You'll see her at fashion week one day. Right now, she'd rather be at home.

One of us is in St. Louis. The other in Rochester, Michigan. Connected over 600 miles, Kennedy Ewald and I spoke through our cameras about family, school, fashion, future plans and being molded by our older sisters.

Everything Ewald. Photos courtesy of Kennedy Ewald. Edit by Sanjott Singh

Kennedy Ewald would rather be at home.

So, we met in her home. Just not in the way you’d think.

Sitting alone in her dining room, Kennedy Ewald’s head is barely peeking out of my side of the screen. While adjusting her screen, Kennedy tells me that her family is in the kitchen, saying that “I told them I was doing an interview so I’m like ‘be quiet just while I’m on here.’ Mom has her headphones in.” Kennedy is at home spending the Good Friday afternoon with her family.

As Kennedy began to describe her family, I warned her to be nice since her mother might hear under her headphones. She laughed and said, “even if they were sitting right next to me, I would still say that they’re literally my most favorite people.”

“Family is the most important thing to me,” Kennedy says. “This is kind of bad to say but, I think I would choose family over friends to hang out any day. I’m super family-oriented.” The Ewald family consists of Kennedy’s mother and father, in addition to her four sisters: two older and two younger. She’s the middle child.

Kennedy was born and raised in Rochester, Michigan. If one had a day to spend in Rochester, Kennedy would recommend they go downtown and visit her favorite restaurants Kruse & Muer on Main and Lipuma’s Coney Island.

Kennedy goes to Saint Louis University, where she’s a junior communication student with a concentration in advertising and public relations. She prefers in-person learning—she says she’s easily distracted online. However, as a Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed when she was 10 months old, Kennedy goes back and forth from St. Louis to Rochester for doctor’s appointments. She believes that online classes have “been able to give me flexibility with coming home and going to school, so that’s been nice.”

Ewald’s choice to go to Saint Louis University was a family affair, as her father and older sisters Mackenzie and Keagan are SLU alumni.

Other than school, Kennedy’s family have influenced her in numerous other ways. For example, fashion sense runs in the family. Kennedy’s oldest sister, Mackenzie Ewald, works in marketing for a shoe company named Golden Goose. Her second oldest sister Keagan recently opened up a clothing boutique. When the Ewalds were younger, they would often play “house” and “dress up” together. “I think I really got into fashion because of my older sister, she works in that industry, so we’re always talking about it. She fed into that interest” Ewald says. Her younger sisters are named Maggie and Molliee Ewald.

Kennedy expands on her sibling relationship, saying that her sister "lives in Chicago, so when I go to see her, I love going into her closet and picking out clothes to wear for the day because she has so many clothes that I don’t. I love wearing all of her stuff.”

Another shared Ewald hobby is traveling. Her past ventures include Chicago, Paris, Madrid, the Hamptons and Marco Island, Florida. “I love to travel,” Kennedy says “but I haven’t had too many opportunities to. But I plan to travel in the future.” These future travel plans include Europe and Asia, where she would like to experience the sights and cultures.

While in St. Louis, Kennedy lives with three of her best friends in an off-campus apartment. She is also in the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, where she runs the Instagram account. Kennedy spends a lot of time on Instagram, in addition to Pinterest and TikTok, where she tries to see the latest fashion trends and sends posts to her sisters.

After graduation, Kennedy Ewald can see herself also living in Chicago. Her future career ambitions include either pursuing a master’s degree in education or breaking into the marketing side of fashion brands. However, many brands are located either in Los Angeles or New York City, which, according to Kennedy, are “super far away from Michigan so, that’d be kind of hard on me.”

Laughing, Kennedy admits, “I’m really a homebody so I just like to stay at my home and usually I’m just like a type of person that lays around. I’m kind of lazy.”