It all started with a passion. An inkling of interest. Doesn’t it always?
My love for pictures runs deep. I identify as the millennial who brought the Nikon30 to a party or a night out. That following day, the album was trending on Facebook with 450 photos and 84 tagged users.
Every year I was asking my parents for a digital camera for Christmas. Lucky for me, trends never die, they collect dust in the closet, then circumvent their way back to mainstream. In the year 2023, are you even a vlogger without a digital camera?
Staying on the collecting dust theme, I am a slight hoarder at heart. I don’t like to let go of things I know hold future value, like digital cameras! Lucky for me, I kept the 2008-2011 gifted cameras. And they’ve paid themselves off 10x fold.
When I got to UConn in 2015, I continued taking photos out of interest and passion.
I was approached with an opportunity to work with a 3rd party marketing agency. Basically you are paid by the marketing agency, and they work to represent you and finalize the deals and contracts of very well known brands.
My first paid brand deal was with, Aerie. Yes the sister to American Eagle. And in college, I was getting the big bucks to post content incorporating their brand. #AERIEREAL campaign had just kicked off in 2018 and I was representing 1 of 4 UConn #aerieambassadors. I even got the chance to meet Iskra! She was the sweetest soul, I understand why Aerie asked her to be the face of the campaign!
Remember when I mentioned I was working with an agency? Well that agency had more brands that were interested in my content. Next I worked with 5Hour Energy, then Tinder.
All this bragging is going to end with a simple message. Follow your interests until they come knocking on your door. Almost 4 years since I’ve graduated from UConn and now the circle is closing as I publish bellybeats.