Q+A with Entrepreneur Adriane Young

Adriane Young is an entrepreneur who is passionate about empowering women and making sure they realize their self worth. She decided to share her messages of confidence and empowerment through a fashion line called Pretty Being. While her business is fairly new, she has big hopes for it. She recently stopped by the PATTERN office to talk more about her experiences, and she shared her contagious positivity in the process.

JB: What’s your background? How did you become an entrepreneur?
AY: I’m originally from New York, that’s my background. I’ve always had a passion for fashion and people, so part of creating Pretty Being and becoming an entrepreneur was that I was always defined by what other people thought about me. Words are powerful. When used positively they can help and heal, but when used negatively they can hurt and harm. Before I created Pretty Being, I started to realize that words have power so why not put them on a shirt?

JB: What inspired you to create Pretty Being?
AY: Well, my mother has always been my cheerleader. She’s always saying to be brave, bold and strong. That’s actually one of the biggest slogans we have for Pretty Being. I would like to say life for me was easy and breezy but it wasn’t. I was always that girl who had to study a month or two in advance just to get a B+. I was always that girl who, if I ate too much I would pack on the pounds– I actually went to weight-loss camp when I was twelve. I ask myself now, how come I didn’t break? It’s because I’ve always had my mom speaking life into me. So with being an entrepreneur and creating Pretty Being, I wanted to speak that life into other people: children, teenagers, adult women. Anyone who’s always been told they “can’t.”

JB: How did you learn about how to start a business?
AY: It’s always been in my genes. My father owned his own practice for 30+ years, my uncle owned a taxi business, and my grandmother had

a bakery. We just love being our own bosses, probably because we don’t love being told what to do. I have a communications degree also, and I had to do some finance and accounting classes with that. I was always intrigued about how to run a business– it’s not as easy as people think it is.

JB: When did you start Pretty Being?
AY: I actually started Pretty Being in 2012, but I really started to focus on it once I moved to Indianapolis more recently. I used to have bands that said “Pretty Being: Brave, Bold and Strong.” As a supervisor, I gave them to all of my agents because they were all women. And a few years passed by from seeing and working with one of my coworkers, and she still had the same band. It was so worn out, all of the purple had gone away. I always wanted to really do this, but I was always waiting for the perfect moment. So when I saw her still wearing the band that I gave her four years ago, I thought, it’s time. If this is still impacting someone so many years later, what could it do on a bigger scale?

JB: What products do you sell on your website?
AY: We have Pretty Being hats, long sleeve and short sleeve shirts, and I’ve introduced Pretty Being journals and pens. The sky’s the limit!

JB: Your fashion line is focused on empowering women. Who are some women who inspire you?
AY: Hands down, Michelle Obama. She has this quote, “When they go low, we go high.” That resonates with me a lot. In terms of fashion, I love Tory Burch. I love what she stands for. She embraces ambitious women, which is often still frowned upon. I can work full time, start a business, be a mom, and go to law school, and people will still say “maybe you should just focus on being a mom.” She got that same feedback, and just kept going.

You can keep up with Pretty Being through Instagram or their website.