Austin, TX May 2026

Wealth managed the way it should be.

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Women Who Inspire

Welcome to our annual Ladies Issue.

This month we celebrate the women who build, create, and lead with courage, style, and the willingness to just start — even when the path looks uncertain or the odds feel stacked.

On the cover is Becky Hillyard, the force behind Cella Jane. What began as a side hustle while raising three young kids has grown into a lifestyle brand that now commands the attention of Vogue and a fiercely loyal audience. With no media budget, no name recognition, and the daily reality of motherhood, Becky refused to sacrifice one part of her life for the other. She built nine collections, stayed true to her vision, and proved that trust and instinct can be more powerful than any traditional blueprint. Her story is a reminder that the best empires often begin quietly, at the kitchen table, with nothing but belief and persistence.

We also spotlight other Austin women who are redefining what it means to show up fully. Dr. Shirat Ling of Innate Beauty Medspa brings a physician’s precision and an artist’s eye to subtle, natural enhancements that help clients feel more like themselves. Kelsey Leigh of Kelsey Leigh Fine Jewelry turns inherited pieces into modern heirlooms, re-purposing gold and stones with the care of someone who understands that jewelry is about memory as much as beauty. And at Headspace salon, a 100% women-owned team is elevating the standards of extensions and custom color while creating a culture where stylists and guests alike feel seen and supported.

These stories are about more than business or beauty. They’re about women who refuse to fail and who turn personal vision into something the rest of us can wear, live in, or feel more confident in every day.

We hope this issue leaves you inspired to trust your own instincts and to celebrate the women around you who are doing the same.

See you next month for our Men's Issue.

Cheers,

JOE KERBY, PUBLISHER

May 2026

PUBLISHER

Joe Kerby | joe.kerby@citylifestyle.com

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

Montannah Kerby | montannah.kerby@citylifestyle.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Megan Marshall

Corporate Team

CEO Steven Schowengerdt

President Matthew Perry

COO David Stetler

CRO Jamie Pentz

CoS Janeane Thompson

AD DESIGNER Evan Deuvall

LAYOUT DESIGNER Emily Lisenbee

QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Megan Cagle Learn how

S E R V I C E : L O V E

I N A C T I O N

S er v ice is more than meeting a need it is restoring dignity, rebuilding trust, and strengthening the very foundation of our community.

Every day, across Trav is and Williamson counties, neighbors face homelessness, hunger, and uncertainty. Help The Salvation Army turn generosity into v isible action. A safe place to sleep. A warm meal shared w ith care. A listening ear. A plan for stability.

Be the Change Austin Needs, Donate Now and Turn Your Generosity into Visible Change

inside the issue

Dr.

YOUR GETAWAY. YOUR HOMECOMING.

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ARTICLE BY KALI KASORZYK

PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED

BECKY HILLYARD

From Side Hustle to Style Empire

The power of taste, trust, and the courage to “just start.”

She didn’t have a business plan, a media budget, or even a name anyone could pronounce. What Becky Hillyard had was taste, a young family, and the instinct to just start. Today, her lifestyle brand Cella Jane commands an audience the size of Vogue’s, she’s nine collections strong with Splendid, and she’s built it all while raising three kids — refusing to sacrifice one for the other. In an exclusive conversation for the Share the Lifestyle podcast, Becky shares what it really takes to build a brand, a career, and a life you love. Read the highlights below, then scan the QR code for the full conversation.

Q: WHEN DID YOU KNOW CELLA JANE WAS MORE THAN A HOBBY?

A: Two moments. Women started emailing me saying they bought something I recommended and felt amazing — asking me to help them find a dress for a wedding. That felt incredible. Then I looked at my affiliate numbers for one month and realized I could cover our mortgage. I thought, I can actually do this. I never set out to build a business. I started it because I genuinely loved it.

Q: WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST RISK YOU EVER TOOK WITH THE BRAND?

