camp in, but she proceeded to tell me that she and her friend owned an online store that traveled in an airstream and that they were doing their last show together the next week before closing the store. I seriously couldn’t believe it, and to top it all off, the inside of the airstream was already teal. I blacked out most of the conversation, because I couldn’t believe it. So, I prayed over the decision and listened to my heart and believed that God led me to my dream a little faster than usual.”

As an ovarian cancer survivor, King said that she has always wanted to do something to spread awareness about the disease.

“Ever since I was diagnosed, I wanted to raise awareness about ovarian cancer,” King said. “I mean a lot of people locally know, but I wanted to spread it further than that, so I thought by incorporating it in the name of my business that it would be a great way to spread ovarian cancer awareness. I put the ribbon in the logo purposely for that reason. Then I have a gypsy soul and have always wanted to travel so that’s how I came up with the Teal Gypsy.”

Andalusia will always be home for King and eventually she wants a permanent storefront in Andalusia.

“Andalusia will always be my home and my base,” King said. “And technically Walker’s is a permanent pop-up shop, but there will be times when I am on the road where I won’t be at Walker’s.”

She said that the community has been overwhelmingly supportive.

“I am completely humbled by the community’s support,” King said. “My passion for retail runs deep, I mean I started at Ansley Place in Andalusia. Ms. Louisa (Baker) was the reason I knew I wanted to do retail. I connected with her in that way and I just always wanted to help everybody. I just knew what I wanted to do and I wanted to make other people feel good and make other people happy, because that what makes me happy.”

King describes her clothing as southwestern with flare and said she  caters to broad age range.

“I will definitely carry our more popular items with Silvia,” King said. “I have had people in their 20s wear my clothing and women in their 70s also ask for my clothing, so it is a very diverse age range. We carry sizes small through 3XL.”

Being a curvy woman all her life, King said that she agrees with Melanie Weeks who also opened up a boutique last week.

“I am definitely a curvy gypsy,” King said. “And I agree with Melanie, I wanted to bring a style of clothing that fits all types of women, not just skinny ones. I want to offer something that is fun for everyone.”

King earned a degree in apparel with a business minor from Auburn University.

The ribbon cutting ceremony for The Teal Gypsy will be Thurs., April 25, from 9 a.m., until 6 p.m., in front of Walker’s Business on the Court Square. She will stay open at the same location on April 26 and 27 as well.

King said that there will be snacks, giveaways and much more at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

For more information, visit www.thetealgypsy.com.