SUPER MOM: ANDREA HERRERA

ANDREA HERRERA - LOCAL MOM AND BUSINESS OWNER

Andrea Herrera is the owner of both Mildred and Mable’s boutique and Isabella Sophia, a salon and spa, both located at 109 Franklin Street in downtown Clarksville. In addition to running one of the most successful boutiques in town, Herrera is also a mother. Her two children, 22-yearold Ahna and 19-year-old Ehma, are both currently attending college out of state, but the super mom started up her business when the girls were just 10 and 8 years old, and her husband Col. Sal Herrera was active duty Army. Her ability to juggle the chaos of motherhood, having a spouse overseas, and getting a business up and running from scratch is why we picked her to be VIP Clarksville Magazine’s first Super Mom. Herrera bought the building in downtown Clarksville in 2011, and it had been sitting vacant since the tornado of 1999 that ripped through the area. With a vision of restoring it to its former glory, Herrera began renovating. “I can totally put myself back there and remember trying to do it all,” Herrera told VIP. “We were essentially living out of our car because we lived on post. So we would pack everything for day, and then go to school. I worked at Clarksville Academy at the time, I’d take the girls to school with me. Then we’d go to ballet, I’d feed them, and they’d watch cartoons and sleep on a pallet while I worked all night to get that building ready. It was a nightmare,” Herrera said with a laugh, adding that at the time, her husband was deployed. up to help with painting and fixing the walls, and that she couldn’t have done it without them. When asked what she thought her daughters learned from that process, Herrera said she hoped it was resiliency. “I think they learned that you can take on any challenge, because if you had seen what we started with, it was really bad. So hopefully, they’ve seen that you can take nothing and turn it into something. And then also dedication and hard work — I want them to have a good work ethic and hopefully they got that from me, that you can work hard and be rewarded for it,” Herrera said.

Aside from building the space for her boutique, the spaciousness of the building also allowed Herrera to give other businesses room to grow — essentially being a Super Mom to other business owners by giving them space to also get off the ground. “I knew that we were taking a really crazy, giant leap of faith jumping off the cliff to buy the building. I knew that wasn’t for everybody, so if we could help other people try this, and some of them said, ’Oh, I don’t want to do this,’ and they did a year or two, and realized they’d had enough and didn’t want to do it on their own. It was a good space for a trial run.” “Herrera is also so grateful for the decade-long friendships her family has formed with employees and stylists -- past and present -- and they’ve become family.” When asked what kind of wisdom she’d pass on to other mothers looking to take a similar leap of faith, she said to just do it. “I think it’s given me great purpose. I think that’s the most important thing is to help your fellow spouses and to help other women — lift them up and push them forward. They can do it, I have no doubt.”