Martha Stewart: America’s Homemaker

If you look hard enough, I’m sure there is something in your home with Martha Stewart’s name on it. Martha Stewart has been telling America how to make their homes beautiful for over two decades and is arguably one of America’s sweethearts. Stewart was born Martha Kostrya in August 1941, the second oldest out of six children. She began work as a model in her early teens and is an alumnus of Barnard College in New York.  This is where she met Yale student Andy Stewart and the two married in 1961.

After graduating and working on Wall Street as a stockbroker for about six years, Stewart became interested in gourmet cooking and started to train herself using a cookbook authored by Julia Child and eventually started a catering business at the age of 35.

Her Wall Street background has served as an influence in her business practices. “When I worked in the stock market after college, I did my research on companies,” said Stewart to Seventeen Magazine. “I saw that the fast-growing companies all started off with a really good idea. That’s where I got the idea that I could do something in the field that I was most interested in, which was homemaking.”

In 1982, she published her first book, “Entertaining.”  Stewart considers this book to be her big break. “When you write a book, you’re an expert and people look at you in a different way,” said Stewart. “But even though it was an accomplishment and I got asked to do speaking engagements all over the country, I realized that there was so much more to do.” After the release of the book, she did several guest appearances on television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, was launched almost a decade later as a quarterly publication. There were more than 2 million readers of the magazine by 2002.   In 1992, she was introduced to homes across the country via television in her TV show, Martha Stewart Living TV.  She also became a reoccurring guest on the Daily Show and on CBS Primetime Christmas Specials.

In 1997, she combined all of her ventures under one umbrella company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and two years later it opened on the New York Stock Exchange. Her net worth is estimated to be over 600 million dollars.  That same year, she started collaborating with Kmart to create her Martha Stewart Everyday line which includes a variety of products including bath accessories, paint, cookware, textiles and window treatments.  Other retailer collaborations include a furniture line with Bernhardt, a craft line with Michaels and a food product line with Costco and Kirkwood Signature.

Stewart’s successes have not stopped her from having setbacks. She went to jail for five months in 2005 for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to authorities after being caught participating in inside trading.  Despite this, she was able to make a comeback and that year she launched her Sirius Satellite radio show, a talk show and released a book on how to start a business.

Stewart has a few words of advice for someone considering following in her footsteps. “Broaden yourself. You don’t have to focus when you’re 20. I think the broader you are, the better it is,” Stewart said. “Later you can focus on your real interests and ideas. The ultimate goal is to be an interesting, useful, wholesome person. If you’re successful on top of that, then you’re way ahead of everybody.”

-Ashleigh Atwell