Jewelry Designer Jennifer Fisher Talks Career Changes, Motherhood, and How to Face Some of Life’s Toughest Curveballs

(bright music)

I was voted in high school the girl

most likely to fly to Paris for dinner.

I was that girl.

My grandfather was a polo player

but in his spare time he was a silversmith.

He would make bolo ties and money clips

and rodeo buckles for all the cowboys out at the polo field.

At the time, it was something that I was watching him do.

I guess jewelry was in my blood.

I always loved fashion and I knew

that I wanted to do something,

I just wasn't sure where my place was.

I had a friend that worked for one of the directors

at a production company in Los Angeles.

He just so happened to be looking

for a new wardrobe stylist at the time

and I had zero experience.

I had never done anything.

And so I went in and met with him and he said,

Okay, kid I'll give you the shop

but if you F this up you're never gonna work

in this town again.

I fell into styling.

It was a complete accident how it happened.

I was so drawn to Kevin because I dated so many frogs before

It's one of these things that I even say to some

of the friends who are single, Go with the nice guy.

At the end of the day if you can be romantic

and best friends with the person at the same time,

I mean, there's really nothing better.

Kevin was the nice guy.

I found out that I had a desmoid tumor in my chest.

I went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy that they give

to girls of child-bearing age

and it actually shrunk the tumor.

I mean, there was one point that we didn't know

if I was gonna live or die.

No one would tell me what exactly it was.

Kevin actually proposed to me during this.

I knew he was the one when I came out from

the doctor's office and he was crying in the waiting room.

So, that's when I knew.

When we wanted to have a child my oncologist was like,

No way, you're not carrying a baby

because your tumor grows from estrogen.

You're gonna have to get a surrogate.

I had a surrogate that got pregnant twice

and miscarried twice.

I went through IVF and then that didn't work out.

So then we started looking into using an egg donor

and then at that point we took the summer off

and I ended up getting pregnant naturally.

After all of this, I mean, it was like years.

It's crazy that it actually happened that way.

And then Shane was born healthy.

Anyone that has a child knows how amazing that experience is

but I think especially after having gone through so much

to have that was amazing.

Shane was born and it was a huge deal to both of us

and I wanted something to wear that signified him

and represented him but no one had what I wanted.

So, I went to 47th Street and I'm like,

I'm gonna make this thing.

I want his full name on it

and I want it to look a certain way.

So, I started wearing this dog tag on this long chain

and it was like this instant conversation piece

that everyone sort of wanted to know what it was

and what it signified.

And then like,Oh, my wife, I have to get that for my wife.

Will you make me one?

It just started to snowball.

I remember I was taking orders in like a desk

in my bedroom and my husband's like,

I think that this is a business, Jenn.

You need to start focusing on this.

This could really be something.

Uma Thurman wore a necklace that I made for her

on the cover of Glamour and that started this whole frenzy

for a mom, literally selling it out of her bedroom.

It was a big deal.

(uplifting music)

I think the key to dealing with challenging times,

it's something that I learned when

I was going through the chemotherapy,

when you have news like that

and you don't know exactly what's going to happen,

it makes your re-access so many things in your life.

Everything could be taken away from you at any time.

So I think you just have to live your life while you can,

you know, and take everyday as a gift because it is.