Humans of CF: Dooley has designs on unique style

Audra Dooley is a ninth grade student at Peet Junior High. She is one of the many humans of Cedar Falls.

She likes to create things. “I like science and engineering, but I’m kind of a sad person when I’m not creating something with art.”

Her creations include her clothes. “This jacket I modified, and I’m making a cape right now with sewing and also full circle skirts.” She modified her jacket with sewn-in places and holders for gel pens and other creative supplies. It looks like a hidden rainbow that no one knows about until a flap of the jacket is lifted.

Dooley is involved in many things outside of school, all of them with a creative element. “I do First Tech Challenge (robotics), comic, zine, drawing and I take piano outside of school.”

“I am also actually working on a comic with Halie Frahm [another 9th grader at Peet],” she said. The friends collaborate on story ideas and write everything from scratch.

“I do most of the drawings and some writing for it,” she said. “We both kind of write and put it together.”

Dooley is exposed to galleries, art openings and artistic techniques because of her parents. Tim and Alexandra Dooley are both involved in the arts, and are often Dooley’s inspiration. Her dad is a professor of art at the University of Northern Iowa, and her mom instructs art and fashion design students there. “My mom loves fashion, and she is teaching a fashion and design class right now, so we have had fashion books around the house,” Dooley said.

About her unique sense of style, she said “I don’t really know where I get the rest of it. My mom dresses more girly, and my dad wears T-shirts.”

As Audra Dooley walks through the halls of Peet Junior High, her personality is evidence in her style and countless creations.

One word to describe Audra Dooley? “Outgoing.”