<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"I've always had a very entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a kid in Denver, I lived a block away from a venue that held a big art festival where they sold water for $5. I thought, That's crazy\u2014and I had my parents take me to Costco so I could get cases of bottled water and sell it for less. I can't even tell you how much money I made.\n\nI like to think that my interest in fashion came from both of my parents. My mom owned a jewelry store for about 25 years, and my dad always loved getting dressed up. He was a lawyer and was known for wearing brightly colored bow ties in court\u2014it was his signature thing.\n\nWhen I was nine, I started a handbag business. I sold bags to all my mom's friends and would go to the trade shows with her. I loved it. When I wasn't doing that, I was interning for a local boutique and for the nonprofit organization Dress for Success.\n\nIn May 2008, between my freshman and sophomore years of college at the University of Arizona, my dad had an accident. He was helping his cousin move furniture on a balcony, and he fell fifteen feet to the ground. The fall did a lot of damage to his body, specifically to his heart and lungs. He was helicoptered to one of the best trauma hospitals in Denver, thanks to Flight for Life, and was put in the intensive care unit. It was a three-month struggle. When one problem got better, something else popped up.\n\nI had just been offered a summer internship at Chanel's corporate offices in New York City doing visual merchandizing\u2014and I was close to not going. The day before I was supposed to fly out, I told my father, \"Dad, I don't want to leave,\" but he whispered, \"Go, go.\" I came back to visit him in July, and then when I came home in August, I spent a few days with him before returning to school, where I was majoring in retail and consumer sciences. I didn't want to leave again, but he told me that \"of course\" I had to go. Four days after I got to school, he died.\n\nI've heard about people who've had a parent pass away, and they took a semester off. I can totally understand that\u2014I just knew that wasn't for me. Instead, I took 25 credits because I needed to channel my energy into something else. I started working on some fashion projects too.\n\nOne weekend, I was home visiting my mom, and I told her, \"I have this idea to put charms on scarves.\" When I showed her the first one I created, she said, \"Wow! This is pretty cute.\" I made one for a friend, and we both started wearing them. Everyone in my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, noticed them and was like, \"What are these scarves?\" During the spring semester of 2009, I slowly began making more of them and decided to call the line Donni Charm. My dad's name was Donald (his close friends called him Donny\u2014I changed the y to an i to be fun), and he always called me his \"charm.\" The brand's trademark symbol is a wing, which represents an angel watching over you\u2014protection.\n\nI put all of my energy into Donni Charm, which felt really good. It was a coping mechanism for me, a happy accident. I had been making the scarves by hand, but in July 2009, I started interviewing manufacturers. In August, the line went into full production, and we launched a website. Everything happened very quickly. It was difficult to find a balance between Donni Charm and school\u2014I was working on the business for 30 hours a week while keeping up a full course load. I drank a lot of coffee. Now our distribution reaches throughout the U.S. and Canada and as far as Japan, Korea, and Israel.\n\nThe foundation of the brand will always be our scarves, but we've also done bracelets, necklaces, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and T-shirts. I'm really particular with fabrics; I want everything that we sell to be something you can wear out or lounge in at home. I look for cuts that will suit a lot of people. Once I get the samples, I have ten testers with different body types try them on, so I can make sure the pieces look good on everyone.\n\nIt's surreal to see celebrities wearing the line. I remember a friend calling me up and saying, \"Us Weekly, page 27.\" I ran to the nearest grocery store and ripped open the magazine, and there was Jessica Biel wearing Donni Charm.\n\nI graduated last May, and now I'm living in New York City. In addition to focusing on Donni Charm, I'm also working as a freelance visual consultant at Chanel four days a week. It's really exciting. My goal for my brand is to expand distribution and product categories. I have ideas for tote bags, purses, bikinis, and more\u2014but for now we're just trying to introduce something new, one season at a time.\n\nTo me, the line is a great way to show girls that it doesn't matter how old you are or what you've been through\u2014you can do something great. Donni Charm is an example of turning one of the most negative experiences of my life into something really positive."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/donni-charm-alyssa-wasko>