Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Heather Marie often traveled to Chicago for back-to-school shopping. The fashion designer remembers feeling enchanted while looking at department store displays. On those trips her mother showed her how to buy items from different boutiques and blend them seamlessly into an existing wardrobe. Today Heather Marie understands clothing is the vehicle she uses to express creativity. Her business, Heather Marie Designs, specializes in private label brands and gorgeous customized hats. Influences “Starting with my grandmother, fashion has very much been cherished by my family,” Heather Marie said. “Growing up I was never a size two, but my mother taught me to purchase clothing that complements my shape. When Hip-hop was televised in music videos and appeared in magazines, it influenced my style. In middle school I had to have a jacket like the ones made famous by the music group Salt-N-Pepa in their video Push It. Searching high and low for that jacket, I learned about fashion designer Dapper Dan and other artists he collaborated with. Seeing those designs at a young age continues to have an impact to this day.” In addition to clothing, Heather Marie also loves fragrances. In high school she dreamed of creating her own perfume and decided to major in chemistry at Butler University (having her own line of fragrances is still a life goal). After graduating, Heather Marie moved to Dallas where she became an active member at Light of the World Church of Christ. She credits a spiritual awakening and reaffirmed relationship …

As a young girl Piera Van de Wiel loved to sing. At eight she fell in love with the song “I Could Have Danced All Night” from MY FAIR LADY. With help from a little karaoke machine, she sang out the tune continuously. One day her grandfather came upon an inhouse performance. Van de Wiel suddenly hid behind him as she belted out the high notes. Her grandfather asked why she was hiding as her singing was beautiful. “Well I’m afraid of my high notes,” was the reply. Van de Wiel’s grandfather told her to have confidence in her talent, abilities, and to stand in front of him and sing out. She did exactly that and today Van de Wiel continues to stand up, sing out, and have confidence as she moves forward with her career. Born in England, the singer-songwriter and actor spent a large part of childhood on the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. After Hurricane Dorian devastated the region in 2019, Van de Wiel wrote the single “Come Back Home (Abaco Relief Song)” to aid humanitarian efforts. The song won a Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Listener Impact at the Global Music Awards for independent artists. Van de Wiel has long believed in the power of music. When she was 15-years-old, her best friend was tragically killed in a car accident. Reeling with grief, Van de Wiel found comfort when a music teacher suggested she pour her emotions into songwriting. Through crafting songs, she gave voice to her grief and came …

Picking up a camera. Seeing what’s around you. Giving people a voice. These are reasons Robin Baker Leacock loves documentary film. Her latest project, Stella & Co: A Romantic Musical Comedy Documentary About Aging, first aired on PBS in May and was inspired by Leacock’s 103-year-old mother Estelle “Stella” Craig. The film follows the lives of Stella and eight residents (ages 75 to 105) at their independent senior residence. Thought-provoking, the documentary delivers a positive look at what it means to age in modern times through humor, music and storytelling. “My Mother influenced me in every way,” Leacock says. “Her zest for life, finding humor and creativity in every moment and her brilliance in conversation was all inspirational as well as fun. She was very career oriented and continued to write books until the age of 103 years young. In fact, when she passed on, she was just beginning her next book. But mostly she inspired me to give her a voice. As well as other seniors. They all have a lot to say.” Leacock grew up in Toronto, surrounded by artists, filmmakers and musicians. She married Robert Leacock, a second-generation documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. His father, Richard, helped create the cinéma vérité style and was a driving force behind the film program at MIT. Through paying attention to both her husband’s and father-in-law’s methods, Leacock found her own way as a filmmaker. Other films she’s directed and produced include It Girls, A Passion for Giving, Stella is 95 and I’ll Take Manhattan. Truly Seeing Our Elders Stella and …

