"I didn’t really have a friend group and was very alienated," McFadden says. "Until you find people who pick you up and make you feel good about yourself, it’s better to ride solo." In lieu of those mates, she found fashion. "Clothes definitely changed my life. I always had clothes when I didn’t even have friends or anyone to rely on," she tells Howard. "I would go to the thrift store and find something I loved when I didn’t have anyone to relate to in my real life." It’s an age-old tale: the misfit kid seeking solace in the musty embrace of the thrift store or spinning themselves a new identity on a sewing machine. There’s a rich seam of these adorable fashion nerds running through popular culture. Think of Andie in Pretty in Pink, pining for Blane in her granny blouses and upcycled prom dress; Enid in Ghost World, with her comic book T-shirt and kitschy barrettes; and The Baby-Sitters Club's Claudia Kishi, with her homemade parrot earrings. And me in the mid '00s, cripplingly self-conscious in so many ways yet determined to rock up to sixth form in a pillbox hat with a veil.