Switching lenses: A J-School grad’s venture into sustainable eyewear
On any given day, you might find Maureen Ryza, BJ ’17, rifling through flea markets in Europe, finding and curating pairs of eyeglass frames to repurpose. She’s not styling celebrities or designing costumes for television anymore, but uses her storytelling skills to bring eyewear back to life through her self-founded company, AZYR Specs.
A career in design and fashion sustainability seems a far cry from a traditional Missouri School of Journalism path – especially from Ryza’s original vision of becoming the next Erin Andrews. However, this unexpected path has led to the creation of a company where she can use her unique skills to make a true impact in the fashion industry.
Ryza had a plan when she came to Mizzou for undergrad. Growing up watching football with her cousins on Sundays, sports broadcasting was the clear choice to study. It wasn’t until she had those hands-on Missouri Method experiences in newsrooms that she decided a news path wasn’t for her.
“It was so confusing, cause that’s what I thought I wanted to do my whole life,” Ryza said.
She still enjoyed the storytelling aspects of the J-School, so she decided to switch her emphasis to Strategic Communication in her senior year.
Within a month of graduating in 2017, Ryza made the daunting decision to move to New York and intern at an advertising agency. Soon after, she found the world of styling and costume design, and got the chance to work on a movie that was set in 1975.
While dressing the characters for this show, she noticed the actors’ eyewear had old prescription lenses still in them, making them completely nonfunctional.
“ They were just props, like they were true 1970s glasses, but they were unusable because no one had changed the lenses on them,” Ryza said. “So I saw this opportunity to try and do that first for myself.”
From the moment she sold that first pair, Ryza saw the impact she would make by repurposing the innumerable vintage eyeglasses already on the market.
“That was incredible and ever since that moment, I just knew that that’s what I wanted to do,” Ryza said. “ From having a background in fashion and styling, I just see how wasteful it can be.”
The combination of high production rates, low quality garments and bad working conditions in fast-fashion business models contribute to significant portions of textile waste. Many of these conditions also apply to eyewear brands.
While many companies are implementing sustainability practices, there is a significant number of eyeglasses already in circulation. Through AZYR Specs, Ryza’s goal is to repurpose vintage frames and eliminate potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic from going into the landfill.
Reflecting back on her time at the Missouri School of Journalism, Ryza said, “The opportunities helped me more so craft whatever career it was that I would end up in.”
She credits learning how to film, edit, and use the Adobe Creative Suite as skills that got her to where she is today.
Ryza also created a one-credit documentary journalism course with J-School professor Stacey Woelfel. In this position, she interviewed artists at the Blue Note and created short promotional videos recapping their shows. This experience affirmed Ryza’s love of connecting with others.
From broadcast dreams to vintage eyewear, visual storytelling has been at the heart of Ryza’s career pursuits. For Ryza, getting out of your comfort zone is essential.
“It’s like the things that scare you, you know, they scare you for a reason because there could be such great reward there,” Ryza said.
Ryza’s advice for current J-School students and graduates is to try everything. When you say yes, you rarely have regrets – most of the time, that comes when you’ve said no.
Updated: March 13, 2026