THREAD MAY 2021
HANNAH ORENSTEIN CANDICE PETERKIN HOW SHE IS EMPOWERING BLACK WOMEN THROUGH HER MEDIA BRAND
BY KATHRYN ANDES
ON HER NEW BOOK AND HER JOURNEY AS AN AUTHOR
KRISTINA ZIAS ON BODY POSITIVITY AND GAINING CONFIDENCE
Letter from the Editor Growing up I often felt like women were not equally represented in the media, or accurately represented in magazines. Women and girls were relentlessly criticized for their body image and looks, scrutinized for their career paths, and judged by their personal life choices. That is why I am so ecstatic to be featuring each of these women in Thread Magazine. From authors and editors to influencers and entrepreneurs, Kristina Zias, Hannah Orenstein, Alexa Cohen, Ruby Buddymeyer, Candice Peterkin, and the Wiser family have made immense progress for women in media, fashion, and beauty, across the globe. I have hand picked each of these amazing women because they have done outstanding work in their respective fields and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated. When I was a teenager I wish I had creative, accomplished, and hard working women like these to look up to as role models; luckily I have discovered them in my twenties, as I enter the professional world as a college graduate. Hopefully Thread Magazine can show Gen Z and Gen Alpha that you can still have it all without changing who you are in order to be successful. You can be a CEO, you can follow your dreams, and you can be happy doing what you love.
Fashion
Kristina Zias Kristina Zias is showing her followers that you can be beautiful and confident at any size. Instagram influencer, fashion blogger, podcast host, body positivity champion, and now new mom Zias, empowers her followers on Instagram to love their bodies, and preaches that all bodies are beautiful.
Zias has worked with many fashion, beauty, and jewelry brands as an influencer for companies like h&m, amazon fashion, clinique, mejuri, and pantene. She started her blog, MissZias.com in 2011, and her instagram account came a year later in 2012 as an extension of her blog. “I started my blog in 2011 as a hobby because I loved documenting my style,” said Zias. “After years and years of posting images, videos and different styled looks, I began to create a community and it turned into ‘influencing.’”
The LA based influencer loves documenting her life and sharing it with her audience of over 189 thousand followers on Instagram alone. “I started pitching myself to brands I loved and already promoted, and it kind of snowballed from there. I genuinely don’t think there could be a better job for me. I was a stylist for 10 years doing everything from celebrity styling for TV & Film to red carpet styling to personal shopping and I love making women feel confident in their clothes,” said Zias.
Zias wears a yellow one piece from the Australian swimwear brand Saint Somebody.
Although she has made immense strides in her career and worked with major fashion brands, including her favorite collaboration with Ralph Lauren, her roots in fashion started on a much humbler note. “My first job ever was working as a salesperson at Abercrombie Kids! I interviewed the day I turned 16 and was allowed to work. The job taught me great work ethic and that I love interacting with people. It also taught me how to fold denim.” Zias’s dedication to her craft, years of experience in the fashion industry, and overall passion for inclusivity in fashion makes her a shero in my book. While the fashion industry still has significant work to do in terms of size inclusivity, Zias does describe the fashion industry as being incredibly diverse in other areas.
“You can find jobs in the industry in all different fields from sales to marketing, to styling and editorial to so much more, so I would try and explore different avenues and see where your passions are,” said Zias.
Like most college students looking for experience in the fashion industry, she worked in retail at Nordstrom during her college years, which helped her in sales training and styling. She also diversified her experience by working as an intern for a fashion PR company, where she learned how to write press releases, and how to pitch brands to different magazines and editorial sites. Now just a few years later, Zias has her own successful blog, Instagram page, and podcast.
Zias wears a Bardot top, DL1961 denim, and chinese laundry heels.
On her podcast, The Confident Collective, Zias encourages women to be confident and to feel empowered. “The Confident Collective is a women’s empowerment network created to foster real relationships with like minded women aimed at inspiring confidence in all aspects of their lives. I started it because I felt I was building such an amazing community on Instagram and I wanted my audience to feel connected to each other,” said Zias.
In 2019, The Confident Collective led 30 women to run their first half marathon. “It was the most empowering experience! My hope with TCC is that we can foster community, create more experiences and inspire women to pursue things they never thought they could.”
Body image and insecurities are topics that Zias has struggled with, but now she showcases that you can be confident no matter your size. When she first started influencing, she said her different body type hurt her career because she was trying to fit into a certain mold. When she realized that is not who she is or will ever be, she was able to gain a lot of confidence. All bodies are different, and that is her strength.