A: Designing my own collection. It’s easy to point at items on a website and say I love these. But to create something from scratch, put your name on it, and wait to see if people connect with it — that’s terrifying. I had an incredible partner in Splendid, and women loved the pieces. It was the biggest risk and the biggest accomplishment.

Q: HOW HAS INFLUENCER MARKETING CHANGED SINCE YOU STARTED?

A: When I started, brands didn’t know whether to take it seriously. Now it’s a legitimate line item in their marketing budgets — sometimes bigger than TV. Because what we’ve built is trust. People trust a real recommendation from someone they follow far more than a commercial. There’s no question about it now.

Q: YOU’RE A MOM OF THREE RUNNING A FULL BRAND. WHAT DOES YOUR DAY ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

A: I try to get up at five and not hit snooze — that first hour before the house wakes up is the most productive, most peaceful hour of my day. Then it’s all hands on deck with the kids and school drop-off. After that I work — planning content, connecting with my team, editing. After pickup, the day shifts completely and it’s all about them. I’ve learned to protect both halves fiercely, because both matter.

Q: WHAT WOULD YOU TELL SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO BUILD SOMETHING OF THEIR OWN BUT KEEPS WAITING?

A: Don’t wait. Don’t wait for the perfect camera, the right strategy, or enough followers. We find every excuse to stay comfortable. Just start, be consistent, and be authentically yourself. The right people will find you — and they’ll stay.

This conversation is just the beginning. Becky goes deeper on the risks that almost stopped her, the design process behind her latest Splendid collection, and what she’d tell her 2012 self today. Scan the QR code for the full, exclusive City Lifestyle interview on the Share the Lifestyle Podcast.

“Trust is the only metric that actually compounds.”

— Becky Hillyard

Elevating Beauty with Medical Precision

At the intersection of medicine and artistry, we believe true beauty begins with well-being. Led by a board-certified family and functional medicine physician, our boutique aesthetic practice offers a thoughtful, individualized approach to rejuvenation—rooted in integrity, expertise, and a deep appreciation for natural elegance. Every treatment is a collaboration in confidence, designed to reveal your most authentic, enduring radiance.

innatebeauty.com | 512.656.5464 | 1611 South First Street, Austin, TX 78704

Owner Driven Design and Build Process watercolorpools.com | V @watercolorpoolstx

Watercolor Pools is a trusted Central Texas pool builder specializing in handcrafted luxury swimming pools, spas, ASR rebuilds and outdoor living spaces. We design and build premium pools for families across Temple, Belton, Waco, Killeen, Georgetown, Austin, Round Rock and surrounding areas. Our team blends craftsmanship and creativity to create stunning backyard retreats tailored to your lifestyle, budget and property

THE PHYSICIAN ARTIST

DR. LING BRINGS MEDICAL INSIGHT AND ARTISTIC VISION TO BEAUTY

In Austin, Dr. Shirat Ling still remembers the house call that changed everything. One of her concierge patients asked, almost casually, whether she offered Botox. Dr. Ling answered, “Not yet, but I certainly can.” That single exchange, more than twenty years ago, planted the seed for Innate Beauty Medspa.

A Board-certified family physician with functional-medicine training, she had already spent years thinking about hormones, inflammation, metabolism, and how the body ages. When she returned to Austin in 2007 and opened the medspa, she brought that deeper understanding with her.

She treats every face as a living sculpture. The goal is never to rewrite someone’s features but to help them look like a slightly more rested, refreshed version of themselves. Clients know her as the Physician Artist because she approaches aesthetic care with the same precision and intuition she once brought to family medicine. Her background in hormonal physiology, metabolic health, inflammation, and aging gives her a rare understanding of how skin changes over time. She builds long-term plans, always blending science with an intuitive sense of balance and proportion.

