Kids attending New York Fashion Week is cute. Kids designing clothes for New York Fashion Week is downright inspiring.
Fifth grader Egypt Ufele, who goes by "Ify," made headlines this week when she debuted her clothing line Chubiiline at the Small Boutique Fashion Week show last Thursday. The designer, who creates clothing in a range of sizes, said she started the line after being bullied at school for her size.
"I was bullied, and they called me all kinds of names. One time I got stabbed with a pencil," she told Today.
Ify told The Huffington Post she started sewing at just five years old, thanks to lessons from her grandmother. Her line, she said, is "African print design with an urban twist," and she worked with her mom and a publicist to see her vision become a reality -- a vision that's rare for children her age.
"I can actually see my hard work is not in vain," she told HuffPost of seeing her line come to life. "I sacrifice a lot of time and money to be a designer.
She lists her favorite designers as Betsey Johnson and her own big sister Sade Perry, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology she calls "the mastermind to teaching me about sketching and researching fashion." She loves fashion, she says, for its ability to "make you feel good."
Whom does Ify hope to dress someday? "I would love to design for the first lady Michelle Obama and her beautiful daughters Sasha and Malia," she said.
Ify is proof that it's never too early to start turning your dreams into a reality.
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