Queen of Sparkles is not afraid to take the first step
By nature, Queen of Sparkles owner Jaime Glas Odom is not one to sit around and wait for things to happen for her. Referencing family members, Jaime says she comes from a long line of ‘doers’. She’s not one to over analyze a problem before she acts. If something is not out there, she’s not afraid to just go create it.
In her short, but storied, career, her philosophy has been to set goals and then make the necessary decisions to get there as quickly as possible. So, when it came to building her family, she says her mindset was pretty much the same. If at first you don’t succeed, move on until you reach your goal.
Capitalizing on her passion for fashion
Jaime has always loved fashion and “anything-but-boring” clothing, putting together vintage and colorful pieces for football games, themed parties or special occasions. As a young engineer fresh out of LSU and working in the oil field, she realized she was in an industry ill-prepared for the increasing number of professional women that was quickly filling its ranks. Designed for men, the flame-retardant coveralls and work wear were too large and formless to be flattering on women. So, Jaime designed her own flame-retardant work wear, and her first fashion company was born.
Finding quick success, she sold the company in 2019 to a national manufacturer and moved back home to Baton Rouge. Attending football games at her alma mater, people started noticing her original, sparkling outfits and she got another idea. Why not bring her love of sequins and color to the masses? Now, as the founder and creative force behind the fashion brand Queen of Sparkles, Jaime is once again making waves in the fashion world. Her sequined, colorful designs have captured the hearts of women across the country looking for novelty pieces for sports games, holidays and just because.
Age and endometriosis would make pregnancy difficult
Focused on her entrepreneurial career over the last decade, in 2023 Jaime found herself in her mid-30s, newly married and ready to start a family. “I finally felt like all the hard work was proof that I could also be a good mom,” she says. She and her husband Hunter had both built great careers, and a family was their obvious next mission. But her age, she realized, might make this goal a little more difficult to achieve. She also had endometriosis, like her mother, and understood this could complicate the process since it can be a major cause of infertility. Jaime knew she didn’t want to just wait around to see if pregnancy came easily or not.
So, Jaime and Hunter began learning what they could to assess their situation. They first turned to Jaime’s gynecologist to provide them with direction. Basic fertility tests, including an AMH test which can assess your ovarian reserve, came back normal. But when nothing happened after several months, they decided it was time to take the next step. They made a consultation appointment with Dr. Neil Chappell at Fertility Answers in Baton Rouge.
The couple first tried two intrauterine inseminations in 2024 with no positive results. “We could have tried more IUIs, but we were ready to move on to treatments that would get the result we wanted,” says Jaime. Dr. Chappell felt Jaime and Hunter were ideal candidates for in vitro fertilization, IVF. This treatment can often overcome fertility issues arising from age and endometriosis.
The royal (infertility) treatment
In late December 2024, Jaime and Hunter started the preparation for an egg retrieval for IVF. But their cycle was complicated by the snowstorm that swept through Louisiana in January 2025. Because of the storm, snow paralyzed the city. They ended up scheduling the trigger shot at a not so ideal time. “We were pretty disappointed with how it all ended up, but we knew there was nothing else we could do given the circumstances,” says Jaime. They went ahead with the retrieval a few days after the storm knowing they would get less eggs to fertilize. In the end, they only achieved one viable embryo.
Jaime and Hunter consulted with Dr. Chappell on what their next steps should be. He advised them to head straight into another egg stimulation cycle while her hormone levels were still optimal. “I knew I wanted to keep going before I got back into work and found myself too busy to fit in another retrieval. Winter is usually slow at Queen of Sparkles, and I didn’t want to waste the downtime,” says Jaime. So, on Valentine’s Day, Jaime and Hunter’s second cycle yielded a larger number of eggs, with 12 eventually developing into embryos.
Preimplantation genetic testing on all 13 embryos resulted in 7 embryos that were chromosomally normal. Jaime and Hunter were elated with their results. This would give them that many chances at pregnancy, knowing that not all of their attempts would be successful. She remembers in their first consult with Dr. Chappell, one of his first questions for them was how many kids they thought they wanted. While they didn’t have an exact number, they knew it needed to be more than one. Knowing now that they had 7 embryos to work with would help fulfill their dream of a family. Each IVF transfer has about a 50-60% implantation rate.
Will it be a Prince or Princess of Sparkles?
Her first embryo transfer in March 2025 ended in no pregnancy. But with their second transfer in August the embryo implanted. They were expecting and would soon be parents! Jaime celebrated in the best way she knew how. She designed a limited-edition collection of Queen of Sparkles exclusively for “soon-to-be-moms, mamas, grandmas, mother figures, doctors, nurses, specialists, and anyone that plays a part in the magical gift of life.” And lucky for the Fertility Answers staff, part of that collection was exclusive Queen of Sparkles fertility-themed shirts and sweatshirts to wear in the office.
Jaime and Hunter want to be surprised when Baby O arrives in May, deciding not to find out if it’s a boy or girl. Either way, we can guarantee Baby O’s life (and nursery!) will be very colorful and sparkling!
