Second Life

Ali Mejia is the visionary and cofounder of elevated sleepwear brand Eberjey. Although she’d always had a soft spot for pajamas (getting ready for bed was a self-care ritual in her home growing up), Mejia began her career on Wall Street. After graduating from Princeton, she followed many of her peers to New York City and got a job as a financial analyst. When her bank unexpectedly closed, she was laid off and left to confront the nagging feeling that she should be exploring her creativity. She used her severance package to fund a trip to Florence, Italy, and being immersed in the arts and culture inspired her to make a change in her career. Upon returning home, she took one more short-lived finance job and then landed a fashion internship at Cynthia Rowley that energized her. She moved back home to Miami and took a direct marketing job to pay the bills while quietly working with a local patternmaker and learning how to design sleepwear. Once she had designed a few prototypes, she told her coworker at the dire