District Sparkle- your newest girl crush

One thing that’s near impossible to find in our nation’s capital is style. We have smarts, power, culture, but beauty and glam seems to be neglected far too often in Washington, D.C. As a District resident myself, my favorite style bloggers are in NYC, San Franscisco, and Paris. I scoured the interweb, praying for a sign of fashion life, a working girl like me who appreciates mixing textures, beautiful fabric, and effortless style.

The Internet gods listened and I bring to you, Meaghan of District Sparkle.

How was District Sparkle born:
I grew up in this city commonly referred to as ‘Ugly Hollywood” & regularly spotted the commuter sneaker look on the way to & from my office. After far too many days of being perplexed as to why women thought that this was an appropriate life choice, I decided to go public with my opinions on the matter, & better yet, advice on how to remedy the travesty. With style suggestions that readers can either take or leave & a heavy dose of sass, I hope to bring a little extra sparkle to the nation’s capital, one government paycheck at a time.

Day job, style blog, and non profit- Explain that equation:
Woof. What a mouth full. I’ll give it to you straight: I landed a job, out of college, that was a wonderful experience but was not necessarily the field I wanted to focus on or thrive in. During this time commuting to & from work, I witnessed the atrocious ‘fashion’ that trolled the streets of DC. Some were too far gone to be helped but more often than not, there were just little tweaks to be made to achieve total fashion homerun. I was unfilfilled in my day job but I still wanted to look, & in turn feel, my best & show others that it could be done easily at a reasonable pricepoint. From this notion, District Sparkle was born. Two months after the blog launched, I secured a position at an agency that I had been trying to get into for years. Hence the government contractor by day & blogger by night mantra.

G.L.A.M. was my first creative child. It was born a year earlier than District Sparkle but didn’t launch until the early summer of 2013. I was sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, volunteering at a child advoacy organization & playing co-ed sports for my alunmi team in my free time. At some point, I knew that I wanted more & the overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t doing my part to help others that didn’t have the means to help themselves enveloped me. G.L.A.M. was created in 2011 & stands for Giving Labels A Meaning. G.L.A.M. hosts an annual shopping event, featuring local designers & boutiques, that donates all proceeds to a specific child advocacy organization. The third annual G.L.A.M. event will be held in June of 2014.

Five days before G.L.A.M.’s inaugural fashion event, I adopted Wendell. It’s a complicated & gut-wrenching story but bottom line was there was no way I was leaving him in the shelter another day. After my great gal pal & Director of Operations picked her jaw up off the table, she made sure I had a charged phone & made sure I texted her the minute play by play.

Evidently, a full time job & a 2 1/2 year old fur baby aren’t enough chaos for me. To be completely honest, I don’t have a secret formula that makes it work. I don’t have dedicated hours that I spend doing one thing in particular. I don’t turn my phone off at 8 & unplug from social media but I also don’t want to. I love the chaos. I love that my life is my business. It works because I make it work. Of course, there are some nights I’m up til 2am & can’t see straight but there are also weekends I don’t touch my computer. It’s all about the balance you find that’s right for you & the people in your life.

 

As a personal brand, you represent:
In a perfect world, District Sparkle would be the go-to blog for style suggestions & tips for the professional 9-5 woman. But thisis not a perfect world: People wear inappropriate, ill-fitting, & sometimes simply unreasonable clothing to work & it must be discussed stopped.

My wish is for District Sparkle to be a resource for professional DC area women, & beyond, to refer to when they have questions about how to style certain work pieces, what is & what is not appropriate, & perhaps even style inspiration.

I’m also one of the most sarcastic humans on the face of the earth so you’re going to get a few zingers here & there whether you ask for it or not. Fashion is what I love. I also find joy in humor, specifically of the dry sarcasm variety. You’re going to get a dose of both when visiting District Sparkle.

What a DS agenda look like for the 2013- 2014 school year:

In the trenches, I tend to forget that District Sparkle is still relatively new. It’s been live for a year & a half now & in that time I have accomplished far more & have had more amazing experiences than I thought I would.

In the coming year, there are some great projects that I’m so excited about sharing with my readers.