With Kilee Nickels Podcast: Ashley Stock of Little Miss Momma

I have such an incredible guest on the podcast this week. I am speaking with Ashley Stock of Little Miss Momma today. She has been wearing Nickel & Suede from the beginning and she is such a great advocate for our brand. We recently launched a collaboration, California Dreaming, with Ashley at Nickel & Suede that is so exciting. We designed these styles in collaboration, and they speak to her personal style and what our brand represents.

If you aren’t familiar with Little Miss Momma, Ashley is a born and raised California girl who is so true to her west coast roots. She’s a mom of three who’s been blogging for over a decade. Ashley started with a full-time career in PR and Marketing and planned to be a working mom. However, she found herself at a crossroads once she had her first child. Feeling very alone in her experience, she stumbled upon an entire community of women writing about their experiences as wives, mothers, and working women. It was there she found her outlet to share her day-to-day life with the world. Ashley saw that processing and sharing her daily life as a new mom through writing proved to be a huge outlet. As she puts it, writing helped her discover that silver lining every day.

Blogging is also where Ashely found her sense of style and that signature California casual style is the inspiration behind our collaboration. Ashley describes her style as “just me,” with an emphasis on comfort and confidence. For Ashley, her style journey has been less about being trendy and more about showing her authentic self through personal style. That style is all about comfortable, classic basics paired with whimsical accessories.

Recently, getting dressed has played a significant role in Ashley’s life after losing her three-year-old daughter, Stevie, to a rare brain tumor. She made a promise to get out of bed and get dressed every day, if not for herself but to set an example for her sons. Ashley is determined to take the grief and loss and find purpose in it, to turn it into something valuable.

“I had every excuse to stay in bed and not face the world and not face myself. Getting dressed didn’t solve everything, but it kept me moving in the right direction. It reminded my boys I was still here and reminded myself that there is still life to be lived.”

Ashley credits that honestly and willingness to be open and vulnerable with the support she experienced after a loss. Being open and sharing her life with the world in an authentic way was something Ashley struggled with in the early days of her blogging career. Twelve years later, she has seen how that willingness to be vulnerable has paid off in the incredible connection she has built with her audience.

“There is a full range of motion that comes along with sharing your life with the world. The positivity has been so much stronger than the negativity I have experienced by willing to be vulnerable,” she says. “We connect more as people, more than anything else, over pain. The relationships we value are with those we’ve been in the trenches with.”

Tune in to hear more from the incredible Ashley as we talk about life after loss, the importance of making every day brave, and more. I hope you enjoy this episode and as much I loved recording it!