Dr. Ling personally leads every initial consultation. She listens closely to a client’s concerns, goals, skin history, medical background, lifestyle, and budget before sketching out a plan. Some changes happen quickly. Others unfold gradually over months. She explains both the “what” and the “why,” walking clients through how skin, fat pads, and bone structure shift decade by decade. The conversation feels less like a sales pitch and more like a quiet, thoughtful partnership. She prioritizes ethical, evidence-based treatments over profit-driven services, offering candid guidance on which procedures are appropriate and effective, with clear communication about costs and potential risks.

The treatments themselves are chosen with the same care. Botox to soften lines, dermal fillers to restore volume, CO2 laser resurfacing for texture and tone, PRP hair restoration, TruSculpt body contouring, Kybella, IPL photofacials, microneedling — each one is selected because it fits the individual rather than because it is trending. Using precision injectables and advanced skin rejuvenation devices, Dr. Ling promotes facial harmony and timeless, natural results

while emphasizing education, transparency, and personalized care so clients feel informed and supported at every step. She combines medical expertise, artistic sensibility, and a deep understanding of facial anatomy to support facial longevity, subtle enhancement, and radiant skin. Exfoliating procedures such as microdermabrasion, dermaplaning, and chemical peels offer a gentle introduction to improving skin texture, tone, pore size, and fine lines. Platelet-Rich Plasma injections and Nouvaderm scalp treatments help revitalize scalp and hair health, while fractional laser treatments address deeper wrinkles, pigmentation, and laxity.

What guests remember most is how informed and supported they feel. In a city where medspas seem to open every month, Innate Beauty has stayed small on purpose. The space remains calm and focused. Clients leave not just with smoother skin or fuller lips, but with a clearer sense of what their face actually needs next — and why.

For Dr. Ling, aesthetic care is an investment in total well-being. It is about helping people rediscover their inherent beauty and feel more confident in their own skin, one thoughtful decision at a time.

At GLO3O, we believe that every individual can have beautiful and glowing skin! Our cutting-edge tech backed skincare studios bring together breakthrough AI technology, expertly researched treatments and knowledgeable providers to create treatment plans tailored for you. Drawing from all three sources of expertise gives us the ability to craft each experience into a masterpiece – producing measurable results in terms of your skincare journey.

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Cosmetic Dentistry | Veneers Smile Makeovers | Crowns Therapeutic Botox General Dentistry

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Kelsey Leigh’s Path

From Austin roots and a leap of faith during COVID to custom jewelry honoring the past while celebrating the present

Kelsey Leigh was born and raised in Austin. She credits St. Andrew’s Episcopal School for teaching her to be a problem solver, critical thinker, and to think outside the box — skills that have served her instrumentally in her journey. Her childhood was difficult, raised by her mother, grandfather, and grandmother alongside her two younger brothers. The strict discipline when expectations weren’t met taught her the natural consequences of her choices. She was raised in a very philanthropic environment where she learned that in giving you actually receive more.

Hard work was a core value, modeled by her grandfather Bob Hughes, a successful Austin businessman. Kelsey wanted to be just like her “poppa.” She was a “do’er” from a young age. She remembers taking apart her Barbie car and moving chords around until it started working again. She has always been hungry to learn, devouring self-help, psychology, spiritual texts, and pursuing unusual passions like ancestry research and arrowhead or fossil hunting.

After high school, she attended college for two years but struggled with health issues and moved home. At 21, it felt like failure. But she learned that just because your path is different and may seem like a failure at the time, that “failure” is actually exactly where you are meant to be to get you where you are going. She believes everyone has their own path and no path looks the same.

Back in Austin, she started working for her family’s jeweler, The Menagerie, intending to return to school. Instead, she discovered her calling. She had loved physics and chemistry in high school but knew she could never sit behind a desk all day. Jewelry was the perfect mix — natural products of the Earth, diamonds as a single element (carbon), while elements bonded together produced different colored gemstones. And she got human interaction dealing with clients. It seemed she had found her calling.

After a few years outside the jewelry industry, she studied at the Gemological Institute of America, the most world-renowned diamond and gem lab responsible for creating the 4 C’s. She began as a private jeweler, primarily sourcing diamonds for clients wanting engagement rings, but she dreamed of opening a store — only if it were in the right location.

