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FEBRUARY 21, 2022
Covered California will help FEATURE
When school returned in person, Sky Haarsma’s parents said she could keep learning online — under the condition she start a business. So, she founded the fashion website The It Girl Guide. Photo by Chris Mortenson
Through her Lookbooks, Sky Haarsma shows teens how to dress in the morning with the latest clothes and accessories she discovers. Outside of her Lookbooks, she shares her favorite haunts.
Photo by Chris Mortenson
DTLA native creates fashion guide for girls By Annika Tomlin LA Downtown News Staff Writer While classes returned in person as the pandemic numbers decreased, Sky Haarsma took a different path. She created her fashion website, The It Girl Guide. “Since the first day of online school, I loved it and I knew I would love it,” Haarsma said. “I was never a school person. I always got the grades, but I was kind of like a floater when it came to people, so I loved doing online school.” After the Downtown LA native was notified that Beckman High School was returning to in-person learning, Haarsma spoke to her parents about staying online. They agreed under one condition — she start her own business. “I loved clothes, I loved to model, and I loved putting together outfits and helping people get dressed,” she said. “I just took everything in my brain and was like, ‘I want to make something out of this. I want it to be really curated to what I think is cool, because I want my business to be something I love.’ I just took everything that I liked and threw it onto a website and called it my business.” Thus, The It Girl Guide, or TIGG, was born.
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“I think an ‘it girl’ is someone who has fun, is down to earth, and they are themselves,” she said. “They are confident in what they like, and they are confident in who they are. If I saw that in a person, I would be like, ‘Oh, yeah, she’s an it girl.’” Haarsma’s online Lookbooks shows fellow teens how to dress in the morning with the latest clothes and accessories she discovers, often worn by her idols Bella Hadid and Gisele Bundchen. “I like to think of the Lookbooks as a virtual styling tool,” the high school junior said. “Being a teenage girl, I’m always on social media and Pinterest and Instagram. “I would always see such cute outfits and then when I would go and wake up and be like, ‘Well, what do I wear?’ and I would (tell myself ), ‘Come on, use your brain, think of all the clothes you see.’” She added that she was pleased she wasn’t the only one left wondering what to wear in the morning. “(My website) is basically a place where you can go and say, ‘Oh, this is what I should wear,’” Haarsma said. “It helps girls get dressed in the morning, but then it also has links on where you can purchase everything, because that was something so important to me. I’m always finding on Pinterest or Instagram these cute outfits and then I would
be like, ‘Where is this shirt from?’” While searching for clothing, Haarsma keeps one eye on price and two eyes on attitude. Outside of her Lookbooks, she shares her favorite haunts, such as the best bagel location in New York City (Timothée Chalamet’s favorite place), or drops occasional recipes, like how to improve the classic hot chocolate (swap chocolate for coffee). While building her site felt like a dream come true, she said it was a process to say, “OK, it’s live.” “I think the hardest part was honestly just putting myself out there and telling people, ‘This is what I’m doing,’” Haarsma said. “I’m still a young girl, I’ve never done anything like this, and I was nervous just to be like, ‘Here is my work.’” With the help of her dad, PJ, and her family and friends, she created her website easily. “Because I put so much of me into the website, it’s hard because when people look at it, they are looking at me,” Haarsma said. “It’s like I’m standing there naked on a website.”
Once the site went live, she embraced the positive comments she received about her site. “I think my favorite part is having a place to just talk about things that make me happy,” she said. “I have a place to talk about what Bella Hadid wore to a party or a place to say this is a really cute shirt and you all should get it. “Honestly, whenever I write an article or put up a Lookbook, it just makes me so happy, because I feel like I’m doing what I love and I’m helping other girls.” She recently introduced TIGG tote bags. Beyond that, Haarsma aspires work in the fashion industry. “I want to go to NYU for business or FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), both schools in New York,” she said about her post-high school plans. “The It Girl Guide lets me look at all different sides of the industry from photography, design and styling — all that jazz. “I don’t have a specific goal of what I want to do, I just hope that I am able to put myself out there and honestly see where it takes me.”
The It Girl Guide theitgirlguide.com