CHAPTERS: Camille Styles

Every (life) chapter has at least one memorable moment, sentence, or story.

and

Jun 11, 2025

Every (life) chapter has at least one memorable moment, sentence, or story. What are yours? In Chapters, I ask creative people to reflect on the stories of their lives and respond to any of the below prompts (in whatever way they wish).

In the latest installment, we hear from

Camille Styles

—editor-in-chief of CamilleStyles.com and founder of Casa Zuma—who shares reading recommendations, familial reflections, and lifestyle musings.

Camille’s Chapters

I. Slow Story

I love surrounding myself with books that inspire me to pause for a few minutes and elevate out of my daily life. I can so easily get hyper-focused on what I need to accomplish in a day, I need the voices of thinkers, creatives, and artists to remind me there’s more to life than my to-do list. A few of my favorite books to savor slowly (you can open any of these up and dive into any section!) include The Creative Act: A Way of Being, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, The Guide to Becoming Alive, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver, and The Art of Simple Food.

II. Your Story

Once there was a girl who loved reading fashion magazines more than anything else. It started with American Girl (winning AG's national short story contest was a peak moment), and then became an obsession when her mom let her buy a copy of Seventeen. She'd find a quiet corner in her small town’s library where she’d sit for hours reading free copies of Vogue and Cosmo. This was also where she discovered Martha Stewart, Bon Appétit, and Gourmet—and through them, a new universe of cooking, traveling, and decorating opened up for her.

She'd save up money to buy her own copies, then carefully cut out the images that spoke to her and spend hours creating collages and mood boards that covered the walls of her bedroom. When it was time to start thinking about college, she decided to study journalism at the University of Missouri. It was 2002, and the internet hadn’t upended the magazine world quite yet. People had their newspapers delivered. The September issue of Vogue was still satisfyingly heavy.

And so her path began. It was winding and full of experiences that didn’t seem to fit into the big picture until much later. There were stints in PR, working for an ad agency, then falling—rather randomly—into event planning. With a yearning to create, she decided to start a lifestyle blog years before most people (herself included) saw writing on the internet as a "real job."

But something inside pushed her to keep sharing—her inspiration and ideas, the beautiful spaces and delicious recipes that spoke to her.

Years later, she stepped back and looked at all that she’d created, and she realized she was living her dream of being an editor-in-chief. It didn’t look anything close to how she thought it would—it was better.

III. True Story

Lately, I’ve been craving the wisdom that comes from a life well-lived, shared by women older than me. I’ve found myself going back to memoirs written by women over 70, who have lived, failed, learned, and lived again. There’s a deeper truth found in their stories that can only come from experience. Some of my favorites are by Diane von Furstenberg, Anne Lamott, and Edith Eger.

IV. Our Story

Somewhere around the midpoint of my morning walk, my heart started beating faster. Less from the exercise, and more for the hope of seeing him on the street, around the same spot I’d been passing him most days. We’d become friends at work and lived in the same neighborhood. Now, both newly single, we both “happened” to pass each other on our morning neighborhood walks. We’d stop and talk. One day, he switched directions, and we walked together.

Two years later, we walked the streets of our future neighborhood to check on the progress of our under-construction house. We’d walk through the framed-out rooms and dream about the dinner parties we’d throw there.

Fast forward three more years, and we were walking that same neighborhood, pushing a stroller and trying to shake the fatigue of a long night with a new baby. Then that stroller became a double stroller. Pushing a toddler and newborn up a hill is the best weight training I’ve ever experienced.

And then in the blink of an eye, our walks became just the two of us again. Amid the school dropoffs and preteen schedules, we start our day the way we started all those years ago—walking and talking about everything, with the morning sun on our faces. Sometimes people stop us and say, “I’ve been watching you two walk since you were pregnant!” And I realize that these walks have been a way to stay connected and grounded, through every chapter of our lives together.

V. Color Story

I surround myself with soft, neutral shades. I want my home to feel like a peaceful blend of earth tones that whisper like a cocoon. So, I’m always surprised by how much I love my mother’s flower garden, an annual symphony of color that doesn’t shy away from any color of the rainbow. When I see her snapdragons and zinnias, roses and bougainvillea blooming up the walkway to her door, I’m instantly five years old again, pressing flowers into a journal and learning all their names. It was when I fell in love with beauty, and I never stopped seeking it.

VI. Travel Story

For our kids’ spring break this year, we packed up the car and headed out for a West Texas road trip—Marfa for a few days, then deeper into the desert to Terlingua and Big Bend. On our second evening, after a full day of exploring, we took a slow walk down a dirt road in Marfa, the sun casting its golden hour glow over the mountains. My hair was still damp from the shower, and the desert air was warm against my skin. And for the first time in a while, I realized I hadn’t thought about work or my to-do list in hours.

There’s a moment in every great trip when something shifts—I stop glancing in mirrors, I barely wear makeup, and I throw on whatever’s easiest from my suitcase. I’ve noticed it’s often when I feel most like myself. Sun-kissed, unhurried, fully present.

Lately, I’ve realized that the greatest luxury isn’t time itself—it’s choosing not to hurry through life. So often, I’m rushing to finish a project so I can move on to the next, even though I love my work. I’m rushing through a meal, even though I love food. I’m rushing through the kids’ bedtime routines, even though it’s the time of day I treasure most.

Sometimes, it takes a change in our environment to remind us: we don’t have to be in such a hurry. When we step outside of our routines—away from the endless productivity loops—we remember what it feels like to just be. And when we do, we open ourselves to more creativity, clarity, and new possibilities.

This is the real gift of travel. Not just an escape, but a reset—a reminder that slowing down doesn’t have to be about sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere. It’s a mindset that we can adopt, wherever we are.

VII. Bedtime Story

A few years ago, I was hit with a sudden bout of insomnia. One night, I woke up around 2 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep. The next night, it happened again. After a few days, I felt so out of it that it was hard to function. I was running on empty—exhausted, irritable, and completely drained. I dreaded bedtime and panicked at the thought of waking up in the middle of the night. I felt like I was losing my spark, and I was desperate for answers.

In an effort to reclaim the restorative rest I craved, I went on a deep dive into the topic of sleep. I read every book, saw doctors, and experimented with so much—from supplements to sleep trackers to the tiniest tweaks in my evening routine.

Over time, I figured out what really works and honed my routine to a science. I have to be pretty regimented about my sleep routine—I put my phone away at 9 p.m., adjust the thermostat, take my supplements, and make the room really dark. But I truly believe it’s the foundation of everything—how good we feel physically, our mental clarity, and our ability to show up and share what we want with the world.⁠

Thank you, Camille!