Motivated by passion, love of her field and thrift shopping, Hana Dolanski works hard to promote an online presence of her resale shop.
Raised on retail chain stores like JcPenney’s, Hana never really felt like the clothes fit her style or who she is. She wanted to find clothes that were original, ones that didn’t look like everyone else’s. Once Savers thrift store opened in Fort Smith, Hana found that anyone can find cute clothing for a lot cheaper. It was also convenient because she knew when buying the items she would most likely wear it more than once.
Soon enough, thrifting became more than just an interest of Hana’s. Her friends got involved in her interest, and later, so did her family. Once she began thrifting more and more, her family followed suit. They now are extremely supportive of Hana’s business on the side, because they understand that this is just her hobby. “If I have a passion, I’m going to love it, I’m going to live it,” Hana said.
The shop came to life once Hana’s interest in thrifting became an obsession. She remembers having an overwhelming amount of clothing and items from going thrift shopping. “I was living in the Commons, and there was so much thrift stuff taking over my room. It was like, stuff that I’d buy because it was so cool and I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t look good in this, or I don’t know anyone else that would look good in thi,’” Hana remembered, thinking back to her freshman year.
When she didn’t know what to do with it all, her roommate made a compelling suggestion – sell it. Not just on Facebook to sell to friends, but to actually make a profit, continuously. Hana realized that even if she didn’t sell it, she could at least share her finds and have other people gain inspiration.
“There’s thrift stores everywhere, but some of them are better than others, or they can’t find what they’re looking for, and they’re on a budget, so maybe I could help people out with that,” Hana said. Immediately, she thought it was a good idea. From that point forward, MOONWOLFTHRIFT was born.
A combination of Hana’s interest in the moon and her favorite animal being a wolf, MOONWOLFTHRIFT started on Etsy in March 2017. Since then, she’s sold around four hundred items; most of it being clothing, some of it being decorations or old film cameras.
Once Etsy got too expensive to run, Hana began to work with Instagram to really sell the clothing, taking payments through money transfer apps like PayPal, Venmo or CashApp. Social media entirely transformed her shop into a more direct way to receive money and get items to a customer.
Social media also opened up opportunities to advertise and for Hana to find different ways to present the clothing.
On occasion, Hana’s friends will model and take photos of the clothing she plans to sell. Other times, models will volunteer. She has also been able to share her passion and has met so many more people because of running her business on social media.
Sharing her love of thrifting motivates Hana to be organized and able to manage her time.
“This is going to someone who’s going to love this item as much as me, someone who is going to put it on and feel like a badass. Someone that really loves… to help the environment,” Hana said, “Really, it benefits them because they get to express themselves, but it also benefits the environment.”
Thrift shopping has also transformed from her hobby into something that will benefit her future career. She is majoring in rehabilitation science, with hopes of going on to occupational therapy school.
Her interest is to help adults with disabilities. Currently, she is working at MARVA, a resale shop in Russellville that hires the disabled. Her giving and thoughtful spirit allows her to want to be in a field that truly makes a difference.
To learn more about Hana’s shop and what she sells, visit her Instagram page at instagram.com/moonwolfthrift.
