Rosie Card sits in her home in Salt Lake city with her dog, Ted. Card used to run Q.Noor out of her Salt Lake home. (Dani Jardine)
Rosie Card frantically checks her email, knowing she needs to be at the warehouse soon to track the recent shipment of dresses and inspect them for any flaws.
Later in the day, she is back on her computer drafting a book and promoting her brand on social media. This is a typical day in the life of Card, a former model turned entrepreneur.
From ages 16 to 18, Card modeled for magazines and brands like InStyle, Vogue, Black Book and Zac Posen. Weekends were spent traveling — she would hop on a plane to travel to Japan one weekend and going to New York the next.
However, she soon realized it wasn’t making her happy.
'There isn’t a lot of supervision, and while I was there, models weren’t included in child actor laws, and so there were no laws protecting us as far as supervision, maintaining education, feeding us, the number of hours we worked, things like that,' Card said. 'If I was on a shoot with a dog, the dog legally had more rights than I did, and they treated it as such.'
Card's unhappiness with the modeling industry led her to pursue an education at BYU in broadcast journalism and eventually start her company, Q.Noor, which sells LDS temple dresses.
Card came up with the idea for Q.Noor after her hours were cut at her former job due to Obamacare complications.
While Card was at the temple trying to decide what she should do for work, she came up with the idea that someone needed to make cute, comfortable temple dresses. Card immediately made an appointment with the matriarch of the temple at that time, Sister Sharon G. Samuelson, to ask if it was something she could do.
'So, I went and met with her the next morning and asked, 'Am I allowed to do this?'' Card said. 'I knew there were private companies that did this, but I didn’t know if I had to get approval.'
Sister Samuelson replied that they were simply white dresses, so she gave Card the go-ahead.
Card immediately went to work, invested $5,000 dollars of her own money and gave herself a year to make it work.
'I had to have a really honest heart-to-heart with Heavenly Father in the beginning and be like, 'OK, I feel like I am supposed to do this. I would love this to turn into a company that pays my bills, that I can help people with, but I am not going to demand that,'' Card said.
That was a little over two years ago, and since then Q.Noor has doubled in size.
Card’s friend Maggie Franz remembers seeing Q.Noor grow from a single rack in her home to a full-blown warehouse.
'Watching her start and grow her business is inspiring,' Franz said. 'I remember the time in Relief Society that she announced jokingly that she was quitting her job to become a 'stay at home YSA' — but actually starting her own business.'
As Q.Noor has grown, it has given Card the ability to work on other projects, such as writing her soon-to-be-released book, 'Model Mormon.'
'I love how honest her writing is,' said Card’s friend Lee Hale. 'This book is in her voice; it’s like having a conversation with Rosie. She's hopeful, blunt, vulnerable, earnest, thoughtful.'
In her book, Card highlights her experiences in the modeling industry and how it has shaped who she is today.
Card holds the manuscript of her book in her Salt Lake home on Feb. 9, 2018. (Dani Jardine)
'The book is kind of about when I was young and I dealt with a lot of self-loathing and depression, and I thought modeling would solve all my problems,' Card said. 'When I was a teenager, all I wanted was to be popular and accepted, and modeling was like being popular and accepted on crack.'
The book is about Card realizing modeling didn’t make her any happier and how she found happiness through education, serving others and learning there was more to her than her looks.
Tyler Robbins, one of Card’s friends, read the manuscript of the book and found it entertaining and insightful.
'There were a couple times that I laughed out loud, and I was surprised to feel like I could identify with many things she discussed, notwithstanding that I am a guy,' Robbins said. 'I really enjoyed how real and vulnerable she is in the book. It makes her very relatable.'
Card hopes others reading the book will feel the same.
'My true hope for girls and women in reading the book is to consider, 'What more do I have to offer? What other parts of me could I develop?'' Card said.
'Model Mormon' is slated to be released on June 1, 2018.
To find out more about Q.Noor, visit its website.