Why I Started Loyal & Elvie — and Better Yet, Why I’m Still Going

Spoiler: “Because I couldn’t find a good bag” was not a good enough reason.

It started out as a hyperfixation — something my brain just couldn’t let go of. So I grabbed what I could and made a rough facsimile of the bag in my head. My friends and family hyped me up, and that encouragement pushed me to take the next step: finding an agent to help me bring it to life.

Designing, dreaming, problem-solving — that part was fun. Energizing. I was already sketching the next bag before the first one even existed. And I found myself wondering: why hadn’t I done this a long time ago?

Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the rest is hard. Really, really hard. Creating something new? That’s the fun part. Sharing it with the world? That’s where it gets uncomfortable. I had no idea it would take eight months just to get the first prototype, or another five to get to the second. The waiting is torture for someone like me — someone who thrives on momentum and is easily tempted to put the “new shiny thing” down and move on.

I definitely didn’t know I’d be wading through tariffs and trade wars. Full disclosure: eight months ago I couldn’t have intelligently explained a tariff if you asked me. I didn’t realize there would be moments when the production costs looked so high it felt like a non-starter. Or that sharing this whole messy process with my community would feel so vulnerable. That it would be awkward and terrifying to text everyone in my phone asking them to follow along.

If this had only been about making a better bag, I promise you — I would’ve set this hyperfixation down half-finished a long time ago.

But as I kept going, I realized it wasn’t just about the bag anymore. It became about proving something to myself. About pushing through the uncomfortable parts and finding growth on the other side. And even that probably wouldn’t have been enough to keep me going.

Then it shifted again. I wanted to show my girls that you can do hard things. That you can sit with the uncomfortable, take an idea from your head, and turn it into reality. That you can create the job you want instead of waiting for someone else to hand it to you. And then my best friend’s daughter started asking her mom about things she wanted to create. She asked me how the bag was coming along. She was invested, too.

So why am I launching Loyal & Elvie? Yes, I wanted a better bag. Then, I wanted a better me. And now — as lofty and corny as it may sound — I want a better future for the young girls in my life.