Angela Fullmer is a 39-year-old mother of 10. In March 2017, her house burned to the ground, destroying everything she owned. As the aftermath settled, she realized that, to rebuild her life, she needed to get a job and put her bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration to good use. But she had a problem. She didn’t have any clothes for a job interview. Angela sought help from an employment agency, and they referred her to Dress for Success Des Moines, which not only gave her an outfit, but also shoes, makeup, accessories, and a gas card to get to her interview. When you’re scraping by, things like shoes and gas cards feel like tiny miracles to help you get to the next place.

Dress for Success gave Angela everything she needed to pull herself from the ashes of a house fire. After she got a job, Dress for Success invited her back for an employment suiting, where she learned about the professional women’s group. It was a monthly meeting where she could hang out with other women and learn things. She didn’t know then that it was really a sisterhood of women who would encourage her when she struggled and celebrate her successes. One of the meetings inspired Angela to start writing, but she didn’t own a computer. She found a word-processing app for her phone, using it to write her first five books. In 2019, she started teaching at a women’s prison.