Peachy Keen: Southeast alumna finds career, self through motherhood; opens clothing boutique in Dexter

DEXTER, Mo. — As Southeast Missouri State University alumna Grace Sammarco walked across the stage in the Show Me Center in 2019 to receive her diploma, she said she never felt more lost in her life.

Sammarco was eight months pregnant at the time and preparing to become a young mother at the age of 22, something Sammarco said she didn't feel ready for, while also facing doubts about her career choices.

Fast forward to the present and Sammarco is preparing to open a brick-and-mortar location in Dexter for her clothing store, Peachy Keen Boutique, which features quality boho-chic clothing for the young professional woman, as well as a line for children.

Peachy Keen Boutique will host a ribbon-cutting and "sip-n-shop" event for the store's grand opening at 3 p.m. Friday at 915 W. Business 60.

Sammarco graduated from Southeast in May 2019 with a major in fashion merchandising and a minor in entrepreneurship.

Her daughter, Kennedy, was born at the end of the following June.

Sammarco said throughout her college career and overall in life, she often felt "like a mess," but upon graduating and giving birth to her daughter, those feelings intensified.

"I didn't know how to be a mom, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know if my full-time job was what I wanted to be doing — I had no idea who I was, or what I wanted to be," Sammarco said. "I just felt very lost and confused."

Sammarco said she knew she had to buckle down and make some hard decisions, probably for the first time in her life, so she could "get herself together" for Kennedy.

Sammarco said she got the itch to start her own clothing store after working as the store manager of Francesca's Collections, a nationwide clothing store formerly located in West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau.

This experience made her realize she liked managing a store, but she wanted to be the one to choose the clothes that fill it.

This led her to launch Peachy Keen Boutique online the following October at http://shoppeachykeen.com with "only a couple of sweaters and spring apparel from last season."

In addition, Sammarco introduced a line of children's clothes into her store months after opening called Peach Fuzz, which is mainly inspired by her daughter. She said she struggled to find clothing she wanted to dress Kennedy in, so she decided to create one for her.

"My life at the time reflected in my store heavily — you could just tell I didn't have it quite together, and I definitely didn't know how to run a business," Sammarco said. "After that first year is when I started to get my life together, and, as I got my life together, the brand just kind of followed."

Sammarco said she's moved away from the "quick and cheap" approach in discovering the store's brand and realizing she prefers quality over quantity, and attributes the store's success and new location to her change in mindset.

However, Sammarco said at the root of it all is her daughter — without Kennedy, that mindset wouldn't have happened, or, "at least not for a few years," she said jokingly.

"[Having a child] just completely shut my mind off to all of those crazy college years, and transitioned it into 'OK, you're a real adult, it's time to act like one,'" Sammarco said. "Kids change everything, they really do, and looking back, I would not change it for the world. God's timing is perfect, and she was exactly what I needed — Kennedy's the best thing that's ever happened to me."