Elishka Jepson is a local rocket scientist, and she wanted a T-shirt that said so.听
She created one for herself and then started selling the shirts online on CafePress.听
That was more than 10 years ago. Now thousands of girls nationwide (and even some in other countries) don her designs.听
The 32-year-old Raytheon engineer is also the primary designer for the online retailer , a clothing company that believes聽if you live with a future paleontologist or mathematician, she might as well dress like it.听
The beginning of awesome
Princess Awesome is the brain child of Rebecca Melsky and Eva St. Clair, both 36. Moms of six kids between them, the women started the company out of their Washington, D.C.-area homes to fill a void they saw in the kids' clothing world.听
Rebecca Melsky, left, and Eva St. Clair, right, co-founded Princess Awesome.听
"This was five years ago and Rebecca's daughter was 2 at the time and Rebecca was shopping for clothes for her daughter; getting pajamas from the boys and girls sections," says St. Clair, who grew up in Oro Valley. "She was walking past the girls section thinking, 'Why can't I buy twirly dresses with a dinosaur or rocket on them? My daughter would really love that.'"聽
She pitched the idea to St. Clair in 2013, and the women decided to go for it, stitching up the first versions of the dresses on a 1948 Singer Sewing Machine St. Clair had thrifted from the Goodwill on Fourth Avenue. St. Clair grew up sewing聽鈥 a skill she learned from her 蜜柚直播 Girl Scout troop leader. 聽
Three early versions of the Cars Busy dress, all made by St. Clair on the Fourth Avenue Singer.听
Melsky and St. Clair raided secondhand stores, cutting up boys' clothes and patching those prints to dresses to see how things would look.听
"Little girls want to wear things that are pretty and cute, so we wanted what is cute and beautiful and feminine, but also rocket ships and space and dinosaurs," St. Clair says. "It's all of those things together, and we couldn't find what we wanted in any of the prints" in traditional fabric stores and websites.听
Rocket scientist by day, graphic designer by night聽
When they started browsing , a website where users can design custom fabric, they discovered Jepson's designs.听
In 2011, Jepson had turned to Spoonflower to design tablecloths for her wedding to match the invitations.听
"I noticed there weren't a lot of math and science fabrics, and since I'm an engineer, that's appealing to me, so I started designing first chemistry-related material, with a periodic table and pi, and it kind of went from there," says Jepson, who describes herself on Spoonflower as a "rocket scientist by day, graphic designer by night." 聽
When Princess Awesome approached Jepson about using some of her designs and working on some custom fabrics, Jepson had already gone through her own reckoning with children's clothing departments.听
"I have a 3-year-old son, and we didn't find out if he was going to be a boy or a girl ahead of time, and so trying to find baby clothes that are not overly one way or the other was so much of a challenge," Jepson says. "I noticed while looking that all of the girl clothes are over the top and pink and cute, and you have a boy shirt that says, 'Future geek' or something like that, but you don't have the equivalent for girls promoting smarts and intelligence and going for more science-y careers."聽
It was a natural fit. Not to mention the random 蜜柚直播 connection.听
Princess Awesome blasts off
In February 2015, Princess Awesome went big.
The first batches of dresses handmade in the fall of 2013 on St. Clair's sewing machine had sold out fast.听
Some of the early dresses.听
To start manufacturing on a bigger scale, they needed cash. Through a campaign in February 2015, they asked for $35,000. They got $215,691.听
With Jepson on board at this point, their promised line of designs included play dresses with pi, dinosaurs, pirates and a ninja-flower combo.听
The She-Rex print is the bestseller.听
"I have yet to meet a kid who doesn't love dinosaurs," St. Clair says. "Ages 2 to 6, they just want to wear stuff with dinosaurs on it."
In the last year or so, Princess Awesome has manufactured about 15,000 pieces, St. Clair says.听
Princess Awesome sells scarves for adults, snapsuits for infants, dresses for girls and headbands for all three.听
Necessary note: The dresses are twirly and have pockets. The play dresses average around $40 a dress.听
"People have sent in comments and say people talk to their daughters differently when they're wearing our dresses," St. Clair says. "I have noticed it too when my daughter wears a dress. Usually people start a conversation and look for something the child is interested in, and usually they look at what they're wearing. Boys get, 'Oh, a rocket ship. Do you want to be an astronaut?' And girls usually get, 'What a pretty flower.'"
Bringing science and math to life
Jepson has her own parents (and a few math teachers) to thank for her continued interest in science and math. Her mom is a graphic designer with a background in chemistry, so Jepson grew up playing with the design software.听
"I've always been interested in rockets and space, and I contribute that to being a huge Trekkie when I was a kid," Jepson says. "I think my parents realized I had an inclination toward math and science, so they suggested I become an engineer because it's a good combination of that."聽
When Jepson graduated from the University of Washington's aerospace department, she says her class had the department's highest percentage of women grads in class at 25 percent.听
She moved to 蜜柚直播 in 2006 to work at Raytheon as a systems engineer in the guidance, navigation and control department. Basically she engineers the parts of a missile that tell it where to go. She also got her master's degree remotely from the University of Southern California.听
Because she received support as a kid to pursue a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career, she wants to do the same for the next generation聽鈥 both through Princess Awesome and through the .听
She runs the society's local STEM programs, including monthly Kids Clubs and outreach to schools and other groups.听
Her design work on Spoonflower and with Princess Awesome is a hobby she works on during her son's nap times and in the evenings, maybe 7-10 hours a week聽鈥 except for that time when an article from "The Guardian" linked to her featuring "Happy Pi Day" buttons.听
She sold 2,200 buttons that year and her husband got tendinitis from all of the button-making. She purchased a second sewing machine and plans to teach him some basic techniques for the 2017 holiday season. Infinity scarves are popular in her Etsy shop. 聽
In addition to her own designs, Jepson has created most of the prints you see in Princess Awesome's online store聽鈥 including the fire engine dress available for purchase starting Thursday, April 6.听
"We love her aesthetic," St. Clair says. "She brings science and math to life in a way that is feminine and beautiful and reflective of the kinds of things we want our daughters to be."聽