Notes on Cinderella

Come close, I'll tell you a story - the only ones I tell are true.  When I was a girl, I was teased for using big words and having little titties, even though bros mocking loved to cheat off my papers and sneak in my pants too.  Afterwards they spread rumors - Slutty Steph! - and I was bullied down to keep everyone comfortably numbed from their own secrets, shameful indeed.

I thought I'd become a doctor or a lawyer, but was detoured chasing a badun through Tennessee, father came to rescue me.  Soul searching led me back to my roots, a little Community in Houston, English literature at UT, wanting to work the fashion industry and coming up bone-dry in 2010 with a BA and the economy on the outs.  

I couldn't even volunteer to teach English to French children despite being heavily over-qualified (remember that recession?), so I took a job in retail trying to get close-up with clothes.  Eating PB&J five days a week felt like starving, no art.  I thought I sold out when I took a job in research, but science was my second love, and I knew I'd be able to dress the part.

I worked the only way I know how, like my mother's only daughter, with all I have, and with heart.  I've been a little lucky, and very successful.  Still, over a decade later, kept feeling this hole where my art was, until one day there was a break.  One man, then one woman told me yes - You Can Do That - and so I did.  

I started managing doctors and budgets and projects.  With every spare dollar and moment, I was curating clothing and images and content.  I went a little wild and started a business called MAVEN, thinking I should see how far this ship can sail.  I trademarked my clothing because I'm making some of that too.  People ask me what She Does - this MAVEN, and like most new business owners, I don't really know.  What began as a name for a blog parked on a star has grown to include celebrity wardrobe styling for editorial and video shoots, consultation services for creative direction & set design, this archive of weekly publications, and blooming social media presence. I might be sleepless and broke as hell but I’m full of glee.

So the crestfallen girl who dreamed of working for Lucky Magazine, but figured a career the next best way to make people happier and healthier in Corporate America while starting this fledgeling side-hustle may have come full-circle... and ended up front-row at Soho House for the PatBo Fashion Show during SXSW.  Walt Disney much?  Only if the shoe fits.

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