When first meeting Bonnie Campbell, people do not see a girl who was dispirited by an injury that sidelined her hopes of starting on the LSU women’s soccer team.
Instead, the  textiles, apparel and merchandising senior greets people with a smile and a vibrant energy. She proudly shows off the clothing designs she’s created, and one would never question this wasn’t her originally intended career path.  
Campbell began her University career as a freshman forward and midfielder for the LSU soccer team. She had a broken foot from playing in high school and was unable to play to start college while recuperating from foot surgery.  
Campbell’s first game back from surgery was an away game in Texas. LSU soccer coach Brian Lee put her in as a starter, and Campbell was ready to play. 
Lee said Campbell was a hardworking prospect of a player. 
“She was really positive and enthusiastic,” Lee said. 
However, 11 minutes into the game, her soccer career came to a halt. 
“I jumped up for a header [and] when I came down, I collided with one of their defenders, and I broke my tibia plateau,” Campbell said. 
Her femur was dislocated. her tibia cracked down the middle and all the ligaments in her knee were torn. Campbell underwent six surgeries, each done separately, to address the injury.
“It was the most painful thing for a parent,” Bob Campbell, Bonnie’s father, said. 
Bob said he was there with Bonnie for every appointment. While his daughter had the best doctors and therapists, he said he still wished he could have taken away some of her pain.  
Bonnie took her first step six months after the first surgery. Then, after another surgery, it was four months to the second walking point, and so on. She said after two and a half years, the surgeries were finally completed. 
During her rehabilitation period, she thought she would become well enough to play soccer again, but her surgeon, trainers and family knew differently. 
Lee said Bonnie had serious drive and was positive during her rehabilitation, but that it would be a long road for her to ever come back to soccer.  
“No one ever told her that her career path was ended until later so that she could keep her momentum going,” Gretchen Campbell, Bonnie’s mother, said. 
Gretchen said Bonnie knew she would become someone who would have a story that could be used to motivate someone else in the same situation. However, her daughter thought that story would be one of the “comeback kid.” 
Instead, it became something else entirely. 
“Eventually, they told me that they wanted me to rehab the best that I could, but that soccer was never an option,” Bonnie said. 
Luckily for Bonnie, while one door was closing, another was opening.
Gretchen said Bonnie’s sister is the one that told her to pick a career that was something she loved, not just something that paid the bills.  
When she began her University career, Bonnie was a kinesiology major. However, during rehab at the beginning of her sophomore year, she switched to textiles, apparel and merchandising. 
“My family and I always say that design was kind of what healed me. It allowed me to forget about soccer because I had been playing soccer since I was 4 years old,” Bonnie said, “It was my everything.” 
Bob said his daughter had two options. She could either say “I quit,” and give up, or she could open up to new opportunities. He said Bonnie’s love of fashion was always there, but her injury allowed that part of her to re-awaken. Bonnie saw an opportunity and she grabbed it. 
“She used her pain and redirected it into fashion,” Bob said. 
For Bonnie, the designs she creates and the scars from her surgery go hand and hand. Her company is named “Scar,” and the logo is a sketched drawing of the scars she’s sustained from her leg surgeries. 
She said scars can be external, like hers, or internal and are nothing to be ashamed of.
“Everyone has a hardship they go through,” Bonnie said. 
All of her designs are about “showing off your scars.” Everytime she sees her own scars, Bonnie said she becomes inspired by how far she’s come since her injury. Almost all of her designs include cut-outs to showcase scars as a badge of honor instead of a deformity. 
Gretchen said Bonnie’s designs exemplify her free spirit, and she doesn’t follow an ordinary path, thinking outside the box.
“She’s going to be who she’s going to be and not going to care what other people think,” Gretchen said.  
Bonnie said when designing, she loves using multiple fabrics in one look. She uses recycled fabrics, one being an old pillow case from her great-great-grandmother that appears in three of her garments from her show in fall 2014’s Southern Design Week.   
The goal of Scar is to create designs for a purpose. Bonnie said the profits she makes will go toward others’ surgeries. While her tremendous hospital bills were covered because the injury happened in a University game, most don’t have that opportunity. 
Currently, Bonnie is doing everything on her own but is focused on building her brand to make her dreams a reality. She said she will start selling her garments once she creates patterns and has seamstresses to help her. 
Along with her design business, Bonnie has a blog titled “Scars Are Stories,” on her website.
She said the blog is a place where she and other University athletes can talk about their injuries and how those injuries changed them. Bonnie said it’s an inspiring outlet for people who have gone through something scarring to find someone else who has gone through the same.
Now, as a senior, Bonnie can look back on her injury and say she “found something really special from it.” 
“She’s listening to that something inside,” Bob said. 
Bob said there are no coincidences in life, it’s just a person’s story: This is Bonnie’s. 
“You’ll never know until something happens to you, out of the blue, that you weren’t expecting, but it brought you to where you’re supposed to be. Or at least that’s how I feel now,” Bonnie said. 
You can reach Meg Ryan on Twitter @ The_MegRyan.

Gallery • 7 Photos

Javier Fernández

LSU senior Bonnie Campbell presented her fashion line Scar, inspired in a knee career ending injury that she obtained at an LSU soccer game during her freshman year.