The Spirit Dress story is the classic tale of a "side gig" gone wild. When Mercer started the company in 2016, she was just trying to earn little extra money while in grad school FINALLY pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a children's writer. The plan was to make one batch of dresses for Longhorn fans and be done with it - hence the name Spirit Dress. But demand pushed her to add more schools and more options, and now, almost nine years later, Spirit Dress has sold over 40,000 dresses and blouses. The name remains, however - an homage to that first spirit dress that started it all.

As a matter of fact, Spirit Dress was recently named to the Longhorn 100 class of 2025, an honor that recognizes the fastest-growing University of Texas alumni-owned businesses in the world. In addition to being a graduate of the University of Texas where she studied Political Communications, Mercer has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and she was recently accepted in the Master of Letters program at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) where she'll be studying Fantasy Literature and eventually hopes to pursue her doctorate.

"Never quit dreaming. Never quit exploring. Never quit." These are the words she lives by as a woman and a mother, and she brings that same curiosity, courage, and commitment to her work at Spirit Dress every day.

Taryn joined in the Spirit Dress team in the summer of 2024 and quickly transformed the company by saving Mercer from the day-to-day management and operations gerbil wheel.

"Prior to Taryn coming on, I was working sixty to eighty hours a week, easily," Mercer remembers. "She not only took some of that off my plate, she did it with such enthusiasm and passion that it made me excited about the work again. Spirit Dress is a better company today because of this amazing woman and I'm so proud to call her my employee and my friend."

Taryn has a keen sense of detail and natural business acumen that make her perfect for her roles in inventory management and order fulfillment, but her impact will soon be expanding as she takes on customer support, as well. She's also working on a line of her own on which Mercer will be partnering. Stay tuned as we reveal more details later in 2025! In the meanwhile, expect to see way more of Taryn, aka "Mercer's angel".