I don’t write about my daughter in great detail and won’t tell her this is publishing because she’ll cry, but I’d rather apologize later than ask permission.

She’s always had a love for ‘the brand’. When we used to go shopping together, I’d show her a garment being considered for purchase and she’d slide her delicate fingers into the neck, flip the tag to look at the label. Then she would tell me if it was a good brand, or not. If the brand was solid and at a good price, she’d agree with the purchase, not because she’s a brand hog, but she knew the garment was timeless. If you own a Ralph Lauren sweater from 50 years ago, you know.

It makes sense that her first long-lasting job would be at Garment Modern + Vintage. She started working there a year ago and it was a terrifying experience. My daughter is extremely introverted, but she recently had her one-year review and was made Store Manager. She told me everything she walked in there with for the meeting and it made my brain tired. Spreadsheet after spreadsheet of clientele, sales increases, social media performance and sales from her social media stories. She cataloged every action and the result to show the Shoppe owner her value. The owner already knew the overall projection, but not every detail that led to the big picture, so let’s take a moment of silence for OCD tendencies. 😄

At 24 years old she has surpassed where I imagined she’d be. While I was sleeping through Chemo, she was pushing herself through high school. Once my treatment was over, she was ready to move back to civilization to attend college and graduate with honors. This girl is driven by a force much greater than anything instilled by me, so I cannot take credit for who she is, but get to watch as she’s becoming. The one characteristic that’s in her blood is the positive impact she tries to make in people’s lives and that’s not easy nowadays.

People are cruel toward her all the time, but she says her skin is thicker because of it. Her motto in life is, “Be kind always, but take no shit.” The chosen few allowed into her life always say the same thing…she is an amazing human.

Here she is modeling Vintage handbags for the Shoppe. The feature photo is from 10 years ago and even then she was wearing Vintage Lauren. You can find her on LinkedIn here and follow her stories of the brand on Instagram here.