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In the natural world spring is the season of rebirth and regeneration, and when the birds start to chirp and the blossoms start to bloom I tend to get reflective about my own life. It’s not in my nature to publicly share my thoughts and feelings, but all this reflecting has me motivated to get a little vulnerable – so here we go!

Like most small business owners, I do what I do because it gives me purpose. When people ask me why I started my business, I usually respond by saying that I love to sew and I love keeping old textiles out of the landfill, so creating a business that allowed me to pursue both of these interests seemed like the obvious path forward. This response, while very true, is only half of the answer.

The other half of the answer is actually this: I wanted to create a world where I felt like I belonged.

I’ve always felt like an outsider, whether it was a job, in school, or in social circles. I have a great family, great friends, and a generally privileged existence, but no matter the situation I always felt like I was trying to fit a mold and not being true to myself. I felt like I was being inauthentic to myself, but at the same time, I couldn’t put my finger on what “authentically me” looked like.

By the Spring of 2019, thanks to the guidance of a therapist and the encouragement of my husband, it became apparent that “being true to myself” meant I needed to prioritize creative expression in my life. A few months later, I quit my job and devoted myself to Sew Minimal full time. Little by little, Sew Minimal gave me the opportunity to etch out a corner of the world that was fully mine, and that allowed me to figure out what being true to myself looks like.

Now, four years later, I can definitively identify my purpose and say that I do have a space where I feel truly myself, and that I completely belong. That space is Sew Minimal – and that purpose is resistance through joyful self expression. The clothing I create is not about trends or fitting in or complying to some hashtag aesthetic. Rather, it is about resisting fast fashion, and it is about spreading joy through sustainable clothing. It is about participating in a circular economy that transforms would-be trash into whimsical garments.

Art is not a frivolous pursuit, but rather a powerful force with the potential to effect real change. We need beauty and joy to carry us through the heaviness of life. When I stay true to my purpose of creating joyful sustainable fashion, I am not only creating a world where I feel like I belong and my talents are useful, I am also creating the type of world I want to live in.