“I stopped trying to be like everyone else and started advocating for change in the industry when it comes to inclusive fashion. I was no longer ashamed of my bigger body but instead, celebrated it.”
In the future we can look forward to seeing more family content from Zias and new merchandise from The Confident Collective. Zias wants to stress that confidence is a journey and you should work on loving yourself everyday. “Society’s beauty & body standards are changing,” said Zias. “You already fit into them! Everyone is beautiful in their own way and that difference needs to be celebrated.”
Beauty
Alexa Cohen Alexa Cohen is bringing real and rare faces back to the beauty industry. Cohen is an alumna of Pratt where she studied art direction and advertising, and is now working as an art director for Selena Gomez’s beauty brand, Rare Beauty.
Cohen’s journey in the beauty space started commercially at brands like Olay and she then moved to Milk Makeup when it was just a start up brand. After working with Milk Makeup, Cohen saw a need for real people to be involved in the beauty space and wanted to work with brands that put a positive message out into the world.
The LA-based art director made it her mission to find a brand that had a strong focus on social responsibility. According to Cohen there is a very strong focus on mental health awareness at Rare Beauty, and there is an inclusive space for everyone.
“I was presented with the opportunity to art direct for Selena Gomez’s new beauty line Rare Beauty that recently launched. It’s really rare--no pun intended-to be a part of that and see it grow. Usually you’re brought on after the brand is already established and it's been cool to be a part of that evolution.”
Not only does Cohen advocate for beauty companies that promote a positive mission, but she also supports realness in the beauty industry. Cohen feels that the industry has become so saturated with fabricated images of what beauty is, that it just doesn’t feel real to her anymore. To counter this trend Cohen and Rare Beauty are throwing out traditional beauty standards, and finding beauty in everyone’s imperfections. ”A lot of companies are just lacking real people and real stories and there isn’t anyone to relate to in that space. And I feel like with beauty specifically there is such an emphasis on being perfect and having your face look a certain way and being really put together.”
Cohen works on art pieces in her LA home.
In challenging the beauty industry, Cohen is trying to create images that make people feel inspired by representing actual members of the everyday community, not just models. “I always try to create something that will make someone feel a true emotion, and when you have a picture perfect photoshopped image, you don’t feel anything. I wanted to be a part of making that shift in the industry where we’re not just featuring models that have perfectly angular faces, and that we’re featuring real people as well.”
While working at Milk Makeup, Cohen brought her friends in and asked strangers on the street if they’d like to model, bringing the community into the beauty space. Not only is Cohen making changes for more authentic faces in the beauty sphere, but she is also making a push for kindness in the industry. “I think it's so important to be nice to everyone, and to put out a positive vibe, because it creates a ripple effect, and if people feel that energy they are going to shine their own light on everyone.” She wants to stress the importance of building good relationships with your team and giving everyone around you the opportunity to feel heard and included.
In today’s beauty world, Cohen said the perfect face just isn’t relevant anymore, and does not speak to anyone. “For a while there was a picture perfect standard of beauty, specifically in the 90’s you saw a lot of super models having their moments. With the more commercial brands like Clinique, everyone just started to look exactly the same.”
Cohen encourages people to be true to themselves, to love themselves, and they will radiate. “There is no makeup that can do that,” she said. Cohen also believes in using make up for fun, and applying makeup in different places on your face to create different looks. “I feel like everyone is sick of seeing ad after ad that is manipulated and photoshopped, or has a filter on it--it’s like okay enough is enough,” said Cohen.
Her favorite beauty trends at the moment are the “dewy skin” and “no makeup” makeup look. “I love looking to the younger generation because they are a bit more experimental with their makeup. Makeup is art and there really are no rules, “ said Cohen. She looks to social media to see what Gen Z is doing with their makeup for inspiration. To Alexa Cohen beauty means love. Beauty is a blade of grass. Beauty is light. True beauty is being your most authentic self and doing the things that make you feel good. “My biggest message for anyone is to find the things that make you happy and whole. Whether it's something big or small, it will just lead you to such an abundant beautiful life. Stay aligned with yourself and your truth.”
Career
Ruby Buddymeyer Ruby Buddymeyer, Beauty Editor at Cosmopolitan, started her career in the beauty space by accident, but has now worked her way up from SEO writer to editor at one of the most coveted publications at Hearst Magazines.
