Saving Us from the Daily Grind • by Erika and Monika Simmons, the Double Stitch Twins

Naturals
As 4th graders in an after-school crochet program, we learned at a speedy pace! It didn't exactly surprise us since we always loved to draw and create/craft with our hands. It seemed as though our confidence increased with each stitch. It increased so much that we forgot about crochet and moved on to express ourselves through dance, modeling, health/fitness, and hairstyling.

Unnatural
As college students we studied child development and sociology. However our major focus was on expressing ourselves artistically on the Western Wranglers pom-pom dance line, the African American Modern Dance Troupe, and creating beautiful braided hairstyles for our fellow classmates. Upon graduating, we discovered that our personal interests and extracurricular activities were more appealing than any “Real Jobs” that we could acquire. After all, the jobs that we had at home during the summer had bored us to tears, and the only thing that got us through it was the knowledge that it would be all over with at the end of the summer.

Meanwhile ...
Completely aware of how imperative it was for us to “do what we love,” we continued to run our own hair braiding business, manage our commercial print modeling careers, while teaching fitness classes and securing gigs as dancers in music videos and commercials. Needless to say, we had grown accustomed to wearing many hats at once. Our multi-tasking and time management skills had grown more efficient while our bank accounts stayed the same or in some instances got smaller. We soon found ourselves wondering how we could make money, without sacrificing our artistic dreams. But before we could think of anything, Christmas was fast approaching and we had very little money to purchase gifts for our family.

Epiphany
So we decided to revisit crochet to make some simple items based on what we could remember from crochet class. As we practiced and created gifts for the family, we soon discovered that we actually had the ability to design! Before you knew it, we had a new purpose. Luckily, it was not only to design crochet clothing — we were able to explore all of our interests at once. As the “Double Stitch Twins,” we designed contemporary crochet clothing, styled our own hair, stayed healthy and fit to model our creations, and hosted our own How-to-Crochet videos! Could it be that we could explore all of our talents and interests within our very own company? Yes! We had become Fashionpreneurs (Fashionable Entreprenuers) with a fascinating future ahead of us. We are secure that our desire to do what we love and share what we do will continue to be crafted into financial security and artistic happiness.

Pursuit of Happiness
It had all come together and a lifetime of pursuing our artistic interests had miraculously saved us from the Daily Grind of working in unfullfilling jobs, completely separate from Happiness!

To learn more about Erika and Monika Simmons, the Double Stitch Twins, visit doublestitch.mindstateweb.com.

Comments

[pam warden]

It was wonderful reading about your journey together.
Love,
Pam

[The Double Stitch Twins]

Thank Pam! We are glad to share our story:)

Erika and Monika