Welcome to my journey! Thanks for taking an interest in following me and showing your support.

Lets start from the beginning here, my name is Amrita but my family calls me “baby.” I really have no idea why, but I’m pretty sure I respond more to baby than anything else. I was born on a chilly September afternoon...well, I guess we don’t have to go that far back. Let’s fast forward to about 24 years later when I got married. That’s when my life changed in so many ways. For one, I had my first ever roommate, who was my husband, haha. But soon after I had lost my job at our local police department due to budget cuts.

I’d like to think of myself as a positive person, but I was pretty pissed when that happened, as anyone would be. I just got married, moved out on my own, and needed steady income more than ever. I live in a super small town that I’ve always wanted to get out of, so after sulking around and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to take my good ol’ unemployment check and use that to help me go back to school. My passion is fashion and beauty, so I attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco. After my 4 plus hour long commutes for 3-4 days a week for about 2 1⁄2 years, we finally got out of our little town. We moved to Oakland and everything started to come together. I was close to school, I got a full time job in this amazing industry and we were living in a super cute place in downtown Oakland.

One day, at work, I was sitting in a meeting and I was getting super hot, I could barely stay awake, and I was extremely nauseous. I was feeling sick and my sense of smell had grown by a MILLION! I could smell anything within 10348320483762 feet of me. It was seriously the worst feeling ever! I had this weird feeling that I was pregnant. I took a test, and like always, I was right! Hahaha, jk, I’m so not always right.

Forward to today, I’m a 31 year old stay at home mom. I absolutely LOVE being a mom. Mila and me were meant to be together, she’s my BFF. It’s the best job in the world, right ladies? Hahahahahaha, that makes me laugh even saying it. Don’t get me wrong, I love being able to be with my daughter and am so grateful for this opportunity, but lately, I’ve felt as though I’ve lost a sense of who I was and who I want to be. Any other mommas out there that feel that way? I know I’m so much more than just a mom. I have dreams of my own that seem so far away from me. Sometimes, when I see my husband wake up in the morning and get ready to go to work, I get a little jealous. For one, I miss dressing up and by dressing up I mean doing my hair. My daily look consists of leggings, t-shirt, and a mom bun. Being someone who loves fashion and beauty, it’s a little hard seeing the new me. Really, I’d think it would be hard for any woman, regardless of their passion or profession. Anyways, he gets to go to work, conversate with his co-workers, have lunch with them, listen to music, work and do what he loves. Don’t get me wrong, conversations with an 18 month old are super interesting but we all need a little adult interaction.

So now, I’m working on finding myself (and also losing a few baby pounds off myself, haha!) As cheesy as that sounds, I have realized that I NEED to do something that is for me, something that I have for myself, that separates me from my mom life. But, does that mean I have to choose between that and raising my daughter? Why do any of us have to choose one, right? After looking for a job for the past few months, I just can’t imagine leaving my daughter yet, mainly because day care in the bay area is extremely expensive. Why don’t more jobs offer daycare for families? And WHYYYYY is EVERYTHING in the bay area SOOO expensive?! Not all of us work in the tech industry! I’d be working to pay rent, paying my unreasonably high amount of student debt, and paying someone else more than I make to raise my daughter only to be left struggling once again and away from my little Mila all day.

After months and months of basically feeling depressed from losing who I am and stressing out about my extremely high student loans, I’ve decided I need to make a change. A change that could hopefully get us to a financially comfortable place in our lives and most importantly, get me back into what I love doing. (Drum roll please) I’ve decided to start my own line of children’s clothing called Mila James. I forgot to mention that my husband graduated from the California College of the Arts and works as an Industrial Designer who has a huge passion for fashion design. This plays a huge part in my journey. With his design skills and my business degree and passion for fashion, we’re pretty much the perfect team to start a fashion line.

This is a huge risk for us, I mean HUGE! There are so many things to consider and of course, it all comes back to money. Without money, nothing can really happen. Is this the right move for us? Will we succeed? We all have negative thoughts in our head when it comes to investing so much into something new. Is this worth it? How do we even start? I mean, really, SOOOO many things to consider. But I can say, I am extremely confident in US and what we can do with this brand and that this will finally allow me to find that balance between being a mom and the person I want to be.

I hope to find other Mompreneurs who can share their story and any advice they have. Really, I’d like to hear anyone’s thoughts and advice. As busy as it may sound, I CAN’T wait for the day that I’m juggling a business and motherhood, that’s my dream. Wait, that, and growing my business to everything I want it to be (expanding into beauty and adult clothing) AND most importantly, I want to employ mothers and provide them with free daycare. So no mom has to choose between doing what they love and raising their babies. You get free daycare, and YOU get free daycare!!! One day, ladies, one day!

I'd love to hear your story on how you started a business! Comment, share, email, however you'd like. Any helpful tips, how you got funding, what inspired you, all the fun deets. 

Be sure to follow me on Instagram,Twitter and Facebook. I’ll be sharing posts on building my business, things I like, things I don’t like, cooking, and of course, my inspiration, Mila.