As a sophomore in college, attending Fordham, Buddymeyer had an internship at Stylecaster which is a women’s lifestyle website. At that point she had never considered the beauty world as a career path, but she was working directly with the beauty editor at Stylecaster and was inspired by her writing. Meeting this editor changed her entire career path. “I felt really inspired by her and the industry as a whole,” said Buddymeyer.
“And I quickly learned that beauty is way more than just talking about lipstick, which yes we do, and I do enjoy that part of it, but there is a bigger side to it. We talk to scientists and dermatologists and experts in the field, constantly, every single day. Everything we write, there is so much research that goes into it, so I really respect that side of the job.”
Buddymeyer wanted to be an intern for Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire, but she knew that was not realistic as a high school graduate. “Every girl wants to move to New York and become a magazine editor. I ended up taking a gap year between high school and college, so by the time I got to college, I was so ready, I was in full focus mode. I knew exactly why I was there, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I just got started immediately.”
According to Buddymeyer, networking is key. At all of her internships she made it a point to network with every editor and employee there. “At first I thought that meant that you had to be naturally connected with people, but that is so not the case. You can make those connections yourself especially if you’re in New York. Reaching out to editors and talking to them and putting in the work to make those connections is really important.”
For young adults that may not have an internship, there are other ways that Buddymeyer suggests networking professionally. “If you don’t have an internship, go on Instagram and find editors that you admire and send them a DM. Most likely people will not respond, they will ignore you, but some people will respond. Especially because people are constantly moving around in this industry, if you have a contact, you then have that contact for everywhere they work after that.”
Because of the effort Buddymeyer put into networking she was able to climb the ladder at Stylecaster and get her foot in the door at larger companies. “By the time I was ready to leave Stylecaster, I knew I needed to make my network as big as I could. When I was leaving I had a lot of bylines at Stylecaster, I had written hundreds of articles. So I networked with a few editors at Stylecaster and expressed my interest in becoming a freelance writer, so that got my name out there and I ended up freelancing for Fashionista.”
After writing hundreds of articles for both Stylecaster and Fashionista, Buddymeyer became a freelance SEO writer for Cosmopolitan. “I started writing a few articles for them every week and I knew that I wanted to work there. I knew it was going to be my place one day. And to be completely honest, a couple opportunities came up at Cosmo that I applied for and I didn’t get and I was obviously crushed, but I knew I was going to get there permanently one day.”
In Buddymeyer's articles you can read all about new makeup trends, hacks, and best practices.
After working at the Zoe Report post graduation, Buddymeyer applied to be the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan, thinking it would be good practice for interviews and getting back into the job field again, and ended up landing the job that she always dreamed of, beauty editor.
For Buddymeyer, working in the beauty industry has brought her so much joy, but it has also changed her perspective on American beauty standards.
“It's made me realize how focused we are on social media,” said Buddymeyer. “And it's interesting to see how focused beauty trends really are within Instagram or TikTok. Some of them I don’t think are super healthy especially for younger generations. When content is spreading at the rapid speed that it is, it's hard to control it. Cosmetic surgery trends in America--specifically the fact that celebrities and influencers will get these procedures and treatments--and not admit it or talk about it, then gives the impression to young people that they naturally look like that.”
Above all else the one thing that Buddymeyer considers most important about beauty is that everyone can relate to it. “It’s something that people bond over, regardless of what skill set you have, it really brings people together. There is a beauty product for everybody, it's not this exclusive industry that I sometimes feel like fashion is. You can get amazing makeup at the drugstore, it's very accessible if you want it to be. It’s positive and it's fun and it makes people feel good, and that’s what I hope to radiate through my content.”
Hannah Orenstein Hannah Orenstein, author, writer, and senior dating editor at Elite Daily writes about her experiences in the dating world, and covers topics like single life, relationships, breakups, sex, sexuality, and celebrity relationships. Not only is she working on her fourth book, that will follow “Playing with Matches”, “Love at First Like”, and “Head Over Heels” but she also oversees a team of writers and editors at Elite Daily.
You can read Orenstein's articles at www.elitedaily.com
Orenstein graduated her undergrad from NYU where she studied journalism and history. During her college years Orenstein was involved in many campus publications, including Her Campus, where she was the company’s first intern.
