Shareena Casterline owner of Madison Street BakeHouse
“I see it like this: In the past it was sort of as if women were handed an index card of life, sort of like a recipe card. The card included how you live and at some point, depending on your station in life, you had the choice to place it in one of the few recipe boxes: teacher, spinster, mother, wife. Fuck that index box. I always knew I wanted to write my own index card. Growing up in the foster care system there were so many stereotypes associated with me. My adoptive mother was a great teacher, but she was a baby boomer. She had certain ideas about my index card. I had to learn to sew, wear dresses. I think we never really bonded because I didn’t want that recipe card. I didn’t want to choose from the boxes she presented. In the last eight years, I’ve written my own recipe card for life.”