By Eden Morris I Reporter
Mary Turner graduated from Baylor in May of this year with a degree in apparel merchandising. She said her faith and joy drive the clothing company and podcast she began during her time at Baylor.
“I started my clothing company my freshman year in my college dorm,” Turner said.
Turner said in a season where she did not know why God brought her to Baylor, instead of going straight into full-time ministry, she felt like the Lord was telling her to find a way to be creative and utilize to her time in college. Baylor was the place that she made her faith her own.
“My best friend Emily — for [high school] graduation — gave me a picture frame [that] said ‘joy,’ and it was something I looked at every single day in the days in my dorm room that I was sad or frustrated,” Turner said. “I would be reminded that I can still be filled with so much joy in this season, and so I decided that is what I want my company to be called: Joyful.”
Turner said she felt the Lord was calling her to write. Her love for Bob Goff, a Christian author and motivational speaker, encouraged her further to write a book, and Goff inspired her to start her podcast, “Stay Joyful,” to hear people’s stories about how they are joyful in the season they are in and how the Lord is working in their life.
“I really started [Joyful] because I wanted it to be a conversation starter about faith,” Turner said. “That was a big reason why I continued Joyful post-grad.”
Turner said she does not have an end goal with her company, but she wants to put her company in the Lord’s hands. She said she has been continuing her brand due to demand and people asking for more ways to share their faith with her clothing pieces.
“I don’t want it to be about me, and I never want to get in that headspace of it being about me because I’m so blessed that the Lord has given me these opportunities to talk about my faith and to talk with others,” Turner said. “But I wanted to highlight them and not myself.”
Joyful had their biggest clothing drop yet on Tuesday, and Turner said she is excited for it as the clothing is the best quality it has ever been. She also continues to put a personalized, handmade touch on every piece of clothing.
Plano junior Braelyn Ellsworth is a customer and friend of Turner’s.
“Mary has poured so much of her heart and passion into her clothing brand, Joyful, to spread the same message of the joy that is found in Christ,” Ellsworth said. “I know she has impacted so many people through her brand, and I’m so lucky to have walked alongside her and to see the way that she continues to inspire others.”
