Outfit Details:Alice Ritter sleeveless trench – Bird (SUPER on sale at the one in my neighborhood) On a sheer day top – c/o ModCloth (currently sold out:( )skirt – Urban Outfittersbelt – thriftedJoie platforms – c/o JoieFoley + Corinna mid city tote – c/o Foley + Corinnachain and ribbon bracelet – c/o Dana Mariahvintage roses bracelet – gift from my mom Rebecca Minkoff braceletflower ring – Forever 21K ring – hand-me-downlipstick – Urban Decay Crush

Growing up, I was always a bit of a hustler – but we’ll go with “entrepreneur” because it sounds less like I was picking pockets and swindling innocent people out of their money. Whether it was drawing portraits of horses for boarders at the ranch (a veritable bargain at ten cents a piece), selling Airheads and Blow Pops, dog or bird sitting (I did both, regularly), cleaning stalls or making friendship bracelets, I always had sporadic sources of income. I also used to do extra current events projects and sell them to my slacker classmates. Unless, of course, Mr. Pressey is reading this…because if he is, I never ever ever did that.

The second I turned 15, I went and got a job at the mall. To this day, that was the only time I worked directly for a company and had a normal (albeit very tiny) paycheck. I traded the friendship bracelets and horse portraits for sewing, the homework for actual paid writing jobs, and retired from bird sitting as soon as one of the weaker baby birds passed away and wrecked my teenage world.

My point? There really is none, but upon seeing this young girl turn her hobby into an Etsy venture, I started thinking about my own youthful enterprises and became nostalgic. I wonder what younger-me would think about present-me making clothing (p.s. the new site and merch will be up at the end of the month!) and maintaining a blog. I never even thought I would wear dresses, let alone make them. Ugh, what a girl.

Truly, I think the thing I would be most surprised about is that the whole, “I want to be Paula Abdul” thing didn’t work out…and that I’m not married to Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought at least one of those was a sure thing.