By Lindsay McNeish
CSU Communication Studies alumna, Mallory Sauer and her blog, Sweet & Sauer, are on the rise. After Sauer graduated from CSU, she was a fashion designer and then picked up blogging and social media consulting. Alongside her work, Sauer has also had to deal with serious health issues.
Recently featured in 303 Magazine, Sauer’s blog caught attention for breaking new ground. Sweet and Sauer started out being solely fashion, but Sauer began including more personal posts about her health. She did this as a way to potentially help other people through her own experiences.
Sauer’s health is her biggest motivator. She was recently diagnosed with cancer and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was 18. She notes there are definitely some hard days. “However, when I go back and read all the messages from people who are inspired by me sharing my story, or encouraging me to keep fighting, it makes putting all of this out into the world worth it,” Sauer recently stated in an email.
Sauer would not have been able to be as successful as she is without a strong foundation that she worked for at CSU. During Sauer’s time at CSU, she studied communications. She wanted to do something in the fashion industry like PR or Marketing. “I thought a Communication Studies Major and Fashion and Merchandising minor would be the perfect combo for what I ultimately wanted to do after graduating,” Sauer wrote.
Although Sauer thought she would work towards the business side of fashion, her first job out of college was designing colors and prints for six different private label apparel lines. She spent four years as a fashion designer then switched focuses to blogging. “My communications degree has been instrumental in that regard,” Sauer stated in an email. “I feel like I’m really using and applying things I learned at CSU.”
Dreaming big for the future, one of Sauer’s goals is to turn Sweet & Sauer into a known brand name. “Ultimately I’d love to do a collection with a big name brand– like the Sweet & Sauer collection at Nordstrom,” Sauer wrote. In addition to fashion, she would like to continue posting about her health struggles in effort to help others and help bring awareness to Crohn’s and cancer.
Sauer had a great advisor and professor within Communication Studies, Dr. Dickinson. She will never forget her first class with him, Rhetoric of Western Thought. “It completely changed the way I think and view the world,” wrote Sauer. “I really enjoyed learning from him and have a great deal of respect for him.”
Sauer leaves current Communication Studies students with some advice. “Take a class from Dr. Dickinson and really listen to what he says. Don’t wait until the last minute to write a paper or work on a project. Comm Studies is full of great classes, amazing teachers and so many things you can take and apply in the real world.” Sauer also wrote in her email, “I know studying sucks and sometimes it feels like it’s all for nothing, but the real world can be tougher and scary at times. Don’t rush through these 4 years of your life, enjoy every second of them. And eat at Spoons. A lot.”
Photos courtesy of www.sweetandsauer.com