Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

Jenna Lyons is in limbo, or more likely, onto something. In 2017, she departed her post as president and creative director of J. Crew, the job that

catapulted her to super style stardom at the company where she'd spent her entire working

life.

From her first job as an assistant menswear designer, Janet inched her way up for decades

before taking the lead, a role that would change her life,

or maybe more so, our lives. There, she revived and revolutionized the iconic brand originally

birthed in 1947 and emerged an icon herself. Jenna and her label became a visually

synonymous power duo. She was, as New York Magazine put it, the J and J crew.

But she wasn't always.

Growing up in Southern California, Jenna was acutely shy and regularly bullied.

She suffered from a rare genetic disorder, which caused skin, scarring, hair loss, and malformed teeth.

She's openly worn dentures since childhood.

Jenna wanted nothing more than to blend into the background,

but that wasn't going to be an option.

She made her first item of clothing in a seventh grade home-med class,

a floor-length yellow skirt printed in watermelons.

When she wore it to school, everyone asked where she got it.

That was the catalyst.

She was used to people looking at her appearance, but now they saw her.

...