Foster & Fashion: Helping Foster Youth Rewrite Their Stories

By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium

Foster & Fashion, a nonprofit founded by De’Vaughnn Williams, is transforming the lives of foster youth by combining creative expression and mental wellness with opportunities in fashion. Launched in 2023 after years of development, the organization uses fashion as a tool for healing, self-discovery, and empowerment, offering youth a platform to rewrite their stories and embrace their full potential.

“[Foster & Sharion] was founded out of necessity. It is a platform using the transformative power of fashion as the medium to uplift and empower foster youth,” Williams said. “A lot of foster youth lose themselves in their attempts to be accepted by these families and just in society. There are so many changes that they adjust to, and this gives foster youth permission to find themselves in their own fashion by using our tools to find themselves, to embrace their struggles, and ultimately change their mindsets about their narrative.”

“The goal here is to bridge the gap between grassroots communities and the high fashion industry and use the power of fashion to give tools to foster youth,” added Williams.

By empowering foster youth through programs that combine mental healing with real-world opportunities in fashion and cosmetology, Foster & Fashion encourages foster youth to embrace their unique stories to reshape their futures. The organization gives foster youth a foundation of support, hope, and confidence.

“[The foundation provided by the program] really allows them to step into their full potential and embrace new possibilities for themselves, and it is so powerful how we can help change the course of someone’s life,” said Ce’Lene Sakellis, Operations Manager at Foster & Fashion.

Once a part of the foster system herself, Williams says that her life’s journey has helped shape her into who she is today. According to Williams, she and her siblings spent many years in foster care in Washington state, where they endured abuse and neglect. However, in 2006, Williams and her siblings received the largest settlement at that time from the state of Washington for the trauma they experienced while in the state foster care system.

“This isn’t every foster kid’s story, but it’s certainly mine,” said Williams. “Despite the experience, I wouldn’t be who I am without it. I believe God gives the toughest battles to those who can handle it. And I am just working with the cards that I was dealt, and I just want to be that living testimony that there is nothing that you can do about the cards that you were dealt, but if you just take hold of your mind, there are tools available to take hold of your mind and to use that for the greater good.”

After entering the world of pageants in 2016, Williams realized that she was still hiding behind the shield of her past. It was at this point that she decided to fully embrace her life, accept every part of her story, and turn it into something meaningful to the community, which led to the creation of Ebony Fashion Week.

“I founded Ebony Fashion Week in 2018 because I kept asking myself, how do I use my stories of foster youth and fashion, and embrace and share those tools with others? And that is how Foster & Fashion came about,” Williams said.

Believing in the stereotypes and stigmas associated with being a product of the foster care system, Williams didn’t believe at the time that someone with her background could run an organization like Foster & Fashion. But upon self-reflection, she realized that she was the right person to lead such an organization.

“I was terrified to start an organization,” says Williams.

“The furthest grade I went to was 11th grade, I am not college educated, and I got my GED in 2009,” added Williams. “And so, when founding Foster & Fashion, I was like, don’t I need a college degree? I didn’t do the work to be educated, but I do belong in the room because I have lived in the room, and if you are willing to do the work, you will run into people who are willing to teach you and build on from that.”

While Foster & Fashion is a quarterly event with resource fairs and classes, Ebony Fashion Week is a yearly event to celebrate foster youth by showcasing them on the runway. Williams said that Ebony Fashion Week has been a ground-shifting experience for many foster youth here in the Pacific Northwest.

“At the time [I started the organization], there weren’t many mainstream Black fashion platforms here in the PNW,” said Williams. “The launch of the fashion week was a whole big thing for us because it was nine days after Black Panther came out. We held it at the Northwest African American Museum, and we had people come from as far as New Orleans.”

Available to youth between 10 and 24, with a special focus on foster youth and those who have aged out of the system, Foster & Fashion provides youth with the ability to gain knowledge and confidence by providing them with opportunities to walk the runway and take professional photos while gaining experience modeling and styling.

“We offer financial support and different community resource fairs, where we can provide access to different resources that they might need, such as clothing, school supplies, and hair care,” says Sakellis. “We want to be opening doors that foster youth and underserved youth have not seen possible for themselves and provide opportunities that they may not typically have had access to, and I think that is a big part of Foster & Fashion.”

“We are also hoping to provide support sessions where foster youth and alumni can come together to find community and empowerment by sharing and hearing similar stories from different voices,” she added.

As someone who understands firsthand the hardships foster children endure, Williams is committed to empowering foster youth with the resources and support they need to thrive, starting by meeting them where they are.

“Foster care often leads to human trafficking, jail, the streets, and drugs,” says Williams. “If we catch our youth, meet them where they are, provide them tools, and give them examples of what is possible for foster youth, then we can cancel that plan of destruction and give them another medium to express themselves, as opposed to expressing themselves through anger or self-sabotage.”

“Fashion is relatable to everyone. We all express ourselves in some way, and that is necessary for leading into a deeper conversation,” continued Williams. “So many children die in foster care every year, and there are more than 300,000 children in the United States now who are in foster care. Not all of them have the same tragic story, but for the ones who do, we want to provide a space for support and uplifting for them. We were built out of necessity, and we are going to keep doing it.”