My story

I grew up in Manhattan Plaza, an artistic community in Hell's Kitchen, just a stone's throw from Times Square. It was the kind of place that bred creativity and gave me a front row seat to every flavor of New York — the Uptown b-boys and girls, the hustlers on 42nd Street, the downtown hipsters, the fashion crowd, and the Upper East Side prepsters I went to high school with. From a very early age, I was tearing pages out of Vogue and becoming known for my Betsey Johnson party dresses.

After college, I did a brief stint in the corporate world — and quickly left to pursue modeling. Through modeling, I bounced all over the world and landed a spot on the fashion competition show Project Runway.

My dreams have always been big, my creative senses have always been broad, and my zest for life has always been grand. These days I'm living in Lisbon, Portugal — a long way from Hell's Kitchen but somehow exactly where I'm supposed to be.

I'm a mother, a writer, and a perennial dream catcher documenting this chapter through Stranger in Lisbon — a personal essay series and documentary project exploring reinvention, identity, and what it means to build a life in a country that doesn't know your name.