Three decades ago Las Vegan Kim Bavington started her business Art Classes for Kids. The company has gone on to inspire generations of young artists to hone their creativity and embrace a lifelong love for the arts. Bavington knows thinking freely is where kids’ minds intuitively roam, and she’s all about providing an environment for that magic. This summer she is kicking off a new business venture, ART CAMP IN A BOX. “Normally, my summers are packed with weeklong art camps, which sell out every year—they’re my single most popular program of the year,” she explains. “Knowing I would have to pivot due to social distancing guidelines, I created ART CAMP IN A BOX. I’m really excited about this opportunity because it allows me to bring art supplies and our uniquely fun, innovative projects and educational instruction to kids and families around the country for the first time. Kids will have the flexibility to make these projects at home on their own time through tutorial project videos. They can also participate in live Zoom groups, led by me, if they want classroom interaction while still practicing social distancing.” Career Building Blocks Growing up Bavington had not planned to become an art teacher (and especially not a virtual one). Yet many of her career experiences were the perfect building blocks for figuring out how to teach art. Bavington worked through college as an aerobics instructor, model, restaurant hostess, and freelance graphic designer. She especially credits teaching aerobics with learning how to keep students engaged during class. …

Jane Root was drawn to babies long before she became a mom. The founder and CEO of the production company Nutopia recalls seeing youngsters in strollers and thinking, “What’s going on inside your head?” and “What are you thinking?” Nutopia’s new series Babies explores those curiosities. Streaming on Netflix, the docu-series follows 15 international families over the course of a year. The project dives into how every human transforms from helpless newborn into independent toddler. It also features the latest research from scientists who find the brains of babies fascinating. “This series showcases incredible, groundbreaking science revealing the developmental leaps and bounds babies go through in the first year of life while capturing the personal and emotional journey of the family as a whole,” says Root, who is also executive producer. A Good Story Growing up in Southend, London, Root had two major loves: magazines and history. The daughter of a gift-shop owner and school photographer, Root often dragged her sisters into competitions to choose the BEST magazine covers. Root went on to consume shows like Star Trek, Bewitched and BBC documentaries. One docudrama that made an immense impact was Culloden (known as The Battle of Culloden in the United States). The production portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the British Army’s destruction of the Scottish Jacobite rising. When asked what three things make a good story, Root shares, “emotion, surprise and a great character.” At seventeen Root had her first article published and studied journalism at London College of Communications. She went on …

It is a lesson women in the arts share again and again, success does not happen overnight. Filmmaker, actor, producer, and writer Jenni Tooley stresses this reality for anyone pursuing a creative career. Last year the Texas native saw her feature film, STUCK, premiere at Women Texas Film Festival 2019. It took 20 years to make. An Actor is Born Tooley first began acting in junior high. During her last year of high school she got the lead role in a UIL play. Although she enjoyed acting, Tooley’s childhood dream was to become an environmental science teacher. However, financial restraints caused her to remain in Dallas and choose to be part of the University of Texas at Dallas inaugural freshman class. Tooley planned to stay at UTD for only two years and then transfer, but she came across the opportunity to major in art and performance and literary studies. “After enrolling I somehow talked my way into auditioning for a play open to upper level students,” Tooley recalls. “I met Gretchen Dyer, the filmmaker, and she, plus her sister Julia, invited me to participate in a live reading of their film The Playroom. That led to me becoming an ensemble member of Dallas’ Undermain Theatre. I also played the lead in a treatment of The Playroom and used the footage for my first demo reel.” Tooley took the reel to an agent, who advised the young actor that she might be “too artsy” for traditional show business. Looking back Tooley agrees; she found trying out for …

When abstract artist and teacher Dr. Valerie Gillespie enters her classroom at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, she is returning to the space that transformed her life. Years earlier Dr. Gillespie herself had been a student at Greenhill and spent time under the guidance of teacher Marilu Flores Gruben. In high school she had the opportunity to tour Ms. Gruben’s personal studio, an experience she vividly remembers to this day. “Going to her studio, seeing her personal work, it made me for the first time think of art as a possible career,” said Dr. Gillespie. “Here was this passionate, Latina woman doing all these amazing things in addition to teaching. She taught me for at least eight years and then became a life-changing mentor.” The Teaching Path Following high school, Dr. Gillespie attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she majored in studio art with a concentration in Spanish. During this time, she took a job at the child center on campus. After her first year of working with children, Dr. Gillespie realized education was the profession that strongly called to her. “That rapport you can have with this younger human who is so eager and hungry to learn everything you know…it was an energy I hadn’t experienced before, but really connected with,” she recalls. “Also, the relationship I had with Ms. Gruben definitely steered me towards teaching. In fact, I’d planned to become a lawyer and even studied to do so, but that just wasn’t my path. It was extremely hard telling my …

