Shannon, Photo by Jennie Raff

As a reporter and a writer I learned long ago that stories are everywhere. They can be at your doctor’s office, in your email inbox, or as I learned, at your hair salon. I happened to be reading tweets from my favorite local news anchor @TVAmy. She sent out a link letting people know that Martha Stewart had written a blog post about her recent trip to Greenville. I quickly clicked on the link to see what the domestic diva had to say.

Martha explained why she was in the area and how much she had loved Greenville’s downtown. She said she was able to meet up with her niece and nephew at Larkin’s, a great restaurant on the banks of the Reedy River. Martha even posted a photo of her with her relatives and much to my shock, her niece turned out to be a very familiar face. Shannon, Martha’s niece, has been my hair colorist of choice since I moved to Greenville six years ago. I’ve spent hours with this woman, talking about recipes, workouts and our favorite NYC hot spots. But in all those years I never knew that she had a celebrity aunt.

I happened to have an appointment with Shannon a couple of weeks after that and I told her about my discovery. She was very open, divulging what it was like to grow up with a mega-famous aunt. And on top of that she agreed to be the focus of our Girl Talk section in the January issue of Belle. So if you want to know more about Shannon (including what surprising thing her aunt taught her) just pick up a copy of the latest issue. And don’t forget that stories are everywhere, even in the most familiar places.