We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Milla Rios. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Milla below.
Milla, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
The word resilience is how I would describe being able to bounce-back or building a greater tolerance towards obstacles that come your way. I would have to say resilience was learned early on when I was a child. I grew up under the poverty line with nothing where essentials, food, and clothing were scarce. Spending time in a homeless shelter as a child, I learned early on how to be resourceful and to make use out of everything that was given to me. Whether it was donations, food, or even resources, I made the effort to make it last and learned the value of making it to the next day. To this day, I remain humble of where I come from and through those experiences I have built a strong standing to who I am and whatever challenge comes my way.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My passions currently are sewing and in custom framing. I started hand-sewing when I was four years old and have since grown into using a sewing machine. One of my first jobs was working in a frame shop where I picked up the skills to frame anything from prints to more elaborate things like popular sneakers and sports material. Currently I sew creative projects that include formal fabrics, thrifted fabrics, and dresses and being able to frame anything that you want brought to life. With the skillset I have, I decided to further my education in social services. I hopefully want to be the head of creating a project where I can allow children who are facing unfortunate circumstances to be in a safe and nurturing environment for them to explore their passions and interests like I have been able to.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities I feel that have brought me here today are being open to feedback, being adaptable, and allowing yourself to fail. To know failure and to embrace it allows you to restart with a new, fresh mindset of what you could do differently and better. If you are accepting of failure, then you are open to feedback, lessons, and how to adapt for the next opportunity or project you set your mind to. With any creative passion, there are going to be projects where you absolutely fail, but that’s how you learn to become better at your craft. If it weren’t for the failed sewing projects I did, I would still be sewing crooked seams years later, haha.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Throughout this journey, I have to give my dearest friends credit for helping me develop the skills I have today. It’s one thing creating things for yourself, but having people who genuinely support you and also give you practice with constructive feedback have grown my skillset to another level. Whether it’s hemming, taking in the waist, or making their ideas come to life, it has given me opportunities to learn a new skill and grow myself into furthering my passion into a business.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: millacrios
