That's So Girl Hazard

I’m sure a lot of you don’t know how Girl Hazard came to be, or what it really is. Let’s take a walk down memory lane while I tell you a story.

When I was a junior in high school, a hobby of mine was to do makeup. I always loved watching tutorials on YouTube and I really enjoyed sitting at my vanity, doing my makeup and pretending I was a YouTube beauty guru.

One day I was talking to my family friend Brie, aka The101andonly, who made YouTube videos and had her own website. I told her about how I loved makeup and fashion and saw myself being something big one day. She told me how she made her website and inspired me to make my own!

While sitting in the corner of my couch, I began devising names for my website, a fashion and beauty blog. Girl Hazard came to mind quick and naturally.

At the time, GirlHazard’s signature color was lime green, so when BRAT the album came out about four years later, I thought back to the beginning stages of this and I remember saying, “That’s so Girl Hazard.”

I began posting videos of me doing my makeup on my Instagram, Girl Hazard. In one of the videos, I used an eyebrow pencil from Item Beauty, Addison Rae’s makeup brand.

The morning after posting that video, I opened my phone to a DM from Item Beauty saying they loved my video and wanted to send me some products. I’ll never forget that moment, that “I really made it” feeling.

When I went to college, I made my website and Instagram private. It wasn’t until my third year away that I thought about bringing Girl Hazard back to life.

Running low on going out funds, my roommate/BFF Paxton and I hosted a clothing sale in the living room of our apartment. We set up wine, cookies, and had the best day selling all the clothes from our closets.

The adrenaline rush of the sale lingered for a few days, and I realized I wanted to make selling clothes and bringing together like-minded girls in my community my career.

So, I came up with a collection of women’s pajama sets, one for every day of the week. I FaceTimed my longtime friend from home and told her about my idea.

“I’m going to start a clothing brand,” I said.

“You should call it Girl Hazard,” she replied.

I got in touch with an overseas manufacturer, and so it began. My brain became a spider web of ideas for what this clothing brand could be. I sat at a cafe every day, researching the answers to questions I’d never been asked before. It quickly became my passion, and it was thrilling.

After two years, I graduated college and headed back to my hometown in NJ. The summer before, I had sent over the deposit for my 3,000-unit run of 7 styles in 5 different sizes. This summer, I waited patiently for the final version of my clothing line to arrive.

When the sets arrived in August, I was so excited! All my hard work had paid off, and for the first time I was putting on something I had worked so hard to create.

Although, after a few days I began to doubt the comfort of my pajama sets. The inside of the straps exposed some of the elastic, which really irritated my skin.

As I became very familiar with doing so, I set out to find a solution. How can I fix the straps on all 3,000 pajama sets that are sitting there overseas, without compromising the appearance of them?

In collaboration with my parents, I soon came to the conclusion that all solutions would act as a Band-Aid to the problem, and so I decided to cut our losses and stop production. My manufacturers would rid the 3,000 pajama sets.

After a few days, it settled in that I would no longer be spending my days working on my clothing brand and emailing my manufacturer. So I decided to pick up other hobbies. I spent my days bedazzling, took some sewing lessons, and got a job at a restaurant.

At the end of September, I relaunched GirlHazard.com without anything to sell, or any idea of when I would.

At the end of November, I was eager to do something for Girl Hazard, so I hosted a 12-day challenge: The 12 Days of Girl Hazard.

Each day, the Girl Hazard participants were given a few tasks.

1. Make your bed
2. Move your body
3. Get dressed & ready for the day
4. One given act of self-love

Despite the possibility of no one signing up, seventeen people did, and three were given customized gifts at the end. I had faith in it, and I guess so did others in me. The challenge went better than I expected!

Deciding what was next for Girl Hazard, I started writing these diary entries. I had never been a writer before, so it was a challenge in the beginning. Most Thursdays I didn’t know what to write about and what I wanted it to sound like.

I’ve come to find that my best writing is when it is me, completely me. Not trying to be someway or someone, not trying to be perfect, or even grammatically correct. Just me, writing as me.

Although I probably didn’t think my clothing brand would take me here, it did. And writing these entries has become a part of my world and Girl Hazard’s. The journey is the best part, and there is a lot of stuff I cannot wait… to share!

Thank you for being a part of the Girl Hazard world.

There is a type of woman this brand is for, and there is a reason you are here.

With Danger & Grace,

— Girl Hazard