There are no limits to the human capacity to create.

“It makes such a difference,” said Pooh, “to have someone who believes in you.”

While there have been many wise and profound words spoken by Winnie-the-Pooh (my hero), I do not think there is a statement that is more relatable to my life than this one.

Let me explain. I’m currently a fashion designer based in Los Angeles. Formerly, I was in the field of political science and was conducting research on nonprofit policy and resource implementation. How’d I get into fashion, you ask? Well, during the course of my policy work, I worked with Scripps Gerontology’s Opening Minds Through Art intergenerational art program in Southern Ohio, which demonstrated the capacity of art and how it affects people who have dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other neurocognitive disorders. Essentially, people of all ages would participate in art classes with these adults living with these neurocognitive disorders for artmaking. It was during this time in which I truly saw the magnitude and strength of art. Using paint brushes, paper and scissors, and even household items for some of the activities, I became an active researcher and saw how the wellbeing of these artists—adults living in retirement communities and assisted living facilities—began to flourish. Some of the participants would start to remember their past or would start to feel their arthritis dissipating or would get into “flow” and their anxieties would calm down. I saw how art profoundly impacts a person’s life—even at the late stages of a life!

I had a very personal connection with one artist, who taught me a lot about life. Since my time working with her, she has passed away but will always hold an incredibly special place in my heart (I even still have a painting she made hanging up in my bedroom here in Los Angeles). My experiences with this woman changed my life and began to change the ways in which I think about the world. I knew I had to do something art-related for the rest of my life—something that could be grounded in an ethical approach to artmaking and could hopefully transform a person’s life for the better. I asked myself, “How can I create more social impact in the world? How can I affect everyone through art?” When thinking of an art form that exists in everyone’s life, I found the answer all around me: fashion.

To me, fashion is a form of expression and communication; it is architecture, design, and movement juxtaposed in political, social, and cultural contexts. There’s history and culture in clothing—literally woven into each item. I debated if switching careers would be wise. Conflicted and confused, I continued to tell myself, “I’d rather risk it than regret it.” With one suitcase and a backpack, I flew across the country from Southern Ohio to Southern California to write a new chapter in my life and pursue fashion design.

But remember what I said? I was in the field of political science, not fashion design! Maybe some would call my decision to move across the country a stupid or reckless one. Maybe some would call it an adventurous one. I simply call it the best decision of my life. Without any prior design experience (if you asked me how to sew a button back onto a pair of pants at that point in my life, I’d probably mess it all up.), I enrolled in fashion school. I’ll save some of the details, but enrolling in fashion school was fantastic. I learned a lot about design (I would have never known that there was a difference between fabric scissors and paper scissors!) and saw doors open for me. I had opportunities to showcase my personal fashion collections all over the United States. I was also featured on the Project Runway Remake It Work Contest as the Grand Prize Winner in 2016 and was named the Young Fashion Designer of the Year in 2018.

After graduating from fashion school, I was looking for work and stumbled upon a very special place. I currently work at New Village Girls Academy, an all-girls independent public charter high school in Los Angeles, whose population consists of girls who typically have high academic and social-emotional needs due to their experiencing trauma, such as homelessness, human trafficking, gang violence, incarceration, domestic abuse, rape, and substance abuse. Here, I’m the Enrichment Programs and Resource Coordinator and am the fashion design and art mentor. While working at New Village Girls Academy for the past several years, I have since learned that there is a much greater connection between the fields of political science and fashion design. You see, political science is, at its core, the study of people, and fashion design is a form of communication, connection, and community among people.

At New Village Girls Academy, I lead an arts enrichment program and a fashion program, where I have designed a space where girls’ imaginations are fostered and where they can create without judgment. I truly believe in the importance of creativity and art as forms of expression and as vehicles and catalysts for empathy. In my programs, discussions on social inequities take center stage. In the arts enrichment program, students and I paint murals across campus, create sculptures, and have even made a music video. In the fashion program, I teach my students technical and kinetic skills, such as sewing, pattern drafting, and draping. We put on events and do our own fashion shows, where the students design, create, and sometimes model the outfits! Through fashion, these students also learn about non-cognitive competencies and social-emotional learning, such as vulnerability, gratitude, empathy, mental flexibility, and being soft in a hardened world. One student has stated that my programs have saved her life. Another student, Rebecca, wrote in her journal that I have taught her how to love herself and continued to write:

"I’ve always felt like you and I are like the sun and the moon. You’re the sun and I’m the moon. Like, both we rise and set but without the sun, the moon can’t shine and that’s what you are to me, Kyle...a light in my life."

