Why the fashion world is in love with this 14-year-old designer

Have you heard of Isabella Rose Taylor? You’re about to. She’s been designing clothes for other tweens and teens since she was eight, and now her fashion line is going to be in Nordstrom stores across the nation. She’s the youngest designer ever to be carried in Nordstrom. Sick, right?

It’s no surprise that her clothes are getting lots of exciting buzz. They’re simple with a little edge; clean lines and teen-friendly silhouettes with tongue-in-cheek motifs like rainclouds, non-girly florals, and fringe. They make her models look, well, cool.

This 14-year-old fashion designer is fierce, talented, and hardworking. She was just honored by a ranking on FastCompany‘s Most Creative People In Business list, along with — no biggie — Amy Poehler and Barbara Bush (junior).

Isabella, who lives in Austin with her family, had a runway show at New York Fashion Week this past year. She’s CEO of her own company, producing her fashion line, which means she’s a #bosslady when her peers are in 9th grade. Oh, and speaking of school? She’s already graduated from college, and is working on a fine arts degree at Austin Community College.

In her TEDxTalk (of course she’s done one; girl has wisdom to drop), Isabella says one key to her success is keeping her story simple. She is a teen designer, making clothes for her peers; that’s an easy to understand and indisputably brilliant concept. It’s easy to pitch herself and to get others on board with a clear story.

Another key is having a dream board, so you have a clear vision of what you’re going for, and a willingness to be a little uncomfortable in order to stick to your morals and beliefs along the long journey to success.

Isabella’s not just a one-hit-wonder, either — the super cute and super cheeky pieces from her Spring 2015 collection, which you can see on her website, here, are giving us major closet envy.

Check out her inspirational TEDx talk. Isabella is so calm and well-spoken in front of a huge room of people, talking about her clothing line and her theory about following your dreams at an age when I was spending a lot of time strategizing about how to chat with my crush on AIM in the most mysteriously attractive way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LomHO9STYlM?feature=oembed

Toward the end of the talk, she says, “Not everyone will like your work, and people will try to discourage you, but it’s so important to stay the course and understand people’s criticism, but not let it affect what you want to do in the end.” You go, girl!

(Images via here.)