A Conversation with Andrea Harrison
By Demel Baber (Poetic D)
In the African-American community, it isn’t hard to find a superwoman- a woman who does it all, managing a career and taking care of home. I happened to catch up with one of them recently, Ms. Andrea Harrison. Aside from parenting, being an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and working full-time, Andrea is the chief visionary officer of The House of Simply D.
The name of the company was inspired by Harrison’s late mother, Jacqueline Harrison . She considers the organization to be just like her “mother’s house” because it seemed to have a little bit of everything in it. The House of Simply D serves as an umbrella company to 4 subsidiaries. There’s Dres (named after Ms. Harrison herself), which is a clothing line of elegant wear suitable for formal events and as business attire. Also in the fashion department there is another clothing line called F³ that she considers to be more along the lines of urban casual wear. She was inspired to do a clothing line recalling how difficult it is to shop for someone of her build, which is tall and slender. Though the clothing line was inspired by her experience shopping for her body type, she does have something for everyone. In addition, Crazy Crafty Designs by Andrea, an invitation, scrapbooking and custom greeting card subsidiary company and Simply Publishing, which is a small publishing company that Andrea has implemented, top off the makings of The House of Simply D. Harrison’s own book was published through Simply Publishing and she looks forward to publishing the works of other writers.
Aside from the obvious, The House of Simply D is a unique and promising business because of it’s specific outreach to children who have be a victim of violent crimes and those who were just like her and her older sister- children who have lost parents to violent crimes. At the age of three, Andrea’s mother, Jacqueline Harrison was murdered. The House of Simply D has raised enough money to award its first scholarship to a child in a situation similar. It is by far the biggest event on their calendar.
In regards to working full-time, being an active member of her sorority (which does further outreach to communities on a national level) and living out her dreams, Ms. Harrison leaves her advice to doing so as a single mother. She wants single parents to know that it is possible through the power of prayer, even when it gets rough. It is safe to say that her mother is looking down from the heavens and is proud.
For more information of Andrea Harrison and The House of Simply D, please visit the website at www.thehouseofsimplyd.webs.com
No comments:
Post a Comment