For many high school students, their free time is spent doing homework, working a job, or hanging out with friends. However, for senior Brooke Miller, she spends time expanding her mask business.

Most masks can only be worn on one side, but Miller’s masks are reversible, which attracts customers to her business. She processes her orders by writing them down and then going to buy fabric. She learned how to make her masks by watching several YouTube videos online.  These videos helped her master the process she uses to sew the masks. 

She buys all of the fabric she uses for the masks at a fabric store. She sews the masks by sewing the front and back of them together, and wrapping the back side around the front side to make a loop for the earpieces. She then adds the nosepiece in the middle of the two pieces of fabric. 

“I write down a list of orders and then I pick the fabrics and cut out the patterns,” Miller said. “Then I sew them and either deliver them or they pick them up.“

Miller’s friends are really proud of what she has done. They say that she has a lot of courage and is really brave to start her own business. She has a drive to keep up with her business and keep up with all of her schoolwork. In addition to her business, she is on the varsity cheer team and has another job as a nanny. She has already sold many masks since starting her business a couple months ago. Her goal for her business was to give back to her community during these difficult times. 

“I think it’s really cool how she got this started and actually sold a lot of masks just in the beginning of starting her business,” senior Paige Fortney said. “It takes a lot of motivation and determination to keep up on something like this, so I think she is doing a really good job.”

Miller made masks for many of her friends, and she made them for members of the Millard West Cheer team. The cheerleaders were very grateful for her generosity. 

“Our cheer team was very pleased with the masks,” senior Jessica Heckart said. “It was a very easy option to stick to the covid-19 guidelines without having to order a lot of masks online for an expensive price.”

Miller plans to keep selling masks in the future. You can buy them from her by direct messaging her Instagram account, @brookes.designs__.