🌿 The Girl Next Door Who Turned Rubbish into Gold 🌿

Hi, I’m Quinn Monroe—your friendly neighborhood Renewable Materials Designer with sunshine in my heart and darker past than burnt toast. 😅 Get ready for an un-glamorous ride through my less-than-glamorous beginnings (and there most certainly will be some!) because to be fair, glamour is overrated.

Once Upon A Pile of Trash... 🗑️💔

Picture this… a scrawny 16-yeard-old Quinn rummaging through dumpsters behind fast-food chains for fabric scraps (see: leftover napkins and old t-shirts) because my family couldn’t afford real art supplies. My “studio” was a leaky garage with a light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and my inspiration was desperation. 😂

But here’s the kicker. I loved it. Every stained coffee filter, every ripped denim piece, they all said to me, You can make something beautiful out of me. And I did. While other teenagers were buying and obsessing over prom dresses, I was hand-sewing a patchwork jacket out of actual trash. (Fashion-forward? Trash-forward.)

The Breakdown Before the Breakthrough 🧵🔥

Fast forward to college: I was the “weird textile girl” with a tote bag of potential (see: more trash). Professors rolled their stickers. Classmates whispered. But then—there’s the twist—my senior project (a dress woven out of plastic bags and old bike tires) went viral. Suddenly, Vogue called me "innovative", not "crazy"...

But success didn’t replace the evenings I cried into my sewing machine out of fear that I would only ever be "the girl who plays with trash". (Spoiler alert: I am. And so are you, btw. 💖)

Why Am I Important? 🌎✨

Because I am living examples of how broken things can become masterpieces. I currently design sustainable materials for global brands (cough yes, that one eco-luxury brand you love cough), and my heart? Well, I’m still the girl-next-door garbage-digging dumpster diver who still believes in magic—and in compostable glitter. 🎨

Together, let’s make waste into wonder. (I also bake a mean vegan cookie, just saying. 🍪)

P.S. If you’ve ever felt “too much” and “not enough” at the same time—welcome home. 🌻