I have loved fashion and strength simultaneously, my entire life. However, I learned at a young age that “fashion” has not loved the strength of a woman’s body but instead has pushed the image of skinny glamour. I am here to change that, because I believe the two combined are even more glamorous.

From four years old, I strictly wore a little red lace dress, while building dirt cities with my brothers’ dozers. At eleven, I played football with the boys in the most girlish pink getups they would allow on the field. Also, at eleven, I began to run two miles every day and I became totally devoted to the discipline required. At the same age, I was introduced to fashion by my grandmother. I studied Vogue as if I would be accepted into the college of my dreams purely on my knowledge of its contents. This is where my love of fashion and fitness began to collide and my many years’ battle with eating disorders began.

I was training at a collegiate level by sixteen, adamant I’d run long distance division-one but with all that training and miles I had developed quads, muscles… and my “precious-saved-up-for designer clothes” didn’t fit right. The waist of my slacks became too big while the legs fit too snugly. I began to cut out my food. By college I had a full-blown eating disorder.

I did run at a division-one school but my obsession with “fashion” and being fashionable fed my disorder and resulted in surgeries and the end of my career.