By Rebecca Carroll
Photography Myron Themrmr Watkins II
SHE IS: The founder of MeMe Design and Events and a rising star on the Detroit social scene. Anderson throws a mean ’80s-themed party and has a major weak spot for Berlin, where she lived for a year after earning a degree in architecture from the University of Michigan.

MAD LOVE FOR DETROIT: “Detroit gets a bad rap,” she says. “Nobody knows how cool it is, because it’s such an insider city—similar to Berlin. I love the grittiness of having an abandoned building on one street and a million- dollar townhouse on the next. I love that juxtaposition of decay and beauty.” Spoken like a true architect.

THE TURNING POINT: In 2004, Anderson volunteered to work an event called Linen on the Lawn: “It was theatrical, it was design, it was stress and adrenaline,” she recalls excitedly. After 18 months of holding down a day job in management for a construction company that developed commercial real estate, while producing various galas and gatherings on the side (including Detroit’s annual BravoBravo! soiree), she bit the bullet and decided to pursue her passion full-time.

WHAT’S IN A NAME: MeMe, the moniker of Anderson’s year-old business comes from a pop song. After a bad breakup, she heard “It’s All About Me” by Mya, which features the chorus “It’s all about me, me, me….” Anderson’s heart was breaking, but her entrepreneurial wheels were spinning: “I was just crying and thinking, “It should be about me, me, me!”

SUMMER HOT LIST: Fresh on the heels of her off-the-hook parties One Night in Cuba and Back to the ’80s Jam at the Detroit Yacht Club earlier this year, Anderson’s projects for the summer include a hush-hush celebrity wedding and a posh fundraiser honoring Jay Leno and Lee Iacocca, among others.