Mountain Youths Take On New York Fashion Week

The lights came up, and my 19-year-old son walked out onto a New York Fashion Week runway with a guitar to open a packed multi-designer show.

My twins, Nick and Cambria Gallup, grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains with Sophia Yankauskas, who early on became Cambria’s best friend. My group text with the three of them is called “Triplets” for a reason, because so many of their life experiences have been together. After graduating from Los Gatos High School in 2025, they scattered out of state for college.

So how did three young adults from the mountains end up at Fashion Week? It started with Sophia, who began runway modeling in Miami just for fun. Her first show was for Gia of Events by Gia. Soon, other designers were asking her to walk, too. This year, several invited her to New York.

Nick’s music started even quieter. For years he sang lyrics into voice memos he never played for anyone. His Papa, Roger, a guitar player himself, never stopped encouraging him. Two years ago, Nick picked up a guitar and slowly started sharing: with family, friends, at open mics at the Ugly Mug in Santa Cruz, a few songs at his uncle’s gig, and videos he posted online. Sophia reposted a few. When Gia saw them, she asked if Nick would play in her Fashion Week show.

That’s how my husband Bob, Cambria, Sophia’s mom Olesya, and I ended up in the front row of a fashion show, with lights so bright we wished we’d worn sunglasses. Nick played three original songs, as the audience listened in near silence, then broke into cheers.

Then the collections came out, and Sophia was on the runway.

My daughter Cambria wasn’t in the spotlight that week. She was in the front row, cheering for the two people she loves most. For Nick and Sophia, Cambria has always been the one whose steady belief carries them farther. It’s no surprise she’s built a life-coaching business helping others believe in themselves the same way. Seeing her tears flowing freely, her hand held to her heart, pushed me from proud to completely undone.

By the end of the week, Sophia had walked for eight designers, and there was still one more surprise. Before we flew home, we stood in iconic Times Square and looked up. There was Sophia on one of the largest billboards, lit up above the crossroads of the world for tens of thousands of people to see.

For Olesya, Bob, and me, our job was to stand back and let them shine. These were the same three young people we had driven to games, applauded at school plays, shushed during sleepovers, and always told that anything was possible.

I came home grateful for people who see something special in kids and give them a stage. Grateful for family who pass down their passions and never stop encouraging the next generation. Grateful for an upbringing that teaches children to make their own fun and look out for each other, and for a community where parents cheer for each other’s children as if they were their own. Grateful for dads who show up for everything and quietly hold back tears when it counts. And most of all, grateful for the friendship between these three, which carried them all the way to New York.

On their first day of kindergarten at Loma Prieta Elementary, these three stood together, scared and gripping our hands. No one could have imagined New York Fashion Week, or the confidence it would take for them to let go and take on New York City. But that day, without knowing it, they had already found what would get them there: each other.

As the lights went down on New York Fashion Week and we headed home, I realized the brightest thing I saw all week wasn’t on a runway or a billboard. It was the three of them on the streets of Manhattan, laughing together the way they always have.