Conversations with the Inspiring Brooke Alderman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Alderman.

Brooke, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have loved fashion since I was a little girl, so naturally, I grew up to be an Industrial and Systems Engineer (ha!). I love my job, but I sit behind a computer and am in meetings all day, every day. I was looking for a creative outlet to express my love for fashion, fitness and all things “girlie” and incorporate my passion for mentoring and empowering women. I made it my New Year’s resolution to start a blog – so I bought my domain, www.smilesandstripes.com, on January first and jumped right in! My goal is to help women look and feel their best in stylish, affordable fashion.

Has it been a smooth road?
Having a full-time job in addition to focusing on growing my blog can make work-life balance tough. It makes for working long hours and every single weekend, but through hard work and the support from my family and friends, my blog continues to grow each month!

In addition, it is very easy to get discouraged in this industry by comparing yourself to other bloggers – their number of followers, their awesome collaborations, their extremely high engagement, etc. My advice to other women starting their journey in this industry is to stop focusing on others and start focusing on yourself and building your brand authentically.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into smiles & stripes story. Tell us more about the business.
smiles & stripes is a blog focused on fashion, fitness, lifestyle, and travel. I specialize in fashion for the modern woman, especially looks that can take you from work to weekend. I love sharing closet staples and showing my followers how to style those items many different ways. I leverage the rewardStyle platform to allow my followers to shop all of my looks with the click of a button from my blog, Instagram, and/or Facebook page. I have had the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing brands and woman-owned businesses, such as LOFT, Bare Wax Studio, FRE Skincare, Harper & Jewels, LIVELY, and many more!

For good reason, society often focuses more on the problems rather than the opportunities that exist, because the problems need to be solved. However, we’d probably also benefit from looking for and recognizing the opportunities that women are better positioned to capitalize on. Have you discovered such opportunities?
I am a firm believer that women can be anything they put their minds to – engineers, CEOs, business owners, etc. I am passionate about mentoring other women and empowering them to meet their highest potential. I hope that my blog encourages other women to step outside of their comfort zone and follow their dreams.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smilesandstripes.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smilesandstripes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smilesandstripesblog/

Image Credit:
Elizabeth Mitchler Photography

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.