adolescence Bra firm Yellowberry gets Some Grown-Up fortify

one year ago, then-18-yr-old Megan Grassell made headlines for giving up a promising snowboarding career and suspending school to launch Yellowberry, a company that makes lovely, modest, high-quality bras for preteens. Grassell bought the theory when bra purchasing with her younger sister and discovering few alternatives for young teens that weren’t overly attractive or low high quality. She raised $41,000 on Kickstarter, and was held up as a adaptation of fixing the tone of marketing lingerie to young girls.

Now the company is sizing up. The bras and target market are the identical, but after a yr of establishing its personal infrastructure, Yellowberry has partnered with Aerie, American Eagle Outfitters’ lingerie model, to market Aerie for Yellowberry, a line of bras for the “little sisters” of Aerie’s 15- to 25-12 months-previous consumers.

“The intention used to be to bridge the gap from Yellowberry to Aerie,” says Grassell. “When that girl strikes on, she comes with a stepping stone to this next company. i believe from their viewpoint, it’s an effective way to celebrate the ‘Aerie real woman’ (Aerie’s advertising marketing campaign encouraging women to ‘love the actual you’). which is one thing that’s cool at a young age.”

Aerie model president Jennifer Foyle says they fell in love with Grassell’s story, and made up our minds it used to be the best partnership to extend the logo identification. “this is the primary time we have performed a collaboration like this, focused on girls age eleven to 15,” says Foyle. “It’s undoubtedly a new market for us, however we adore speaking to all ladies with one of these certain, empowering message and introducing them to the Aerie model early. we have got an incredible quantity of certain remarks from our clients by means of social media, so we would like to continue to be able to offer merchandise and collaborations like this in the future. It’s the perfect starting for the next era of Aerie girls.”

Grassell says that despite Yellowberry’s excessive-profile launch, it took the company a excellent part of its first yr to construct the techniques to satisfy demand—she was, after all, nonetheless a highschool scholar in Jackson, Wyoming.

“We have been in our front room sitting with lots of of back orders and not enough product, just getting telephone calls, and it was once so surreal, it was so crazy,” says Grassell. “I concerned, I said, ‘Oh my god, will this continue? Or can we preserve it going?’ There have been plenty of challenges, nevertheless it has persevered, the corporate is rising.” Over the summer of 2014, Grassell’s mom joined as her companion. They discovered place of job house in Jackson and employed several of Grassell’s high school chums to fill the again orders.

Grassell says she had early pastime from department shops to carry the product, but the firm wasn’t geared up to maintain it. After securing angel investment and hiring a small body of workers, Yellowberry is now shriveled with an agency to outsource manufacturing and merchandizing. When Aerie called, it felt like the most effective next step. Aerie licenses the Yellowberry title and designs and manufactures the bras, with last design approval from Grassell and her mother. The Aerie for Yellowberry line launched in late March and can be on hand for six months, after which each events will reevaluate. meanwhile, regular Yellowberry bras are available at the company’s web site.

As for Grassell, she has relocated to the brand new York house sooner than heading to Vermont within the fall to attend Middlebury school, which she would not plan to defer once more even while the company grows. “It was a dream of mine to get in, so the fact that I nonetheless give you the chance to move is very exciting,” she says. “That being stated, i don’t imagine myself having a regular school expertise. Yellowberry definitely remains my first precedence. however i believe there is something to be said for being 19 and now not having to be around folks which might be 20 years older than you always, and having a little bit of fun expectantly.”