Emily is making bead necklaces for her friends. She made w necklaces and each necklace takes x beads. How many beads did Emily have?
First, we need to find out how many beads Emily used in total. We know that she made w necklaces and each necklace takes x beads. This means that she used wx beads in total. 

Now, we need to find out how many beads Emily had. To do this, we need to add the number of beads she started with to the number of beads she used. We don't know how many beads she started with, but we know that she used wx beads in total. This means that she must have had wx + b beads, where b is the number of beads she started with. 

Therefore, the answer (symbolic expression) is: 

wx + b