Editor’s note: In honor of Black History Month, glassBYTEs/AGRR spotlights those whose journeys reflect both the challenges and the triumphs that shape true success. If you would like to nominate someone for coverage, email abowman@glass.com.
Keyonna Collins had no firm plans after graduating from high school. Like most 18-year-olds, she dreamt of a successful career but didn’t know how or where to find it. Taking a job in auto glass sales fulfilled that wish in ways she never expected.
Collins began her career in the sales department of a national auto glass company, where her mother also worked. Her relationship with auto glass wasn’t exactly love at first sight.
“I hated that job,” she says. “So I transferred to one of the company’s locations in Virginia as a product representative. I liked that much better.”
Keyonna Collins followed in her mother’s footsteps into the auto glass industry.
Collins spent three years at that company, then three years each at two other national brands. She worked as a customer service representative and a receptionist before deciding to increase her hands-on involvement in the industry. The company she worked for at the time trained her to repair.
“It was challenging,” she says. “I had a windshield crack on me once, and someone stole my kit out of my car. I was so discouraged that I almost quit, but I just couldn’t let go.”
Her persistence paid off, and Collins began thinking about, then planning, the start of her own company. Planning soon turned into action faster than she expected.
“I tried to send my manager a PTO request,” Collins says. “I accidentally sent her the paperwork for the LLC I’d just started instead. They let me go.”
Collins founded Key Glass Repair in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020 with a specific goal in mind.
“I wanted to cater to women and create a space where they felt comfortable,” she says. “So many women feel taken advantage of when they get any automotive service. I wanted my customers to know they’re safe.”
The shop’s atmosphere touched at least one male customer as well, according to Collins.
“He said he’d feel comfortable sending his wife to my shop [without fear that she would be overcharged or tricked in some way],” she says.
Collins says here pink, feminine brand is designed to make women comfortable.
The feminine theme goes even deeper than setting her customers at ease, according to Collins.
“I didn’t see any other Black women in the industry at the time,” she says. “I decided I was going to be that representation myself. I want little girls to look at me and know that they can do something like this.”
Providing representation also helped motivate Collins to compete in the 2023 and 2024 Windshield Repair Competitions (WROs). That, and what she believes is divine intervention.
Collins has competed in the 2023 and 2024 Windshield Repair Competitions.
“I was in a coma for a while in 2023,” she says. “When I woke up, I had a feeling that I needed to research Auto Glass Week™. I learned about the WRO and knew I had to compete. It felt like an extra chance from God to dedicate myself to my auto glass career.”
Collins plans to compete again in 2026.
Collins might have hated her first auto glass job, but that feeling changed dramatically over the 13 years since.
“I fell in love with the industry,” she says. “I’m just a girl living her dreams.”
Great story and people initially not liking the industry and then spending the rest of their lives in it seems to be common. Just something that gets into your blood, I think. I know this firsthand,