VIVIAN KELLMAN

vivian kellman was born in new york, new york to baird and gerri kellman on september 16th. she has an older sister, madelyn, who is 7 years older.

the two sisters were raised in a loving, nurturing home. gerri was career focused, as she was a lawyer before her daughters were born and she intended to stay one after, however she always did her best to make time for her daughters. they went to the best private schools in the city and when they weren't in school, gerri took pains to make sure she spent time with her kids. their father worked both in new york and scotland and so they saw less of him, however he was always around for important events and made sure to make up for lost time with his daughters whenever possible.

when vivian was seven, her father died. he was overseas at the time. madelyn and her sister were pulled out of school to attend the funeral.

given that she was so young at the time, she didn't understand the loss as much as her sister did. she felt it though and it certainly weighed heavy on her childhood. when she was eight, her mother took vivian to see a child psychologist to help her deal with the grief. it was clear she wasn't processing it as well as her sister seemed to be. in grief counseling, vivian found ways to manage her emotions in order to deal with the loss better. she grew closer to her sister as well, as the grief counselor recommended the sisters find things to do together at least once a week. the seven year age difference affected the girl's relationship quite a bit, but losing their dad did bring them closer together.

by the time vivian entered high school, her sister had already gone off to college overseas. she relished in being the only kellman sibling and found herself to be quite popular amongst a certain crowd. she was often compared to her sister though, and encouraged to put more effort into her studies. all this comparison did was make her much less interested in school. frustrated, vivian focused more on friendships, parties and what she did like. she liked taking pictures. she liked finding the beauty in every day life. she liked romance. she graduated from a phone camera to a film camera. she spent hours out in the city every week, taking pictures and then in the dark room developing them.

she didn't start out being good at it, but taking pictures and developing them became her outlet. when she wanted to be alone, she went to the dark room. people always expected her to be on, always expected her to set the tone and agree with things. she didn't think much about college before it was time to think about it. she didn't care much about it, so she ended up just following one of her friends to nyu. she originally went in undecided, but chose to major in photography in her second year.