Zoe Damacela’s Entrepreneurial Spirit
By: Northwestern Business Review
Tags: Blog, Careers, Featured

By 7 A.M. on a typical weekday, Zoe Damacela is already taking pictures of garments, looking over legal and tax documents, and updating the website for her self-named custom fashion design business she operates out of her Plex dorm room, Zoe Damacela Apparel. Her days end as late as 1 or 2 A.M. after a full line-up of classes, homework, press interviews, fashion events and afterparties.

Damacela’s schedule, at its busiest, amounts to a 19-hour day. Five hours later, she is ready to do it all again.

“Business came naturally for me,” said Damacela. “I was always selling things my whole life and my business ventures expanded little by little.”

Damacela, who started her first business venture at the age of eight, is a sophomore who doubles as an entrepreneur and fashion designer with aspirations to create an internationally recognized clothing brand. Damacela already has some impressive feats to her name: keynote speaker for President Obama’s Start-Up America Initiative, a cover article in the October 2011 issue of Seventeen magazine and mentorship by model and media personality, Tyra Banks. Her popular custom-made dresses sell for as much as $300; more detailed items such as wedding dresses can net as much as $3000.

It is Damacela’s entrepreneurial spirit that perhaps best accounts for her many impressive accomplishments. She is quick to point out her appreciation for the power of entrepreneurship, affirmed by her commitment to spreading its message beyond her own business ventures. Damacela is involved in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, where she speaks with people in low-income communities about the importance of starting entrepreneurial businesses.

Her experience as a keynote speaker for President Obama’s Start-Up America Initiative as an 18-year-old illustrated the accessibility of starting one’s own business, Damacela said.

“It was refreshing to have an 18-year-old teenage girl give (her) perspective on entrepreneurship,” said Damacela. “It goes to show how accessible it is, you don’t have to be a middle-aged guy to became an entrepreneur.”

“I’ve been an entrepreneur since the third grade.” Damacela added. “Entrepreneurship is so important because you don’t need any prior knowledge, experience or training to get started.”

Damacela started her fashion apparel line as a high school student at Whitney Young High School in Chicago with profits from her previous business ventures. Since then, Damacela’s business has taken off. Initially a self-run business to make clothes for her friends, Damacela said that her clothing business now includes a board of officers including her mother, Farah, who serves as Vice President, as well as a number of manufacturers and various interns.

The expansion in Damacela’s business has led to no shortage of attention.

In early November, Damacela was featured in Latino Fashion Week, an event that showcases designers every year in Chicago. Damacela showcased a 14-piece collection at the five-day event and received an award. In September, Damacela completed a fashion show for Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. And she is in high demand as an event speaker; Damacela recently gave a talk for the popular TED speaker series.

But Damacela’s business ventures have not been without difficulty.

“The most challenging thing is being taken seriously,” she said. “At a recent event where I was a speaker, everyone would come up to my mom and ask if she was Zoe. It goes to show that people still don’t take me seriously.”

Damacela may not have the name-recognition she deserves as a fashion designer and business owner, but they have not affected her future ambitions.

“I am going to try to sell more things online, which brings in more of a profit,” Damacela said. “I definitely plan on attending business school, launching internationally and getting more into children’s clothing and accessories.”

Photo Credit: Zoe Damacela