Rebecca now owns her own e-commerce fashion business and is kicking some major butt if you ask me! All my students and mentees have completely changed my life and have honestly become very good friends, but I want to talk about one student in particular.

I met Berenice in the spring of 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was referred to me by an outside agency so I could tell her more about the programming at New Village Girls Academy. I learned that she had been out of school for about a year already and was essentially a student who fell through the cracks in the public school system. At first, she was incredibly shy but slowly opened up. While video chatting with her and her family, I learned about the struggles she had gone through but also learned about how passionate and curious she is. She showed me some of her paintings that she made and said that Bob Ross was her hero. To think! A teenage girl citing Bob Ross (or as she called him, “The painter with the big hair”) as her personal hero! Obviously, she was going to get along with me, a 20-something year-old who calls a fictitious bear with a love for honey his own hero.

Berenice enrolled at New Village Girls Academy for the 2020-2021 school year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Village Girls Academy was conducting virtual instruction through Zoom and other computer-based applications. Berenice, for the first time in over a whole year, started attending class. Not only was she attending class, but she was participating, thriving, and questioning the world around her. Although I had only met her through a computer screen at this point, I saw the brilliance and the passion and the pure excellence that she possessed. I would think to myself, “How could anyone not love this girl?” She was placed in my advisory class, where she developed a semester-long research question surrounding how an artist dips her brush into her soul to reveal her inner essence. This young girl, who so many other educators, teachers, and mentors ignored, consistently challenges my way of thinking and has truly shown me that there are no limits to the human capacity to create. Berenice enrolled in my fashion program, and I was left speechless at her talent. I knew she was an incredibly talented painter, but Berenice proved to be an incredible fashion designer, too. After one semester, Berenice learned that she was the artist who has now revealed her inner essence to the world through the things she has created.

Even during a pandemic and through virtual learning, I saw how talented Berenice was. She was eager to learn more about design and fashion and art. So, I purchased Berenice her own sewing machine and her own pair of fabric scissors. To see the shy young girl I met in April 2020 making friends and making art, has been amazing. To teach her how to pattern draft, sew, drape and cut fabric, and become more of the artist that she is destined to be has been one of the biggest honors of my life.

Over the past few months, we have finally been allowed to teach in the classroom (students had the choice of returning to the physical classroom or staying in the virtual classroom, and when we were in-person, we were using proper protocol and using proper PPE, of course). At first, Berenice was hesitant to return and wanted to stay on Zoom. But when she heard that we could finally have fashion class in-person, she showed up. April 30, 2021 was an incredibly emotional day for me. That was Berenice’s first time stepping into a classroom in over TWO YEARS. And she did it because she wanted to go to fashion class in-person.

Twice a week, Berenice, the other students, and I would create our own sewing patterns (each of them was also custom-made for each student’s measurements), cut out fabric, and sew away. With only a few weeks left in the semester, Berenice made jewelry, cut and sewed her own clothes (you should see the pants she makes!), and never failed to put a smile on my face. This little girl, who went through more struggles than most people can ever imagine, has changed my whole life. Berenice, even outside of class, video calls me to ask questions about how she should create new sewing patterns, how to cut out certain fabrics (dang, charmeuse!), and what designs she should make for our upcoming fashion show.

I asked Berenice how my fashion and art programs have impacted her. She stated, “I feel, like, such gratitude for knowing you. For the longest time, I’ve needed someone like you in my life.” Without a doubt, this girl inspires me. She’s consistently creating her own garments and accessories, challenging me to think larger-than-life, and has truly become one of my closest friends. Berenice embodies empathy and compassion, and I am forever thankful that I am able to share my craft with her.

Working with Berenice and my other mentees has been monumental. Thinking back on my life, when I was in political science and was working with Scripps Gerontology, I saw how art transformed a person who was at the late stages of her life. Now, I get to see how art has transformed Berenice—a girl whose life has only just begun.

Pooh is right—it makes such a difference to have someone who believes in you. However, from my experiences with Berenice, I know that it also makes such a difference to have someone who you can believe in.