Sweet smell of success...Athlete also an entrepreneur at age19

By Hector Longo

BYFIELD, Mass. — It began simply as a hobby and has grown into her passion.

Make that one of her passions.

Between classes, softball, her music and, yep, even some offseason club ice hockey, North Andover's Janay Walsh, a senior at the Governor's Academy, just may have concocted the next hot fragrance.

"Janay" | the fragrance | is popular on campus and beyond.

"It's just my own fragrance that I came up with," said the senior, who will play ice hockey next year at Salve Regina College in Newport, R.I. "A lot of the kids are wearing it now, and even some of the teachers."

In describing "Janay," the Governor's hockey captain and MVP says it is "delicate, a little bit like roses in a way. It's a little musky, but not too strong."

Early returns on the fragrance are promising.

"It's different, and I like it," said Krista Lamontagne of Lawrence a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. "I wear if often and my friends seem to like it, too."

Always interested in fragrances, Janay, 19, went to her dad John about the idea.

Mr. Walsh owns the famous line of "Elizabeth Grady" day spas, and he was all too happy to have another entrepreneur in the family.

"We talked about it, and I just tried to think about what I liked about all the different fragrances I had tried before," said Janay, a pitcher and first baseman for the Governors. "I always like to take advantage of the go-getter in him. And this was a chance."

Right now, "Janay" is in the pre-marketing stage. The price is set at $60 per bottle.

"Now, we're just deciding where to market it," said Walsh. "We're not sure if we want to go into drug stores, or into department stores like Macy's."

For now, Janay the student is just putting the finishing touches on a fine career at Governor's.

She certainly has come a long way from her first visit to the rural campus.

"I didn't know much about private school other than the fact that my brother John (now at Syracuse) had gone to Brooks (Academy in North Andover)," said Janay. "But I fell in love here with the first visit, and it's been great ever since."

After pacing the Governors with 9 goals and 11 assists this winter, she took the college recruiting process with a goal in mind | finding a quality business program with a hockey team that could utilize her goal-scoring touch and play-making ability.

The fact that Salve Regina sits in one of the hottest resort spots in the Northeast didn't hurt either.

"The campus is just really nice, and it fits perfectly," she said.

Walsh, at Salve, will keep the fires stoked on "Janay," but the focus will remain on sports and school.

If the fragrance is a hit, well ...

"I don't see it as a career," Walsh said, "but it's definitely exciting right now."





Hector Longo writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.

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