When I decided to open a shop, I was stumped coming up with a name. My husband suggested Pretty Girl Crochet, because he calls me pretty girl. I didn’t like that because it just felt weird. We call our rescue dog, Gilly, pretty girl, too. I liked the idea of naming my shop after her and making her my mascot. So, PGC was formalized.
However, it morphed into more than a cute name and mascot. A few years ago, I had a growth mindset. I wanted who I am to matter more than what I look like. As someone who struggled with self-esteem my whole life, this was a huge shift in how I approached things. It changed my attitude and choices about food and movement. I wanted my decision to eat well and be healthy to originate from caring for my body, not from a negative place. Wanting to be a certain size or look a certain way didn’t drive my intentions anymore. I realized I spent a lot of wasted energy on my looks and not enough time focusing on things that truly matter. I decided to be more intentional with my time and actions.
I started to focus and think about who I am as a person. Am I quick to forgive? Quick to apologize? Quick to bend? No. Am I kind, trustworthy, compassionate, patient? Sometimes, but not nearly enough.
So I decided I wanted to be pretty from the inside out. The outside doesn’t matter as much as the inside. Valuing a person for who they are — and not for what they look like — I’ve always been good at doing that with others, but not myself. So I started to focus on the things I liked about myself and the things I didn’t. I honed in on the good. Tried to clean up the not-so-good stuff. It's been a slow and steady progression. That’s ok. Life’s a marathon, not a sprint.
I’m glad to say that while I haven’t reached a certain, idealized size, I’m probably the healthiest I’ve ever been. I exercise more consistently, and my diet is more balanced; and there is nothing punitive about my approach to either. I sleep better, and my mental and emotional health is the best it’s ever been. There’s a real peace in just accepting myself, but still working on my goals.
I should add that being on social media wasn’t very helpful to my fragile self-esteem. Part of why I wanted to start crocheting was to give myself a productive skill I could practice that would take me away from the mindless habit of scrolling. It’s a time suck, and not very edifying (at least, not for me). Plus, I have a love-hate relationship with social media (but that’s for another post).
In the end, it was a typo that made it pretty girls crochet. But, I decided to leave it as is. I didn't mean--pretty girls crochet. As in, girls who crochet are pretty (verb). I didn't mean pretty girl's crochet (possesive). It might not make sense to you, but here was my thinking about my s-typo:
I make pretty (crocheted) things for girls (Pretty girl's or girls' crochet)
Aren't all girls pretty? Yes, yes they are (Pretty girls)
I make pretty crocheted things for girls, and all girls are pretty.
So, I left the typo. Plus, I thought it just sounded cute, and the name was available. And that was that.
Here's the original Pretty Girl, Berta, teaching another pretty girl, Ericka, to crochet.