“I worked for two NYU publications, the Washington Square News, and I wrote and edited for the NYU local,” said Orenstein. “I think it's really helpful because it was just a great way to learn from your peers, to establish a schedule where you have to be writing on a regular basis, it helps me hone my reporting skills because that's one of the hardest things to develop when you’re just starting out. Especially to have the confidence to go up to a stranger and ask questions and do it well. So I think that campus publications are enormously helpful, no matter what kind of writing you want to do.”
Not most aspiring journalists would start their career in a field involving dating, but for Orenstein, becoming a matchmaker gave her an edge as a writer, and brought new opportunities to fruition.
“I started writing about dating and relationships after I worked as a matchmaker for a dating service when I was 21, the summer between my junior and senior year of college. I never really wanted to be a matchmaker but I was completely inspired by the work of E. Jean Carroll,” said Orenstein. “She was a really legendary writer and editor, and at the time she was the advice columnist for Elle and she is the longest running advice columnist in America for a single publication. She’s also notable these days because she is one of the women who is suing Donald Trump for sexual assaults, and she is just an absolutely legendary person and I would have done anything to work for her.”
Orenstein stressed the importance of having confidence in yourself, a skill she learned at her first job as a matchmaker. “When I was match making that was my first time having a job and not an internship, so I was working with clients who were ten, twenty years older than I was, and had a lot more professional experience, a lot more romantic experience than I did. It was really easy for me to get into my head and think that I didn’t deserve to be there or think that I didn't know what I was doing, but you cant let other people see that because they're not going to trust you if you don't trust yourself.”
Matchmaking was never Orenstein’s career goal, but it ended up opening a ton of doors for her. “It made me stand out in terms of applying to jobs when I graduated. And it taught me a lot about the world of match making, dating, relationships, and love. Ultimately as I progressed in my career as a writer at Seventeen, freelancing, and at Elite Daily it set me up to pursue this career path of writing about dating and relationships and to write my first book, ‘Playing with Matches’.”
While Orenstein said getting published is nice, the most important thing to do is practice writing for yourself and reading everything, from sites to newspapers, blogs, and books. “The more you read from talented writers, the more you learn.”
Orenstein became a writer because there is truly nothing else she could see herself doing, she writes about women’s relationships, friendships, and careers. She champions for women’s lives in her fiction books and in her own life. “I've always written fiction and short stories dating all the way back to kindergarten,” said Orenstein.
“I didn't really have confidence in my creative abilities until I took a class senior year of college, and I wrote a short story about being a matchmaker and the response was really good. I didn’t expect that because I went to NYU and everybody was sort of chain smoking outside the library, and everyone had these dark and depressing stories about middle aged men on road trips, and so I just sort of walked in, in my pink outfit, and I wrote a story about a matchmaker. The fact that they were impressed by it was a shock to me. So I took their advice to keep going and I turned it into a novel. When I finally got an agent and sold it to my editor, I felt the confidence to embrace my new title, author.”
After college, whenever Orenstein found the professional world intimidating, she embraced the mantra, fake it til’ you make it.
“That starts with taking yourself really seriously and putting your best foot forward even when it feels uncomfortable or you feel like you dont belong there. I remember when I was an intern at Elle, I was called by a higher up editor to get coffee for her boss and I showed up to her office to take her coffee order and I was wearing a blazer, pearls, heals and I had my hair blown out and she was like ‘you're the intern? You dont look like an intern’ and she was just thrown off by that and from then on, she knew exactly who I was and she remembered who I was.”
Orenstein said it's all about taking those small steps to have confidence no matter who you are or what your experience is. “You just gotta fake it. But also if there is something that you really don’t know then ask for help. It's never a bad idea to ask. There are no stupid questions. If your job relies on you doing something correctly and you don't know how to do it, use all of the available resources, ask a friend, ask a coworker, google it, really do your best to check all of the available resources that your boss has given you. If you still don't have the answer then please ask because you don't want to waste anybody’s time by making a silly mistake.”
She is currently working on her fourth book, which will be a love story set in New York City. Orenstein has much more planned for her readers, as she continues with her career as an author.
“I would feel really grateful to be able to write more books. I want to do this forever so looking forward, I want to write about relationships, but I’m also interested in diving more deeply into the other parts of a person's life. Exploring family and sisterhood, ambition, faith and community and all these different elements.”
Orenstein’s latest book, “Head Over Heels'' was named the best book of summer by Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and was even selected by book of the month club for July. But her biggest compliment is when she is able to connect with her readers on a more personal level. “When a reader reaches out and says, ‘I felt the same way about my relationship, or my friend, or my career and you nailed it’ that's the best feeling in the world.”
