The Photo I Waited Nine Years to Take.

The Idea.

Back in 2016, I was fed up. I couldn’t find a single pair of pants that fit my daughter — everything was either seven inches too short or HUGE in the waist. Out of desperation, I started making patterns out of wrapping paper and sewed her pants myself. I knew I wasn’t the only parent struggling with this. 

 

Stepping Up.

I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. It felt more like stepping up to be PTO president — nobody wants to do it, but someone had to. With my background in design and marketing, I figured it was worth trying. That’s when the name Pants for Peanuts came to me. My daughter was my little peanut, and I was on a mission to make pants for slim kids like her.

The Exchange.

The first hurdle? Photos. As a stay-at-home mom with a zero-dollar budget, I had to get scrappy. Being a graphic designer, I traded labor. I designed a logo for a portrait photographer — in exchange, she took photos of my daughter and I in her living room. The funny part? I didn’t even have real samples. 🤪 I sewed her jeans out of fabric-store denim, held together with a safety pin. 🧷 Sewing in a zipper or button was way beyond my skillset. If you look closely at those early photos, you’ll see the imperfections — but we made it work.

Launching.

After three years of trial and error, I finally launched our first batch of jeans in August 2019. I took my own product shots and started selling.

Today...

Fast forward nine years, we’ve expanded into school uniform pants, shorts, and joggers — all designed for extra slim kids. Now, we shoot all our product shots at a professional studio. Just this month, we photographed our new slim-fit wide leg jeans and forest green joggers.

Seizing the Moment

The night before that shoot, as I tucked my daughter into bed, I told her it might be her last time modeling—she’s about to outgrow our biggest size. We both paused, realizing how full circle it all felt. She immediately said: “We should take a new mother-daughter photo for the website tomorrow!”

She was right. At the eleventh hour, I scrambled to find something to wear and added it to the shot list. Until then, we’d still been using that first photo of us together—the one where her jeans were literally held up by a safety pin. For years, I put off retaking it. I told myself I’d wait until I lost ten pounds, liked my hair better or had more time. You know…all of the excuses.

That moment was a reminder: don’t wait. Take the photos. Make the memories. Live in the moment.

Moms — here's your reminder: get in the pictures too.  📸 You are part of the story. You are part of the memories — because it’s likely, you are the magic behind it all.