#wearitlikecharlie

Want to know how #wearitlikecharlie started? I have always loved styling my kiddos and I’m one of those moms that actually believes it’s fun to find cute boy clothes but as my daughter, Charlie, has gotten older she shares my passion for clothing, accessories and creativity so it has become a real bond between us.

This is by far my favorite photo I have taken of her and is the perfect example of #wearitlikecharlie

When Charlie was born I started surfing Instagram and saw that people would sell their outgrown clothing on there. What in the world?!! It was so amazing. As I was feeding or rocking her late at night I would be putting my PayPal email down on dresses and cute outfits and getting tiny packages in the mail every day which made me SO HAPPY. Pretty soon I realized I needed funds for this not so healthy late night habit so I created my own page and started selling her outgrown clothing too. Genius! Every time I had $10 in PayPal money I was out claiming another item. I even made several friends through these Instagram shops … we had sooo much in common. We were all new moms not getting much sleep (if any) and we clearly loved baby clothing. I have since met a couple of them in person and still stay in touch via social media as our kids are growing older. It was the perfect way to have friends in that time in your life when you really don’t have time to have friends outside of your tiny world that I called the “baby haze”.

I “won” this gently used outfit on Instagram from @threegirlscloset with “fast fingers”. I felt like I had won the lottery!

This was the first time I styled an outfit that people really noticed and wanted to know where I got each piece and how they could get what she was wearing.

Soon I started noticing small businesses that made their own clothing and they would notice that I could take a decent photo of my baby so we started brand repping. Those were some fun days. “free” clothes for photos and all I had to do was bribe her with goldfish and take her out in crazy weather to get the shot.

I mean that thigh roll is just TOO much.

Over time I eventually started a small business taking photos of entire clothing lines and ended up with about 400 local models under the age of 5 that I hung out with every weekend but Charlie was still always the star. I loved having a job that I could have her there with me and that we could enjoy together.

We did photo shoots every weekend for over 2.5 years! I had a beautiful studio in the East Village that I wish I could afford to keep just for fun.

We are at expert level at finding cool walls in Des Moines to stand in front of.

Life happened and now I am working elsewhere but I still love styling this girl. She gets Mac & Mia boxes on the regular, I still sell her outgrown clothing on my old Instagram page and we both still love clothing. If you ever have free minute scroll through the hashtag #wearitlikecharlie on Insta and see the evolution of the style I have had for her. I know it will all end way too quickly and there is no way she will let me choose her clothes in a few short years so I’m hanging on as long as I can!