9: SELFIES IN LEATHER

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day.

I was on YouTube for the first time in a while, watching tons of videos by "thatschic" and "i-D." I spent hours, eyes glued to my laptop screen, completely inspired by the incredible content these individuals and teams had created.

(I'm actually going to do a more in-depth post on my favorite sources of inspiration as of late.)

Yes, creating one post of week focusing on a "look" is all well and fine, but why should blogging have to be that mundane? Sure, there are creative aspects to writing an "ootd" blog post, and each post takes a few hours from start-to-finish. You have you style a look, find a photographer (or, in my case, bribe your mom or brother into taking pictures of you on your iPhone), edit the photos, write the post, edit the post, then share the finished product to your other social media accounts. It's tedious, but at the end of the day, the resulting content isn't all that different from that of any other "fashion/style blogger" trying to "make it big" or whatever.

One of the reasons why I love Instagram so much is because it allows me to express my creativity. I don't have to post pictures that look like everyone else's. Through this platform, I can bring my own creative vision (pardon how dramatic that sounds, but...) to life. By sharing my own ideas in a visual format, I am creating a portfolio that allows me to connect with other creatives both in my city, and around the world. We are drawn to each other's talents, visions and aesthetics. I have been inspired by, and have learned so much from, the many people (everyone from bloggers, to people working at creative agencies, to designers, to photographers) I have met through Instagram.

And yet, I continue to blog #basic blog posts that all go a little something like this: "I LOVE this skirt for Fall - the color is just perfect and the cut is to-die-for!," or, "Here are five different looks featuring my favorite pair of boyfriend jeans!"

Mildly interesting? Possibly. Creative? Not at all.

Which brings me to the epiphany I mentioned at the start of this slightly pretentious rant.

If I really want to express my creative POV and inspire others, I need to learn more/do more/work more to create content that goes beyond an obvious/fake-sounding description of a "SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL LOOK!!"

I've been doin' a lot of researchin', learnin' and brainstormin'. With that, I give you the first post of a series I've decided to start, called "9." The basic idea is to present 9 pictures of either something in-progress, or of something that doesn't require a lot of copy.

In this one, I decided to compile nine selfies I took whilst wearing a leather jacket on the first rainy/cold day I had experienced in MONTHS.

I was insanely happy because of the cooler weather (by "cooler," I mean 65 degrees), over the moon because of the rain, stoked about my purchase of this Ganni leather jacket, and on a slight sugar high from the "sugar lips" sour gummy candies from Sugarfina I had just eaten. These nine pictures are a visual description of a short (probably five-minute) period when I felt f***ing awesome.

I'm excited about the plans I have for my blog and the content I hope to create and share with you all! Let me know what you think about this new kinda thang I'm trying :) I'd love to hear your thoughts!