Stay HVNGRY: Mary Baldwin student starts clothing brand, hopes to give back to community

Jamal Carter began sketching designs for his clothing brand on a piece of paper in his dorm room. It took five attempts before the Mary Baldwin University student was satisfied with what he had. 

"In high school I wasn't really artistic, but I always found a way to make shapes go with other shapes," he said. 

The design he came up with was the word Hungry, but spelled a little differently —HVNGRY. He added some claw marks to the design. He replaced the U with a V for trademark purposes, he said. 

Carter said the name stands for Humility, Vnfolds, Nonchalant, Gleeful, Relentless, Youngins. He wants to inspire others to follow their dreams. 

His dream, now, is to build this brand into something bigger, his own successful business that allows him to give back to others in the process, but when he arrived in Staunton as a college freshman he had no plans to start a business.

In the spring of 2019, Carter was at his work-study job at The Vantage Point, the school's office of personal and professional development.

A lot of times Carter, 20, who is from Woodbridge in Northern Virginia, was wearing clothes from a Washington, D.C.-based fashion line, EAT DC. The thing that Carter loved about the brand was, not only did it look good, but the company's founder, Malik Jarrett, had set up a non-profit to help give back to the D.C. community. That inspired Carter. 

While talking with Nell Desmond, the director of The Vantage Point, Carter mentioned he would like to do something similar. Desmond encouraged him to do just that, and do it now, not wait until he was out of college. 

"I looked at her like she was crazy," Carter said. "Me, being 19, I don't know nothing about running a business, running a clothing brand."