Glassy is Classy: The Girls With Glasses Celebrate 3 Years! (And some big news …)

The Girls With Glasses Show co-hosts Summer Bellessa and Brooke White strike a pose. Photo credit: Christianne Taylor

When inspiring television for women was headed down a spiral and “trainwreck TV” was on the upswing instead, Brooke White and Summer Bellessa joined forces to create and co-host a new kind of show with the “smart girl” in mind. A show for women that was different: refreshing, happy, uplifting, clean and with a whole lotta quirky thrown in for fun. Skeptics didn’t think there would be an audience for this type of “nice girl” entertainment. Well, they were wrong!

Three rollercoaster years later, The Girls with Glasses Show has successfully dug in their gold and glitter heels to prove their worth in a world where all the smart girls seem to be congregating these days. And what world is that? It’s like a lovely dream, actually, a world of beautiful food made in everyday kitchens, chevron stripes, elaborate Pinterest boards, typography as art, inner craftiness, inner nerdiness, vintage design, more stripes, and of course, hence the name of the show, the world of glasses and their surprisingly fashionable comeback.

“We wanted to be like the twenty-something version of Oprah meets Tina Fey meets Flight of the Concords,” explains Brooke, the smiley blonde bombshell and former top 5 American Idol finalist (season 7). And let’s not forget, we’d like to add, impeccably gorgeous style.

While the Girls are not on TV (yet!), they have totally captured and embraced the online sphere. If you follow some of the more popular lifestyle and design blogs, it’s likely that you’ve already heard of the dynamic duo. Summer, the founder and editor of ELIZA Magazine and former Ford model has already been making a name for herself online for several years among fashion and entrepreneur circles. And Brooke, well, you can’t miss her or her music. She’s everywhere from guest hosting on Good Day LA to starring and singing in a recent Hallmark Channel movie, Banner 4th of July. The two met on MySpace back when having a presence online was still new and a bit unfamiliar, especially for brands. They quickly perfected the art of growing that online presence, and ever since, have remained savvy to all new media platforms which has undoubtedly contributed to their sure and steady success over the years.

There is certainly something special and remarkably genuine about The Girls With Glasses Show. Even some of the today’s most adored brand icons who claim a similar audience of smart and stylish women, such as Kate Spade, Warby Parker and The Land of Nod, to name a few, recognize the unique energy and down-to-earth charm about the Girls with Glasses. These companies have partnered with The Girls With Glasses to help promote their themes of playfulness, creativity and style. Sweetness sells.

Probably the most exciting aspect about The Girls with Glasses Show is that as successful as they have been in three short years, they believe that they have not reached their full potential. The show is still quite young and growing. Knowing there is even more inspiring greatness to come is a powerful motivator.

The Hudsucker was lucky enough to sit down for an exclusive chat with Brooke and Summer to get some insight into what the past three years have been like and where they see the show headed next. And last, but not least, the Girls with Glasses share with us some big news located at the end of the interview.

The Hudsucker: In three years, you went from a single viral video (“I Am a Girl”) to establishing yourselves as style icons among today’s top designers, artists and other creative types. How would you describe the last few years? Has the road to get where you are now been as expected, full of surprises, or somewhere in the middle?

Brooke: Oh wow, the last three years have been exciting, insane, unpredictable, challenging, frustrating, fun, just always changing.

Summer: It has been a journey, and will probably always be a journey. I feel like every day we learn so much.

Brooke: I agree, the last three years have ultimately been a huge learning experience. We have really evolved from what we thought we would be and what we’re becoming. In the beginning, we knew we wanted to be on TV, to create a TV show. But we were naive, we didn’t know the ladder you would have to climb, but at the same time, that’s the beauty of starting something from scratch, those high hopes.

Summer: Yeah, we didn’t know anything about making webisodes, from what to shoot to how to make money, we had to figure things out. Also what we thought we wanted has changed, a few times. There have been lots of surprises and opportunities, even the directions that we’ve gone in wasn’t really planned.

Brooke: We ended up finding a home online, that’s where we’ve proved ourselves and found our audience and fans. Some days, you would think The Girls With Glasses Show wouldn’t have happened, Summer had her magazine, I had my music, she shot a movie, I shot a movie, she had a baby, I had a baby, she had another baby [laughs]. But we love it too much.

The Hudsucker: The Girls With Glasses Show style is so fresh, beautiful and wholesome, yet so perfectly on trend. It’s not often you see the two paired together. Where do you draw on for inspiration?