Mental Health
Womaze Three sisters, Hannah, Becca and Leah, and their mother Corin are making strides as a multigenerational womenfounded company for their self care app Womaze. The idea for Womaze started because of Corin Wiser, who has a background in mental health counseling. When Corin’s three daughters were approaching their teenage years, she felt compelled to write a book filled with everything she wished someone told her when she was growing up. She had no idea that, about 12 years later, the book would plant a seed as inspiration for Womaze.
“When Becca and Leah had just left for college, I was beginning high school, and our mom had just started a new job,” said Hannah. “We created a family group chat to share the videos, articles, and quotes that were helping us navigate these life transitions. This simple group chat brought us together and made us realize that even though we were in different chapters of our lives, we were all experiencing so many of the same emotions. This group chat gave us a space to feel supported and loved as we experienced anxiety, insecurities, relationships, and new beginnings.”
The family of leaders started sharing the tools they discovered with their family and friends and it took off from there, as they expanded on their idea and later shared it with the world. The Wiser women noticed how they would feel after scrolling on social media and playing the comparison game. They knew they needed to create something that left them and others feeling great after they engaged with their content. The Womaze women want the users of their app to know that they are already enough just as they are.
”Our mission with Womaze is to help people love and accept themselves so that they can bring that same love and acceptance into the world,” said Hannah. “Life can be full of ups and downs, and we want people to know that they are never alone in their experiences -- they are supported, valued, and loved within the Womaze community.”
Over the past two years the Womaze team has made it a priority to listen to their community’s needs by corresponding with their audience. Since then they have made improvements to their app and Womaze 2.0 debuted in 2020. The app is free and available to anyone with a smartphone, but now includes new features like talks from guest speakers and daily push motivations.
“One of our community’s favorite parts of the app is our “Push Motivations'': empowering push notifications that we send daily to remind people that they are loved and supported,” said Hannah. “We’ve received hundreds of messages from people telling us how much these Push Motivations have changed their lives. We’ve received messages from people in the midst of grief, adopting a child, starting college, or simply navigating the ups and downs of life -- and those messages from our community are the fuel that keeps us going and reminds us why we created Womaze.”
Hannah Wiser and the Womaze family encourage women looking to start their own business, to do just that, start.
“Start where you are and take the next best step,” said Hannah, “Whenever you doubt yourself, ask yourself “Why not me?” Why couldn’t you be the one to invent that product or run that company or do whatever has been calling to you? Be willing to take the leap. Know that who you’re becoming as a result is even more important than the outcome. You are needed, your work is needed, and don’t you forget it. Trust yourself, be resourceful, ask for help, and try and try again.”
One of the things that has helped Womaze in their business is funding from crowdfunding campaigns like IFundWomen, a platform dedicated to helping women raise capital. Womaze also receives funding from Riley’s Way Foundation, an incredible foundation that empowers young leaders to use kindness and empathy to create meaningful connections and positive change.
One of the things that we can look forward to seeing from the app in the future is the guest curator program. “Each week, someone who inspires us curates their own channel on Womaze and shares their top tools for life,” said Hannah. It can be fatiguing to only see a person’s highlight reel on social media. On the Womaze app you can see what the curators are watching, reading, and listening to in order to feel inspired and hopeful. The women-led company has created a cornucopia of self care and self love tools to use in times of trouble. This family and their app are truly amazing.
Women
She Is Art She Is Art Media is making strides for female empowerment and advocacy among the Black female community. Even in one of the most devastating years in our country’s history, Candice Peterkin, graduate student at Fairfield University, and founder and CEO of She Is Art Media has managed to not only survive, but thrive, during the pandemic. She Is Art Media is a space for everyday Black women to feel appreciated, to feel heard, and to be productive with a social media platform that supports them.
She Is Art Media allows women access to knowledge from professionals in the business world and to receive advice from experts in their network. “When we first started out we named the organization she is art magazine because the point was to create a platform for these women to share their stories,” said Peterkin. “And now we have expanded into a media company. Where we also provide mentorship, training in leadership and entrepreneur skills.”
The main goal of She Is Art Media is to provide a platform for Black women to feel heard, appreciated, and to have resources to things they wouldn’t normally have access to. “My mom is an amazing person, but personally for me growing up, it was really hard to point out a role model besides my mom,” said Peterkin. “At She Is Art Media we want to connect young Black women with amazing Black women who are doing great things, so that they can then feel inspired and say ‘If she’s doing that, then I can too’.”
