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Anne and I agreed to defer her session until the restrictions lifted, and I met and and her sweet 8 year old dog Ozzie the other day. She kindly allowed me to share some of her words here: 

holed up alone   hunkered down, everyone their own private idaho, the country finally begins to mourn itself. each day such a long task to finish. longer still for you, holed up alone—unaccompanied for weeks, months, how long since the world hit pause? fighting to save that one square of tissue that falls on the bathroom floor and nursing your fears of the mail, you wash your hands over and over, solo-singing the happy birthday song, wondering who’s celebrating.   sometimes you need someone else’s eyes to open your own. all you want is to be zoomed by someone, somewhere. but life online feels like wearing a wet suit when what you want is skinny dipping. one day as you carry out the trash, your neighbor tosses her greeting from another world across the street, and the lilting sound of your name in the wind and the sight of her screenless face turning to meet your eyes feels so personal it comes close, moves you to tears.   *copyright 2020 Anne Rankin*

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Carolyn Brady, Miss Maine 2019

Carolyn Brady, Miss Maine 2019- our state's first-ever African American Miss Maine- has to be one of the most motivated and active people of my acquaintance! Between her Miss Maine duties, working as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Howard C. Reiche Elementary School in Portland, teaching spin classes at Cyclebar in Portland, and practicing her violin...well, I don't know where she gets the energy! 

When Carolyn came to Maine from Philadelphia to attend Bowdoin College, she came with a lot of academic ambition and a gift for the violin, which she’d been playing since she was 5. But a suggestion from a former Miss Maine contestant who saw her playing with Bowdoin’s symphony set her on a path to pageantry and led to her becoming Miss Maine. December 2019 saw her heading to Connecticut to represent the state in the Miss America 2.0 pageant at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville (it aired on NBC).

Her long term goals are a career with the U.S. State Department, and her hope would be an assignment in China, where she spent the summer after her freshman year. “I just ended up falling in love with Chinese culture,” she says. (And also with the language, which she minored in at Bowdoin along with majoring in government and legal studies.)

2019 was a busy year for Carolyn. She graduated from Bowdoin in the spring and started teaching math and literacy at Reiche Elementary school in Portland that fall. Always one to stay busy, Carolyn often works retail jobs, participates in philanthropy work as Miss Maine- including with Catholic Charities Maine and Gateway Community Services-  and also teaches spin classes at CycleBar in Portland, where I caught up with her. Multitask much? “I am like the poster child for young America,” she says.
 

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Miss Maine 2019 - Carolyn BradyCarolyn with her Miss Maine Tiara and Sash

Carolyn Brady in athleisureCarolyn ready to teach a spin class

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Priscilla Kjellman at home

If you happened to ask me who was the most effortlessly stylish person I know, Priscilla Kjellman would be my answer. In the 10+ years we spent working together at J Crew, I can't recall a time when she didn't look pulled together. Sometimes that meant sophisticated, sometimes casual, sometimes fun - whatever she wears, it looks just right for her at that time. 

Priscilla attributes the development of her personal style to her mother, "an amazing seamstress, for fun, not as a vocation," and recalls their time spent looking over patterns and fabric choosing something that always felt unique. The sense of individuality that came from wearing something she helped design has pushed her to look at her wardrobe as a canvas she can mold to fit her needs. You can read the full interview with Priscilla in the November 2019 Maine Style. 

These days, she's pushed styling others and time at J Crew to the back burner, while she focuses on health coaching. Experience with gluten intolerances and other health issues within her family began her on this journey several years ago, and now she's taking what she's learned to the next level. A Certified Health Coach with a friendly ear, follow her journey and encouraging tips on instagram @kjellhealth207. 

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Merritt Carey_Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-opMerritt with some of the scallops from the farm she co-owns.

Merritt Carey's female Maine icon is Margaret Chase Smith, chosen for her perseverance. I think the same could be said of Merritt herself;  as a sailor on the second all-women team to compete in the Whitbread Around the World Ocean Race, who also holds a law degree, advocates for aquaculture programs in Tenants Harbor, and is a mom of three, among other accomplishments... Well, let's say that perseverance has served her well thus far! I thoroughly enjoyed my opportunity to spend part of an evening with Merritt and am so thankful of her willingness to make time for our shoot. It certainly isn't every portrait session that I take a boat to a float containing a scallop farm, but I would do it again in a heartbeat! Her full interview for MaineStyle can be read here. 
Maine Scallop Farming

Maine Farm-raised Scallops Merritt Carey_Tenant's Harbor Merritt Carey_Tenant's Harbor Merritt Carey_Tenant's Harbor Merritt Carey_Luke's Lobster Shack