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Operation Fangirl: Success

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Celebrities and sharpies.

Those are the two words that come to mind when I think of Woodland alumni Katie Porter.

If you know Porter, or ever sat next to her in a high school class, you know she’s a talented doodler. The pages of her notebooks are filled with simple, elegant designs of geometric shapes, lines, flowers and other symbols. She creates beautiful works of art by drawing these same designs with sharpie markers.

You’d also know that she’s a passionate fangirl. She always is up to date with celebrity gossip and will do whatever it takes to see her favorite stars.

Recently, however, Porter had the chance to combine those two passions when she was asked to design a car for one of her favorite singers Austin Mahone.

Porter’s connections with Mahone began nearly three years ago. She had tickets to meet him at one of his concerts in New York City. So she decided to make him a gift, sharpie drawings of his initials with her personalized designs around them. She gave them to the singer when she met him. He was grateful for the pictures and said he liked him.

“I was just thrilled that he liked them,” said Porter. “But I  never thought anything else would come of them.”

But a few months later, Mahone released a video of him singing a cover in his bedroom. On the wall in the back of the video were Porters pictures. Over the past couple of years the pictures have appeared in a few other of Mahone’s videos and Instagram pictures. The problem was that Porter never put her name on the pictures.

So when Porter, now a student at Fordham University, heard that Mahone was doing a book signing in Tribeca in December, she was determined to go and introduce herself as the girl who made the pictures. She made him more sharpie drawings and this time but her contact information on them.

At the book signing, Porter had the chance to introduce herself to Mahone as the artist of the pictures he had in his room. But she was rushed during the meet and greet and didn’t have a chance to leave the pictures.

IMG_9346Until she happened to come across the singer’s mom on her way out. She started a conversation with Mahone’s mother, and gave him the new pictures.

“Then someone cleared their throat behind me and I figured I was going to get kicked by security,” said Porter.

But she didn’t. It was Mahone.

“He explained  that he was planning on getting his Range Rover redone,” said Porter. “And he wanted more of my designs to turn into a wrap for his car.”

Over the next month, Porter and Mahone collaborated via email and facetime on different drawing ideas.

“They were just the same drawings I’ve been doing for years, mostly geometric shapes and lines,” said Porter. “Throughout the process Austin was really great to work with, he was honest about which drawings he liked and which ones he didn’t.”

After about two weeks of exchanging samples and feedback, Porter sent Mahone 14 computer sized pages of drawings. The designs were then passed on to MetroWrapz, a graphic installation company in Florida, that merged the different designs together then turned them into a “giant sticker” (as Porter described it) that they then wrapped over the car.

“Austin kept me updated about how the process was going,” said Porter.

It was only last week that Mahone emailed Porter inviting her to come to Miami for the revealing of the car.

“He offered to fly my mom and I to Miami,” said Porter. “He really wanted me to be there when they saw the car for the first time.”

So on Monday January 19th, Porter and her mother flew to Florida where they were met at the airport by Mahone. After lunch with the singer, they headed to the MetroWrapz location to see the car.

“The launch was crazy,” said Porter. “It was amazing to see my designs on a car that my favorite singer uses everyday.”

After lots of photo-ops, it was time for Porter and Mahone to take the car for a test drive.

“We went to movies, saw American Sniper. It was great,” laughed Porter.

The experience was a dream come true for Porter, and one that has gotten her a lot of attention over the past couple of days.

“Basically, my social media has exploded,” said Porter, who’s followers on Instagram and Twitter have doubled since the reveal.

Fans of Mahone, known as “Mahomies”, have shown Porter a lot of support. Many people have said she is the definition of what it means to be a successful fangirl.

“People keep commenting how lucky I am and how much they like my designs,” said Porter.

IMG_9398Porter didn’t receive any money for her work, but she said the experience has opened a lot of doors.

“I’ve gotten a lot of offers to do more designs,” said Porter. “The experience, the connections and exposure is worth a lot more to me than money would be.”

Porter is currently studying to be an entertainment lawyer,  she never considered designing as a career.

“Its just a hobby right now,” said Porter  “but I’m going to keep my options open and see where this takes me.”