Clothing creator Aluma’s small studio is light-years away from the hustle and bustle of London Fashion Week. The independent businesswoman likes it that way and prefers the slower-paced approach she now gives to her designs. Living in Tel Aviv, Aluma credits her mother with bringing sewing into her life. At 14 she proclaimed there was absolutely nothing to wear in her closet. Her Mum respectfully disagreed, but said they could go to the fabric shop and that she would teach her daughter to make clothing from scratch. It took only a handful of sewing lessons for Aluma to realize she was hooked. Teenage Years After making pieces for herself, Aluma began designing clothing for friends. One of them, an aspiring photographer, recruited her younger sister and classmates to model for a makeshift photo shoot featuring Aluma’s clothes. The younger girls went gaga over the pieces and asked to purchase them. Even the attendant at the shop where the pictures were developed wanted to know where the clothing could be bought. “Much like today, my clothing sold by word of mouth,” Aluma remembers. “Even though I was selling items, going into fashion full-time didn’t seem possible. I simply thought it wasn’t a “proper” profession. While fulfilling my commitment to the Israeli army, I managed to get a job as a graphic designer. Working on the army’s magazine in that role made me think graphic design was what I should pursue in school, which is what I later did. But my heart was always with clothing design. …

As Girls That Create continues to grow, so does the amazing list of women I’ve interviewed for the site’s Creator Spotlight series. The photo above features the work of Florida-based artist Carol Prusa. Recent Creator Spotlights  Artist Carol Prusa: Prusa utilizes the silverpoint method for much of her internationally known work, while also teaching painting as a Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University. Her latest exhibition, Carol Prusa: Dark Light, opened last month at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. It invites viewers to honor the women astronomers who originally helped map the stars. Filmmaker Emily Cohn: Cohn’s debut feature CRSHD had its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival and in August opened Women Texas Film Festival. In elementary school Cohn made her first film, The Amulet of Fire. Starring her fifth grade teacher and three close friends (with the key prop, the amulet, made by her mother), Cohn jokes it was her first lesson in low-budget filmmaking. Author Linda Hirshman:  Those arguing #MeToo is losing steam are sorely mistaken. That’s the belief of best-selling author Linda Hirshman. Her latest book, Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment, details the 50-year history of legal and cultural moments that precede #MeToo. Hirshman is also the author of  Sisters In Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World. Creator Spotlight features interviews with artistic women/girls and showcases their work. If you know an artist you’d like to see spotlighted, email me at erin at girlsthatcreate.com. The Highwomen During childhood I often visited a …

Creativity is bountiful on both sides of filmmaker Emily Cohn’s family. Her maternal great-grandfather was a cartoonist, while her mother is a clothing designer who currently creates one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets. Cohn’s father is a musician and songwriter. From both parents she saw how much hard work goes into artistic endeavors, especially as monetary demands stack up. “Growing up in New York City, I watched my mother figure out how to have different streams of income to make ends meet,” she recalled. “She’s done everything from selling fancy umbrellas from our apartment to customizing wheelchairs. I definitely learned, by osmosis, how to budget money over the course of my childhood.” Young Filmmaker In elementary school Cohn made her first film, The Amulet of Fire. Starring her fifth grade teacher and three close friends (with the key prop, the amulet, made by her mother), Cohn jokes it was her first lesson in low-budget filmmaking. Several years later her family got a Mac desktop computer that had a camera in it. Cohn began filming herself and friends, then editing the footage for fun in iMovie. Eventually she and her best friend Emma Orlow created The Do Not Enter Diaries, a web series about teenagers seen through the stories of their bedrooms, from New York to Mumbai. While making that series Cohn was accepted as a Film Fellow at the Tribeca Film Institute. Her first short, Pierced, received funding from Tribeca and in 2012 won Best Drama at the All American High School Film Festival. Not only did …