Summer: I love fashion and art. I love to watch the runway shows in NY and Paris every season, but that being said, I don’t like to follow every trend. I like to stay classic, with a bit of a surprise. I like to ask, What would Audrey wear today? She is my ultimate style icon and inspiration.

Brooke: Beautiful images and icons inspire us, we’re vintage classic paired with quirky little unexpected details, pops of color. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, it’s all about having fun doing something that feels organic and real to us. We’re just having a good time, like, think of a kid when they dress themselves, they rarely match, and it’s that kind of playfulness that influences our style. Summer is feminine, classic, soft; I have a more artsier, seventies rock and vintage vibe … put the two together and it becomes a unique blend.

The Hudsucker: When The Girls With Glasses Show first launched, glasses were not the hip and stylish accessory they are today. Instead of being kind of nerdy, wearing glasses is now associated with being cool. We think it’s safe to say your show had a hand in that transformation! So what makes glasses so cool? And how did you know three years in advance?!

Summer: We must be lucky!

Brooke: Summer and I truly thought glasses were adorable, and the idea of glasses played into the concept of a “smart girl,” and we had originally pitched The Girls With Glasses Show as the “smart girl TV show.” But it’s more than that. Wearing glasses signifies a girl who’s kind of different! Someone who has something a little more quirky or different about them. It’s beyond seeing clearly, it’s like permission to be the quirky version of themselves. Glasses are for everyone, you don’t have to have a vision problem to wear them.

Summer: I also think there is a part of society, hopefully a large part, that wants to be thoughtful about life and the world around them. It isn’t attractive to be superficial or uninformed. Glasses represent the smartest version of yourself.

The Hudsucker: The phrase “Stay Glassy” seems to be your theme. How did you come up with it, and what does it mean to you?

Summer: We had thrown it around a few times in production meetings before we really started using it.

Brooke: Well, it’s obvious that “Stay classy” was made popular by Ron Burgundy haha.

Summer: I like the tongue-in-cheek feel of it.

Brooke: At Girls With Glasses, we’re not trying to be train wreck TV or Real Housewives of yada yada. We are trying to keep it classy and be examples of ladies who keep our class intact. It’s a very intentional thing for us; it’s very important to us that we maintain a level of class and character.

The Hudsucker: Both of you became mothers in the past three years while making The Girls With Glasses Show (congratulations!!). How has having children impacted the show, whether behind the scenes, on set, or the content of the show?

Brooke: Thank you! Honestly, in my opinion, it’s always harder to work with children. You don’t have time to mess around anymore, your time is precious, so you have to use it wisely. We have to be more organized, and of course, having kids, we’re not!

Summer: I think at first, it didn’t impact the show at all. We would try to balance feeding babies between takes, and working around nap times, but it’s gotten more intense and our work load has gotten bigger, so we’ve had to find better ways to shoot.

Brooke: It gets pretty crazy on The Girls With Glasses set!

Summer: Yeah, editing around baby yells and barely saving a camera being pushed over …

Brooke: At the same time, this is what we always wanted. As crazy as it is, at least we’re together and our kids get to see their moms pursuing their talents and making the most of their potential.

Summer: In our very first meeting together at IHOP, Brooke and I talked about starting families and wanting to have a job that really supported motherhood and the hands on lifestyle that we wanted.

Brooke: Yes, we had discussed very specifically how we wanted to be moms and still have a creative outlet that supported us as mothers. Out in the business world, not a lot of people understand this and what it’s like to be a mom. We both wanted to feel supported by each other.

Summer: Who would have thought in 3 years we would have 3 babies between our two families!

The Hudsucker: When will new Girls With Glasses videos be released and where can one watch them? Do you have some big, exciting news to share with us?

Summer: Yes, we have been hard at work creating exclusive new content for uLive.com. It is our first partnership with a network. Effective today, The Girls With Glasses Show will be airing a new original series called “Kid Proof Style.” Two brand new videos are now live, called: “Fun With Family Feng Shui” and “Family-Friendly Furniture,” and we will be airing new videos every Monday and Wednesday in August!

Brooke: And as always, the best place to look at our stuff is on www.thegirlswithglasses.com. We post all of our YouTube videos there, and we publish a new blog post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Hudsucker: Thank you, ladies! It was a pleasure chatting with you. Congratulations on your first network! We are so happy for you. To watch all new videos of The Girls With Glasses Show on uLive.com, please click here.

For more Brooke and Summer, you can follow them on Instagram at @realbrookewhite and @summerbellessa. To follow The Girls With Glasses Show on Instagram, go to @thegwgshow. You can also find them on Twitter at @brookewhite and @summerbellessa and @thegwgshow.