My daughter was born, we were 2500 miles from our nearest family members, and some major shifts were happening with my employer. I had also recently gained my first exposure to male-dominated hierarchies, there was a lack of female mentors or sponsors, and I witnessed my first gender-discrimination. It started me thinking about an alternative—what about a system that is made by women for women?

1. Every week we will feature the adventures of one amazing woman. We aim to celebrate the varied and colorful roles women
play within industry and business. Experience inspirational, real stories by real women; Interested in being featured? Please
send your adventures to info@zarsmedia.com For previous adventures please click here
While life for the working woman has improved dramatically in the last 40 years, there are still plenty of challenges we face in
juggling work and family.
About Me:
I grew up in a small town and always dreamt of a life bigger than that. My parents made traveling a priority, which is how I
knew the world was so much larger than my small town. I received a degree in Business Marketing and Family and Consumer
Sciences: Clothing, Textiles, and Design. For the most part, my career path has been pretty straight. I had multiple internships
in college, the last of which led to my first job out of college, since it was the perfect fit of creativity and analytics. I worked my
way up from an Assistant Buyer to a Buyer for a division of one of the largest retailers in the USA. After a few years, I was
recruited to work for one of the largest craft & hobby companies in the USA. I continued to move up the corporate ladder,
increasing my sales volume, management responsibility, and influence. Then, life changed.
My daughter was born, we were 2500 miles from our nearest family members, and some major shifts were happening with my
employer. I had also recently gained my first exposure to male-dominated hierarchies, there was a lack of female mentors or
sponsors, and I witnessed my first gender-discrimination. It started me thinking about an alternative—what about a system that
is made by women for women?
For years I had been dreaming about developing a brand built around quality and high human and environmental standards. So,
in November, 2012, I launched rosieMADE LLC. Inspired by Rosie the Riveter, all of our products are made in the USA from
women-friendly companies. Using the power of consumer spending, we are putting money back into small businesses, local
businesses, and women-led businesses. All of the press in the world can’t change the number of women in leadership roles, the
challenges mothers face with work/life balance, or pay disparity. Since I can’t change all of corporate America, I’ll do what I
can to help women entrepreneurs in the USA can gain more power and give them a platform to support each other.
While I’m no expert, here are a few things that have made my life better—I guess I’d call them a few of my guiding principles.
Dream big. In order to achieve great things, I’ve had to dream big. I set lofty goals, but give myself credit for smaller
achievements, too.
Accurately assess skills, self, and ideas, and then respond accordingly. As a woman especially, I think it’s easy to doubt
ourselves, beat ourselves up, or lose confidence. It seems that everyone has an opinion about just about everything. Once I
learned to accurately assess myself, I can shut out the rest as just being noise. Of course I still have those days where I question
myself, but I can usually level-set back to an accurate point of view.
Adventures of Alicia Vanderschuere
Founder & CEO of rosieMADE

2. Build partnerships and treat people well. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked hard to build partnerships with vendors
and other team members. Now, I’m building partnerships with vendors, team members, bloggers, publishers and other media,
fellow entrepreneurs, and more. I always consider what value I can provide to them, and how I can help them. I always try to be
fair, ethical, and live by the golden rule. I firmly believe that karma (or whatever you’d like to call it) has a way of working out
for people who mistreat others.
Understand what’s important. With the noise (advertising, media, etc.) that surrounds our lives now, it’s even more important
to take time to assess what is valuable. If we don’t, it’s easy to think we need a new car, a bigger home, more travel, more
eating out, a better job, designer fashions and on and on. I have to remind myself of this one regularly--to stay the course
towards what we value. We value family time, a healthy lifestyle, and our faith among other things. Very little advertising
encourages our values. There has been a lot of chatter about women “having it all,” and my favorite response is that no one can
have it all, plain and simple.
Alicia Vanderschuere
Founder & CEO
rosieMADE