What I have Always Loved About the Internet

There are so many reasons I love the Internet but the one thing that has resonated with me from day one is the world wide reach has given people the ability to connect with each other who in a pre-Internet world would have never found each other.

I am not exactly sure how I first backed Angela on her first Kickstarter project but I did. Then I got an email from her telling me about her second project, and would I back it too. She now has an email of every person that backed her first project so she leveraged that list to get her second project backed immediately. Impressive! She had no idea that I had a blog, or that I am a huge supporter of female founders but sent me an email just like everyone else on her list to please support.

But this one tells a story that told me a lot more about Angela. I know her story because I spent a portion of my career in the clothing manufacturing business. I saw the young kids who sat by their Mom’s feet in the factory doing their homework. I saw them bringing their babies to work. I saw them sitting at their sewing machines eating the lunch they brought from home. I saw all these women working hard creating a new community for themselves and families in a new world. These women were (and still are) the underbelly of the manufacturing world. These women’s children usually go on to have a very different life because of their mother’s decision to make a better life for their families.

A little bit about Angela. She is obviously relentless. She grew up poor and started working at 12 years old. Before getting to Waterloo University she worked 80 hours a week to pay for that first year of college. Her family came to Canada from Hong Kong when she was a kid. Angela ruled against the men in her engineering classes and landed a top tech job in finance. It was not where her heart is. She headed to FIT and crammed a two year program into one and won the Outstanding Design Award and a finalist in the emerging Designer’s competition.

Her mother is 72 years old. She too climbed up her own ladder now owning her own factory where Angela is making sweatshirts. These are the stories I love. Kickstarter has given Angela the opportunity to spread the word and build a business without a bank or a financial angel but just hustle.

You can back the project here. The more the merrier. Please spread the word!

Comments (Archived):

  1. LE

    Angela is very cool I wish I knew women like that when I was younger. Having grown up in an immigrant family which had a small import operation and factory I can definitely relate to this. This type of practicality and effort that you have to put into things is imparted on you at a young age by both parental comments and observation of what is going on when you are working in the business which I did for years. That work formed the basis for my knowledge about so many things. Nothing is encouraged other than practicality, working hard and education at least the way I was raised. My dad actually started working an a lighting factory (and rose to manager) prior to starting his own business with my uncle after coming to this country.Here is Angela on Project Runway!https://www.youtube.com/wathttps://www.youtube.com/wat

    1. Gotham Gal

      this is so great. thanks for sending!

      1. angela sum

        Thank you!

    2. angela sum

      Thank you so much for the kind words!

  2. angela sum

    Thank you so much for sharing my project and my personal story. I’m so incredibly encouraged! And I was so dumb founded when I didn’t realize I had someone I could look up to from my first project–especially after being a mom and trying to navigate the odd untold path. This page will be booked marked and re-energize me at lower points in my creative ventures. Thank you so much for sharing this!