Cover

Dedication

For Fran Forman, who through her art breathes light and air

into my word dreams in this story

THE PHILADELPHIA POST

Fashion and Style

Fashion World Takes Note of Tween Philly Blogger

by Uta Bradford

“I’m tall for my age,” says middle school student Rose Ashley.

Indeed she is. At five feet, six and a half inches tall, the suburban sixth grader does appear somewhat older than her eleven years. But don’t let that fool you. Through years of scouring thrift stores—or “thrifting,” as she calls it—she has discovered fashion treasures that she adapts to her own style, which Rose describes as funk meets vintage. Thrifting, she is careful to note, is not yet an Olympic sport, but should be. “Much less expensive than all those gymnastic and ice-skating coaches.” She pulls out a boxy jacket she picked up for five dollars. “Christian Dior—so it had a few moth holes. I thought, you know, I can work around that.”

And she certainly can. A self-taught expert seamstress, she has yet to find anything she can’t fix or sew from scratch. Her mom, real estate agent Rosemary Ashley, bought her an electronic sewing machine that Rose calls the Millennium Falcon of sewing machines.

On her blog, Threads, she shares snappy observations on fashion, pop culture, and sewing. The site is peppered with photos of herself and her friends wearing some of her more outlandish getups. Rose’s following is building, with 20,000 readers each day.

The Greenhouse

Chapter 1

Bow Ties and Truth

Rose Ashley stood in the middle of the circle as the three girls spun around her. She clamped her eyes shut and tried to block out their jeering faces. The girls took turns picking apart Rose’s carefully composed outfit.

“What’s with the bow tie?”

“And the shirt! My little brother wears a shirt like that.”

“Are you a man or something?”

“Maybe a Cub Scout. The shirt has those flap pockets with the snap buttons. Any badges?” hooted the one with the little brother.

Rose cringed. Did this have something to do with her fashion blog? But she hadn’t posted anything in over a month. How would they have found out about Threads? Of course the article had come out in the Philadelphia newspaper, but who read that paper in Indianapolis? Oh! And she’d forgotten the YouTube thing. “How to Raid Your Mom’s Closet, or 75 Scarves She Never Wears and What to Do with Them.” That had led into a mess of crafty projects, including the bow ties.