Evans launches ‘little side hustle’ business with daughter
‘I’m not planning on leaving, but it’s nice to have something different. It fires up a different part of my brain, a different part of my spirit,’ Evans says
Kellie Rasberry Evans, who joined the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show on 106.1 KISS FM 25 years ago, has no intention of leaving her job in radio. But she’s starting a business called Emma Kelly & Me, selling clothing she and her teen-aged daughter Emma Kelly hand pick.
“It’s a litle side hustle,” Rasberry says.
“I have no intention of quiting radio, but I’ve done radio since I was 19 years old. I’m 52 now,” she says. “I’m not planning on leaving, but it’s nice to have something different. It fires up a different part of my brain, a different part of my spirit.”
Her website, emmakellyandme.com, features about 10 pieces in her fall collection since it launched on Thursday, Oct. 17. Rasberry is starting small, with handbags and womens garments, before she expands the line to pre-teen clothing and plus-sized clothing. Rasberry says owning a business with her daughter allows her to, first of all, go shopping as a job. And second, it’s become a way to connect with Emma Kelly, 13, who doesn’t always want to hang out with mom — even though her mom’s a very famous mom.
“We don’t hang out a lot, and this has made us hang out and talk more,” Emma Kelly says.
Rasberry is more candid. In the past few years, she’d “bring home bags of clothes — and beg (Emma Kelly) to try them on.” Now, Emma Kelly enjoys shopping, and it’s become a hobby they can share. “Raising a teenage girl, it’s hard to find things to do together _ that she actually wants to be with me,” Rasberry says. “To have a business together where she wants to hang out with me, that’s the icing on the cake... And I want her to learn the value of money and learn how business works. And how to dress her age.” That’s part of the challenge for Rasberry and her daughter: When they add pre-teen clothing, Rasberry wants to sell age-appropriate clothing for young women. It’s harder to find than you’d think, the radio host says. “For my niece’s wedding this summer, trying to find an appropriate dress (for Emma Kelly) was a nightmare,” Rasberry says. “Everything’s so sexualized and inappropriate for her age. I know those clothes are out there but was having a lot of difficulty finding them.
“Our vision is to start (with women’s clothing) and add age-appropriate clothing for young ladies.”
If the website seems heavy on purses right now, that’s because the company started because of the “perfect” animal-print clutch that Rasberry spent years hunting for. She finally found one by Parker and Hyde _ but she contacted the owner to ask if she could make some changes to the bag. Eventually, she decided that her many fans might want to buy the newly-designed clutch she’d come to love. Rasberry has owned the website emmakellyandme.com for more than a decade, saving it for the right moment, whenever that came along. She considered opening a single mom support website, but that never came to fruition. Neither did the idea to launch a business serving home-cooked meals. The final idea fell into place in 2019 as an e-commerce site selling garments for $100 or less.