Meet the Willow Girls | Kelly Claire
Wait so… the mom who always wears yoga pants is now part owner of an on trend clothing boutique? That’s right friends… I’m done having children and ready to feel human again.
Prior to my decade of wearing predominantly yoga pants, I used to absolutely love fashion. I’m told that this infatuation basically started in utero. I’ve heard so. many. times. that I entered the world with a strong opinion on a multitude of things, one of them being fashion, and as soon as I was able to, I wanted to dress myself.
As I matured, I learned that many people looked negatively upon my love of fashion, makeup, etc. This left me with the impression that being a “girly girl” was equated with being shallow. Never the less, by the time I was old enough for boys to tell me I was “pretty” or looked nice, their positive attention fueled my passion for fashion despite the nay sayers.
Before these adolescent boys came along, I really struggled to find confidence in myself. I had become so accustomed to hearing criticism much of my life that when I received compliments on my looks, it engrained in me that what I looked like on the outside was a way that I could feel loved and accepted.
Meanwhile…
On the inside, I was totally absorbing all of the external criticism regarding my [quote unquote] vanity. My adolescent self wrote an inner narrative that said because I focused on what I looked like, this in turn meant that I was shallow and selfish…
Focusing on my external appearance carried me as far as I could go until I was ready to see a therapist and really do the work necessary to overcome some past traumas and to finally find confidence in ME. Therapy has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. I highly recommend it to literally everyone I meet. While I do certainly still struggle with that critical inner voice like so many other women I’ve met, I have come a long, long way.
I now know that you can be a woman of substance AND style. You can be strong and cute. You can like all the girly things and still play in the mud with your kids. You can have things in your past that were traumatic or hard to understand but you don’t have to let it define you. You may never forget them, but you can choose to let these experiences shape you for better or for worse.
The most important thing that I learned in my healing journey is that literally NO ONE gets to tell you who you are. So allow me to introduce myself…
I am Kelly – a married 35 year old mom to 3 crazy, wonderful kids. My name means warrior, and I was born with a fighter spirit. After almost a decade of therapy, I’ve learned to channel that inner warrior into positive things.
One of the things that I love to focus my energy on is lifting other women up. So when the opportunity to be a part of Willow Marie & Co. came up, I didn’t think twice about it. I was all in from the start and now I get to work alongside 3 other strong women on the daily.
But don’t worry, just because our boutique has an abundant selection of carefully curated boho chic apparel, I’m not retiring my signature no makeup, yoga pants and messy bun look all together… entrepreneurship requires a TON of sleeves up, down and dirty hard work so of course we have also made sure to stock the perfect graphic T’s to pair with yoga pants for those days 😉
“Strong roots produce beautiful leaves.”
My husband David & I do our best to provide our little “leaves” with strong roots 🙂 To follow our journey, feel free to find me on Instagram @lovekellyclaire.
xoxo,
Kelly