She visualized it while sitting at Menagerie, imagining opening her own store in the same shopping center. Six years later, she did. In September 2020, the opportunity arose unexpectedly. She took it. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith in yourself. She built it off a dream, a prayer, and the sales she was making at the time.

Kelsey took over her current location and opened in April 2021 — during COVID. “What genius decides to open a fine jewelry store during COVID? This girl,” she laughs. It took blood, sweat, and tears. She personally invested in herself. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. She kept that mantra repeating in her head.

Five years later, the store is thriving. Where she once felt shame for not having a college degree, she now has her “MBA in real life.” It is the hardest and most rewarding experience she has ever had.

“Jewelry is like shoesyou have your really nice black pump and your nice nude pump that goes with every outfit in your closet so Invest in the classic pieces.”

Kelsey Leigh Fine Jewelry offers ready-made jewelry, unique one-of-a-kind pieces, and classics. She provides the best quality for the best price, with every piece curated based on quality and what she wants to represent her brand.

She specializes in engagement rings. The process begins with an initial consult that includes in-depth diamond education. Once she knows what the client wants, she goes out in the market and finds specific stones that fit the budget and vision. She doesn’t stock diamonds so clients know she is not trying to push them a certain way. Once they pick a diamond, she gets the design drawn up and a CAD or rendered image ready. In some cases, she even gets a wax replica made for those who need extra visual help. Then she presents the finished product.

CONTINUED >

She is a full custom design house — they can take sketches to finished pieces. A large part of her business is “re-purposing.” Many clients have jewelry they no longer wear or inherited pieces that sit in a jewelry box. Sentimental value is typically more than the monetary value, so it makes more sense to invest in the piece and make it something you can wear every day. With gold prices high, it’s a win-win to scrap the pieces and apply the value to a new custom job.

The process is artistic as well as thoughtful. She looks at the pieces like an artist seeing paint colors and putting it together. She may pull stones out of multiple pieces to make one final piece. She sends a design proposal and quote, the client approves the CAD, and then it moves into production.

People sometimes feel bad tearing apart grandma’s ring, but the luxury of jewelry is that it lives on. It is a way of honoring loved ones.

Jewelry is Kelsey’s passion. Her store is the outlet in which she shares it with you. It is a relationship-based business. She treats others the way she wants to be treated. As a result, a lot of her clients become her friends and are forever part of the Kelsey Leigh family. Her store is so much more than jewelry — it is being a part of the most special times in people’s lives.

“My favorite custom projects are giving new life to old pieces because the luxury of jewelry lives on.”

We understand how challenging depression can be. If standard antidepressants have not helped, TMS of Austin offers in office treatment options like TMS therapy and SPRAVATO® for eligible adults.

Our caring team is here to support you every step of the way, with your comfort and safety in mind at every visit.

Schedule your consultation today. (737) 471-5402 | TMSofAustin.com V tmsofaustin

HEADSPACE REIMAGINED

A 100% womenowned salon redefining luxury extensions and custom color with personalization, empowerment, and a culture that elevates both guest and stylist

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA YORK

WHAT WAS THE SPARK THAT LED YOU AND YOUR CO-OWNERS TO OPEN A HIGH-END SALON COMPANY FOCUSED EXCLUSIVELY ON EXTENSIONS AND CUSTOM COLOR?

The pivotal moment was realizing we did not want to keep working in the industry. We wanted to redefine it. We shared a vision of creating a space where luxury meant personalization, where the standard was not just good enough, and where both the guest and the stylist felt elevated. That became Headspace.

HOW DOES BEING 100% WOMEN-OWNED AND OPERATED SHAPE THE SALON COMPANY’S CULTURE?

It changes everything. There is an unspoken understanding in a women-led space of pressure, reinvention, and carrying a lot at once. That empathy shows up in how we lead, how we communicate, and how we support our team. Our decisions are collaborative but intentional. We are not building something for optics. We are building something that actually works for women’s lives. That means flexibility, growth opportunities, and a culture where women are not competing with each other. They are expanding together.

WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU OVERCOME AS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS?

The biggest challenge was learning to trust our instincts over traditional business models. We have been told how salons should operate for decades, and a lot of that advice does not serve modern women. We have navigated financial risk, leadership dynamics, and the pressure of scaling while staying aligned. There were moments where it would have been

easier to play small or follow someone else’s blueprint, but we chose to build our own. That is now baked into our philosophy. We do not cut corners, and we do not shrink to fit.

WHAT SETS YOUR EXTENSION TECHNIQUES APART?

We do not believe in one-size-fits-all extensions. Every install is fully customized based on a guest’s hair density, lifestyle, and desired outcome. We work with hand-selected, ethically sourced human hair, and everything is customized from tone blending to placement. The goal is always the same — it should look like it grew out of your head. Our guests typically wear their hair for six to twelve months with proper maintenance, and we prioritize hair health just as much as the final result.

WHAT MAKES YOUR CUSTOM COLOR DIFFERENT?

We approach color like artists, not technicians. It is less about formulas and more about dimension, tone, and how light interacts with the hair. We specialize in lived-in color, dimensional work, and advanced color correction. Every color is layered, which allows it to grow out seamlessly and maintain a high-end look at every stage. No harsh lines and no flat color, just hair that feels natural and elevated.

DO YOU OFFER ANY SIGNATURE TREATMENTS OR RITUALS?

Yes, we offer what we call our Luxury Treatment, which is a signature part of every service. This is the moment where everything slows down and the experience

“WE BELIEVE IN THE SMALL DETAILS THAT MAKE THE EXPERIENCE SPECIAL”

becomes more than just hair. It becomes restorative. We guide each guest into a spa-like experience where they can fully relax while we apply a customized treatment based on exactly what their hair needs. This can include bond-repair therapies, scalp care, glossing, and finishing techniques that support the final result. It is not just about how your hair looks when you leave. It is about how it feels, how it lives with you day to day, and how seamlessly it integrates into your lifestyle.

DESCRIBE THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE.

We always say our vibe feels like you are walking onto the set of Cheers, but elevated. It is that feeling where everyone knows your name and you instantly feel like you belong. We want every guest to feel like they are walking into a brunch with their favorite people — relaxed, taken care of, and about to leave with their dream hair. We believe in the small details that make the experience special. From remembering how you take your coffee to asking about your last vacation, those personal touches matter. Every stylist knows not just their own guests, but each other’s as well, so the entire

space feels connected. At the core of it, we want every guest to feel like family while also feeling like the most important person in the room.

WHO IS YOUR DREAM GUEST?

Our dream guest is someone who values quality over convenience and understands that great hair is an investment, not just in how you look, but how you feel every day. She does not just come to Headspace for hair. She comes because it is her place. We have had guests come to us during major life shifts, whether it is postpartum, a career change, or a personal reset, wanting to feel like themselves again. One guest came in after experiencing significant hair loss from stress. Through extensions and custom color, we were able to rebuild not just her hair, but her confidence. She told us she finally recognized herself again. Another guest had never worn her hair down because she felt it was too thin. After her transformation, her hair became part of her identity. Those are the moments that matter most to us.

HOW DOES THE SALON COMPANY CHAMPION WOMEN?

Mentorship is a huge part of what we do. We invest in developing our stylists not just technically, but in confidence, communication, and business skills. We also prioritize working with female-owned brands and creating opportunities within our space for women to grow financially and creatively.

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Under the guidance of our Medical Director, Dr. Ryan Brewer, a board-certified LASIK surgeon who completed his ophthalmology residency at one of the nation’s top programs, and Dr. Tim Soeken, a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist with both military and academic distinction, we deliver exceptional clinical care and surgical precision. Our bladeless LASIK technology allows more patients to safely qualify for the procedure than ever before.

Imagine your life, in focus.