Moms Blog

5 Young Fashionistas to Get Your Teens Inspired

As a mom to a young girl, it’s not uncommon to notice that they start becoming more interested in fashion as they inch towards preteen. As they grow and start to discover themselves and their personal style, they’ll want to be more independent and unique with their fashion choices. But sometimes a teen’s interest in fashion isn’t just about keeping up with appearances; in fact, many well-known fashion designers became interested in fashion at a young age.

If you notice that your child is interested in design, allowing them to participate in fashion programs, like those at Project Fashion, is a great educational way for them to explore those passions. Another way to inspire them is to show them how other kids have taken their fashion passion to the sewing machine, and were able to explore lucrative careers at a young age. To get you you started, here are five young fashion designers that can help pave the way for your teen’s inspiration:

Melissa Jade Aiello

Melissa Jade Aiello launched a clothing line called Missy X just before she’d turned ten. Aiello’s line consists of mostly tee shirts, each imprinted with a hand drawn sketch. In fact, drawing portraits of famous personalities is what helped launch her into the spotlight. Her sketches of fashion icons, like Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, and Donatella Versace, were initially what got her noticed.

As of now, she currently draws custom sketches that she finds interesting and unique. For example, she declined to sketch Justin Bieber on a shirt because it was too mass media and “cheesy.” “Every time I draw someone new I learn something interesting—like I learnt that John Galliano used to work at Dior for a long time, but got sacked,” she told Vogue UK. “Fashion is really important to me because it defines who I am.”

Isabella Rose Taylor

Isabella Rose Taylor started designing and sewing her own clothes when she was just nine years old. She showed off her first collection on the runway at Austin Fashion Week when she was just twelve. In an interview with Today, she said she believed her secret to success was “Blood, sweat, and tears”—a slogan she’s plastered on tee shirts and sold under her brand name. That same year, she was the youngest person ever to have their clothes sold on Nordstrom racks around the country, and she went on to use her fashion inspiration to design interior decor in collaboration with Pottery Barn.

Moziah Bridges

Like Taylor, Moziah Bridges started designing creative bow ties when he was just nine years old. He received an influx of attention when he starred on Shark Tank, where he pitched in front of a room of investors and scored a deal with Daymond John. Here, he explained how he’d been wearing suits and ties since he was four, demonstrating his fashion passion at a very early age. Mo’s Bows gives a creative spin to traditional kids’ bow ties, which he found too plain for children and didn’t like the clip-on mechanism. To combat that, Bridges’ designed high-quality, fun bows that need to be tied just like traditional bow ties. In 2014, his business was worth $150,000.

“I like to wear bow ties, because they make me look good and feel good,” Bridges says on his website. “Designing a colorful bow tie is just part of my vision to make the world a fun and happier place.”

Chet and Betts DeHart

Twin brothers Chet and Betts DeHart launched their streetwear clothing line, Lucid FC, when they were just children. They were 14 when the line was started, and by the time they were 19, they had successfully navigated the treacherous waters of fashion and found their niche.

Today, the clothing line is carried at a handful of fine boutiques around the world, including in Atlanta, London, and New York. Award-winning singer Rihanna was seen wearing the Lucid FC Crest Logo Parka and Logo Trucker Cap, which helped spearhead their brand awareness efforts.

According to their mother, Jessica DeHart, the boys struggled academically, but used fashion as a way to explore their talents. ““They had so much trouble in the school system, but it was so apparent to my husband and I they were going to be brilliant in some other way that wasn’t going to be on a piece of paper,” DeHart told the New York Times.

Amanda Glass

Amanda Glass wanted to use her fashion inspiration to make it easy for others to be just as creative as felt designing clothing patches for her company, Hipstapatch. Glass, who loved photography growing up, created peel-and-stick patches for shoes (although with an adhesive backing—the first of its kind on patches—it can be attached to virtually anything). To date, Hipstapatch patches have been seen on sneakers, backpacks, laptops, jeans, t-shirts, and so much more.