Peterkin along with her team at She Is Art Media are allowing women to connect and network, expand their mindset, and work on personal growth and development. ”Black women were dealt the bad card so many times in this country. To diminish that and deal them the good card is our goal here.”
Peterkin herself is a graduate student, and is working towards a larger goal of furthering her career in the media industry. “She Is Art came to fruition because I've always wanted to do something in media,” said Peterkin. “I was a marketing major, but then I switched to international business. I also knew that I had a passion for hearing stories about how black people were mistreated in this country, and finding solutions to help them out. Once I started to understand that all of these things could be intertwined, I knew I could do something with it.” After coming up with the idea to combine her skill for story telling and her interest in business, Peterkin took the next step to get the wheels turning on her journey towards what is now She Is Art Media.
Peterkin had a passion for hearing stories that she could connect with. “I thought back to when I was a child. And I think that every business owner and entrepreneur should think that way if they want to start something. I wanted to be a history teacher just because of black history month.”
“I thought that it was crazy that it was only a month. Knowing that there are so many disadvantages that black people have in this country, I wanted to create this space where I can dismantle the stereotypes that society says black women are, and create a space that would uplift black women in every sense.”
In collaboration with Fairfield University, as part of their new business start up program, Peterkin had the opportunity to pitch her idea for She Is Art in an environment similar to the popular television show Shark Tank. At the event Peterkin pitched her idea to different investors, and went through a year long process to receive initial funds. When she first started out, She Is Art was just an idea with an Instagram page where Peterkin posted inspirational quotes for Black women. ”After going through that entire start up program I understood that She Is Art is way more valuable than just running it as an instagram page,” said Peterkin.
After the start up program concluded, Peterkin was awarded $15,000 in seed money to start her business, and even had additional funding from outside investors. When one of the investors in the program asked her if she could see herself doing this full time, her answer was an immediate “yes.” “I see myself doing this full time because it's a problem full time and we have to try to find a solution to it,” said Peterkin. “As I started to get deeper into the business, I thought hell yeah I have to continue doing this full time.” After hearing that question, everything was set in motion. “I thought that if I gave up on this then I would be giving up on myself,” Peterkin added.
In addition to empowering their community on social media, She Is Art offers classes every month for Black women to learn about various things like sisterhood, how to manage your finances, beauty lessons, and other life skills. “The slogan here at She Is Art is acknowledge, release, and teach and it spells out art,” said Peterkin. “We want Black women’s struggles to be acknowledged, we want them to release internal or external stress that they may endure from society, and then teach women valuable lessons.”
As a recent graduate, entering the workforce during unprecedented times, Peterkin, attributes some of her success to networking. Networking on LinkedIn, with your classmates, within your community, and with people who you aspire to work with one day, may be the secret to achieving success in business. Peterkin knows she has value to bring to the table, and she is bold when she networks. “That means going out to find pitch competitions, going out to different events so you can communicate with people that you don't know, sharing your story and sharing your passion with others so that they can also feel attached and want to support you.”
Peterkin said if she had one piece of advice for college women looking to start their own business it would be to connect with investors, and network with professionals in your field. Getting reliable contact information from potential business partners is just as important as making your business plan.
Above all else, Peterkin emphasizes the importance of following your passion. “When you feel like your back is against the wall, if your business is something that you’re passionate about, everything will work itself out”.
In This Issue Table of Contents
Founder, creator, designer and editor of Thread Magazine: Kathryn Andes Front cover: photographed by Shaun Williams 3: created using images from pinterest and instagram 4-9: images are courtesy of Kristina Zias 11: images are courtesy of Niharika Chandrasekar, Instagram and Pinterest 12-17: Images are courtesy of Alexa Cohen 18: Images sourced from Instagram and Pinterest 19-24: Images are courtesy of Ruby Buddymeyer and www.cosmopolitan.com 25-27: Images photographed by Sylvie Rosokoff, sourced from Instagram 28-34: Images are courtesy of Hannah Orenstein, Instagram and www.elitedaily.com 35: Images sourced from Pinterest and Instagram 36: Image is courtesy of Hannah Wiser 37: Image photographed by Sharon Morgenstern 38-41: Images are courtesy of Hannah Wiser and the Womaze app 42: Images sourced from Pinterest and Instagram 43-49: Images are courtesy of Candice Peterkin and Instagram