Age: 22

Education: Graduated May 2009 from Dominican University near Chicago, Magna Cum Laude, with a degree in apparel design and minors in apparel merchandising and communications.  Home-schooled and took classes at Rock Valley College.

AMY J. CORRENTI | ROCKFORDWOMAN.COM
Clothing designer Miriam Cecilia Carlson stands next to the signature piece from her spring 2009 collection, Summer Storm, on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010, in her workroom in Rockford.

Job: Fashion designer. I am launching my namesake clothing line, m.c.c.

City of residence: I split my time between Chicago and my family’s farm right outside Rockford.

Hometown: Rockford 

Family: Parents, Dr. Allan and Elizabeth Carlson; brother, Andrew; and sisters, Anna and Sarah-Eva. 

In 10 years, I see myself … Being able to balance it all. I hope to be in a loving relationship and starting my family. I also hope to have my line successfully selling across the country. 

Being a woman means … Through the ups and the downs, being able to look in the mirror and see your spirit and feel confident. That is what I aim to do when I design my dresses: Let them accent the woman and allow her inner beauty to shine through.

I define success as … Being able to pay rent and wake up smiling. Better yet, being able to fall asleep smiling, knowing that something good came of the day.

Why I admire my mother: My mother is the reason for everything I am. She was the one who stayed up long nights with me on her lap teaching me how to sew. She was the one who taught me to take in every little aspect of nature and make note of it, because you never know when it will inspire an idea or a design. She was the one who knew when to push me, and when to just let me be, knowing that I would catch up when I was ready. I feel truly blessed to be able to call her my mother.

Best advice I have received … The week before college graduation, I realized I never really said or believed that I would become a fashion designer. Throughout my four years at Dominican University, I had become a regular at my adviser’s office. Two days before graduation, I walked into her office, sat down and asked her, “Do you think I should be a designer and start my own clothing line?” She looked at me and said, “Yes, without a doubt in my mind I think you should be a fashion designer, and I think now is the time for you to go for it. You have a drive inside of you and if you don’t go after it now, you may never.” I walked out of her office, opened up my date book, wrote “graduate” on Saturday, May 2, 2009, and “start my career” on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

What I like to do for fun … I can’t get enough of being outside. In the summer I like to have picnics, go on walks, lay by the pool, take bike rides, fly kites, sit by any kind of body of water, and lay in the grass at night and wait for shooting stars. In the winter, I like to snowboard, cross-country ski and, after my fingers are numb, curl up to a warm fire.

Something I have always wanted to do or learn … I have always wanted to learn how to surf. 

My biggest achievement or proudest moment so far … My family and I were vacationing up in the northwoods of Minnesota. We discovered an abandoned mica mine, and I was inspired to make a dress out of the flakes of mica. It seemed like just a wild idea at the time, but deep down as we walked away from the mine I could envision this mineral on the runway. I spent months putting off making this dress in fear that it would fall apart before even making it. Before it was too late, I discovered a way to apply the mineral pieces to a chiffon dress and unveiled the mica dress on the runway to an amazed audience. This dress led me to be acknowledged in several fashion shows in the Chicago area, but more importantly taught me to never give up on a project.

One of my major goals is: To hold my own fashion shows every season … and to see my designs in Women’s Wear Daily. 

The best thing in my wardrobe … has to be this cropped corset that I made covered in the mineral mica. After creating my mica dress I was inspired to create a piece that was wearable and did not weigh 30 pounds but still had the “wow” factor. 

The piece of technology I can’t live without … My cell phone. 

If you know a promising young woman between ages 16 and 25 who lives in the Rock River Valley, send her name, contact information and a brief description to jpollock@rockfordwoman.com.