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Thousands of people have lost their homes in the devastating Los Angeles Fires. Many escaped with just the clothes on their backs. And for 14-year-old Avery Colvert, the thought of losing her clothes and makeup was unbearable. Colvert's school in Altadena burned, but her home did not, so she set out to help others. Reporter Robin Estrin of member station KCRW tells us how.
ROBIN ESTRIN, BYLINE: A dozen girls line up at a warehouse in East Los Angeles, outside the fire zone. Ash floats through the air. Many wear pajama bottoms or sweat pants, like 11-year-old Jasmine Navarro. She lost her house in the Eaton Fire and, she says, her Christmas presents and favorite hair oil.
JASMINE NAVARRO: It's been very sad. I've been very emotional lately, but I'm sure I'll get better.
ESTRIN: In fact, things are about to get a lot better, if only for a few hours. Inside the warehouse, Avery Colvert and a team of volunteers have created a shopping mall for the girls who've lost everything. There are rows of shoes and racks of neatly organized clothing. Tables brim with colorful earrings and beauty supplies. Everything here is brand-new, and it's all free. Avery wants it to feel like retail therapy.
AVERY COLVERT: Every girl that walks in, they get a nice tote bag, and they get a professional stylist to come and help them rebuild their wardrobe.
ESTRIN: That's right, a professional stylist. It is LA, after all. Avery got the idea for this after her home filled with smoke, and her family evacuated.
AVERY: I thought about my own room, and I thought about myself and how my clothes and the way I do my hair and my makeup is so important to my identity and my confidence. And these people, especially girls, teenage girls, they lost that piece of identity when they lost all their things.
ESTRIN: So she started the Instagram page Altadena Girls and put out a call for donations. Other organizations were collecting necessities like food and water. She wanted what a lot of teenage girls want - baggy jeans, pimple patches and curly hair products.
AVERY: And I want to be able to give it back, and they have a sense of normalcy in their lives when nothing else is normal. And I want them to walk out feeling confident again.
ESTRIN: Avery's idea took off. Boxes of clothes from trendy brands poured in. Charli XCX sent bags of beauty products. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, volunteered as a stylist, and so have dozens of Hollywood producers and LA fashion industry professionals. Ruby Birns is one of them. She wears all black and a headset that connects to the team sorting all those donations in the back. She quotes a post she saw on Instagram.
RUBY BIRNS: Of course in a city with a million production coordinators, did you think that the response to this disaster was going to be [expletive]? Of course not.
ESTRIN: The warehouse buzzes with stylists helping girls choose outfits. CJ Rakow asks 12-year-old Agnes MacLean about her aesthetic.
AGNES MACLEAN: Kind of like a - like a tomboy, kind of like skater look.
ESTRIN: Agnes, who's Avery's classmate, lost her home in the fire. CJ digs into a rack of clothes.
CJ RAKOW: Black cargo pants?
AGNES: Oh, yeah.
RAKOW: These are so cool. OK. These are for you, my dear.
ESTRIN: Nearby, Jasmine, who was waiting in line earlier, picks out pink nail polish.
JASMINE: And by the way, my favorite color is pink, so I have a lot of pink stuff.
ESTRIN: Just then, YouTube-famous makeup artist James Charles pulls up. Agnes rushes over.
AGNES: Can I take a photo with you?
JAMES CHARLES: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
CHARLES: Let's do it.
ESTRIN: Agnes' mom, Liz MacLean watches from nearby.
LIZ MACLEAN: To see their classmate do something like this and take action, this is going to be a memory for them that just doesn't go away.
ESTRIN: In a city with a reputation for superficiality, eighth-grader Avery Colvert and her army of producers and stylists are showing the world that Angelinos are beautiful on the inside, too.
For NPR News, I'm Robin Estrin in Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEETWOOD MAC SONG, "RHIANNON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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