I Am A Fashion Writer & My Mom Is My Style Inspiration

In middle school I knew I wanted Parsons School of Design, so I started dressing like it. I wore lots and lots of black leather, chunky heels, and headbands (undoubtedly inspired from the original). Gossip GirlI would opt for large, slouchy totes over backpacks. I would search for Miu Miu runway photos and cover my binders with them, taking the more whimsical elements of the collections and trying them in my own wardrobe. I definitely couldn’t afford the dragonfly shoes I lusted over from the brand’s spring 2008 collectionHowever, my mom helped me find cheap alternatives. To counteract my days at school, where I was endlessly bullied for looking different (people notice when you’re not dressed like them; I got asked almost every day, “Why are you so dressed up?”Fashion became my escape. My mother and me would drive to the next town to browse fashion magazines at Barnes & Noble, and window-shop. We would spend hours at Target and TJ Maxx — the only places in the area to look for clothes that were decently affordable and fashion-forward — poring over different pieces, holding them up to see how they’d look on us, and suggesting styles for each other that we normally wouldn’t gravitate to.