All stories
15 entries
Published · Read now
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Mentors & Champions
01
She Named Me Dipping Dots.
On Erika White — the Birmingham model who taught me how to walk, gave me the rules I still live by, and took me to the open call that changed my career. This one is long overdue.
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I have been a professional model for fifteen years and have almost never posted about it. On the algorithm, the performance trap, and why being offline is becoming the real luxury.
Identity & Belonging
03
On Being Told There Was No Space for You — And Going Anyway at 19.
I left Alabama at 19 to participate in New York Fashion Week and was told, repeatedly and without apology, that there was no place for me. What it meant to press on anyway. What it cost. And why I still think it was the right thing to do.
From the Runway
04
The Day I Put My Heels On in an Atlanta Parking Lot
Nobody told me what was about to happen. He just said — put your heels on. The signing story, the drive home, the letter, and what Michael Carson gave me that nobody else could have.
The Craft
05
What I Wish I Had Known at 19 About This Industry
Nobody handed me a manual. The things I learned the hard way — about rates, about contracts, about the rooms where the real decisions get made — and what I'd tell every young woman starting out right now.
From the Runway
06
What No One Tells You About Walking for a Designer You've Admired From a Distance
The nerves are different when the clothes mean something to you. Walking for Christian Siriano in Birmingham — what the room felt like, what the walk felt like, and why being the closer is both the honor and the pressure.
Wellness
07
Pilates, Clean Living, and the Body I Finally Decided to Listen To
This isn't a fitness piece. It's a piece about what happens when you stop using your body as a vehicle for other people's approval and start using it as a home you actually live in.
Birmingham
08
A Letter to Birmingham: Why I Chose to Come Home
I could have stayed. People told me to stay. But there was something unfinished here — something about this city and what it deserved, and what I owed it for making me who I am.
The Craft
09
How to Walk Into a Room Like You Already Belong There — Even When the Room Was Not Built for You
Posture, eye contact, pace, and presence. But also: the inner work that makes those physical things actually land. Practical notes from fifteen years of walking into rooms that weren't always ready to receive me.
Wellness
10
The Morning Routine That Actually Keeps Me Going
Not aspirational. Not curated. Just the real sequence of things that happen between the alarm and the door — and why getting this right changed everything else.
Birmingham
11
Alabama Is Not a Consolation Prize
People treat it like a place you end up when the bigger cities don't work out. I want to tell you what this state has actually given me — and why I will defend it loudly and without apology.
Letter
12
Dear Young Woman Watching From the Back of the Room
This one is for you. The one who doesn't think she's ready. The one who was told the industry doesn't have space for someone who looks like her. The one considering going home before her moment arrives.
From the Runway
13
The Morning Before a Show: What the Runway Looks Like at 6 AM
The lights aren't on yet. The chairs are empty. You're in a parking garage with your garment bag and coffee that's gone cold. This is the part of fashion nobody photographs.
From the Runway
14
The Shoot That Changed How I See Myself
There are photos and then there are photographs. The ones that reach back and rearrange something in you. This is about the shoot where that happened — who was holding the camera, and what I finally saw.
The Craft
15
Megan LaRussa and the Kind of Belief That Doesn't Ask for Credit
In an industry where consistency is rare and loyalty is rarer, she has been a constant thread. A tribute to a woman who showed up through every chapter without needing a reason.
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