I get asked some version of "how did you actually start doing this" almost every week, and for a long time my answer was some vague, flattering version of the truth. Here's the actual one — messier, slower, and a lot less strategic than it probably sounds from the outside.

The accidental start

My freshman year dorm room had genuinely terrible lighting, and I posted outfit photos from it anyway because I liked clothes and had nothing better to do between classes. There was no plan. I wasn't trying to "build a brand" or "grow an audience" — I just enjoyed putting outfits together and wanted somewhere to put the photos.

The part that actually mattered

I posted consistently, mostly because I liked doing it, not because a strategy told me to. In hindsight, that consistency — three, sometimes four posts a week for over a year with almost no growth to show for it — is the part that actually built the foundation everything else stood on.

"For the first fourteen months, growth was so slow I genuinely considered deleting the account twice."

The wake-up call

The shift wasn't a viral moment — it's never as cinematic as people want it to be. It was a slow realization that a handful of my posts, the ones where I actually explained my thought process instead of just showing the outfit, consistently did better. So I started doing more of that. Small adjustment, compounding results.

Early content days
One of the earliest photos that actually started getting real traction.

The milestones, honestly

2019

The dorm room start

No plan, no strategy — just genuine excitement about outfits and a decent iPhone camera.

2021

First paid brand deal

A small skincare startup sent three products and a $200 budget. I said yes to everything and learned lighting the hard way.

2022

Going full-time

Left my part-time job to focus on content entirely — the scariest and best decision I'd made up to that point.

2024

Crossing a million followers

Hit it on a random Tuesday while filming a grocery haul. Celebrated with the exact snacks in the video.

What I wish someone had told me sooner

  • Consistency beats a perfect strategy. I didn't have a content calendar for the first two years. I just showed up.
  • Slow growth doesn't mean it's not working. The compounding happens quietly, then all at once.
  • Treat it like a business the moment money enters the picture. Contracts, invoices, and a real understanding of usage rights should come before your first paid post, not after your fifth.
  • Say no more than feels comfortable at first. The deals I turned down shaped my audience's trust just as much as the ones I took.
7 YearsSince First Post
4 YearsFull-Time
60+Brand Partners

Final thoughts

None of this happened as fast or as strategically as it probably looks from the outside. If you're in the "fourteen months of nothing" stage right now — I promise that part is normal, and it doesn't mean it isn't working.