Finding the
PERFECT Fit STORY & PHOTOS BY COURTNEY WARREN
Do you ever wonder what your childhood would have been like if you had grown up with a cell phone in your hand? My birthday this year announced to the world that I don’t fall into either Gen Y or Z. The side ponytail is another clue. Nope, instead, I grew up using one of those enormous camcorders you had to rest on your shoulder. Remember those? The kind that filmed on big video tapes you played back on a VCR? (The Millennials are scratching their heads.) But I was connected to that apparatus like my 13-year old is now connected to Youtube. Because with it, I created my own TV network where I was the star, anchor, talk show host, and commercial pitch man. Today they’d say I was “creating content” and a stage mom would submit me to be the next internet sensation. But back then, when my middle school friends and I acted out commercials that looked more like blooper reels, we just had a million laughs doing it. Those silly times are some of my fondest memories. Being on camera has always been in my blood. It might be because, when I was a kid, my dad wrote a bestselling memoir which
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led him to guest spots on talk shows like Oprah (when she had big hair) and Donahue (remember him)? More than that, though, I think it’s because I have always been able to relate to people and make them laugh, and I feel at home when I can connect with folks in a way that reaches them. But when I got the first call from a national TV network asking to make a show about me and my interior design work, I actually was so shocked I had to sit down right where I was. My legs felt like Jello. (This was a tad awkward as I happened to be in the Waxahachie city hall at the time and suddenly I’m just sitting on the floor outside an office, huddled by the water fountain.) I really couldn’t begin to process that this dream of mine might really have a long shot of coming true. I was thrilled to have a chance to walk through the door to my lifelong dream (right after I got up off the floor)!
