After the Show

Yes, it’s been a while.

I’ve been freelancing in the digital space for nearly four years. It’s hard to believe my blog is that old. As a newcomer to Chicago and a grad student with spare time over the summer of 2010, I started my blog to celebrate fashion while getting to know the Windy City. Within months it became a full-time job of its own. When I realized that I could be creative for a living it was an epiphany. A career as a creative had always seemed out of reach for me, like a dream. When companies began reaching out to me for social media projects, I realized I could leverage my blog into a professional career in advertising to make my dream come true. After all, being a professional fashion blogger, as glamorous as it is, was always just for fun. I never saw it as an end unto itself. Plus, full-time street style photography is a tough way to make a living. So I became a copywriter.

I’m extraordinarily lucky I was able to build a career in advertising based on the wonderful work I’ve done with all of my corporate partners. This year, I skipped New York Fashion Week to work on several agency projects as a freelancer. Thankfully, my decision paid off with a permanent job offer at Draftfcb a couple weeks ago. I’m excited to finally have an agency to call home, on a team I love, for a creative director who’s passionate about creating good digital work. It’s all the more thrilling to be part of an ongoing creative renaissance.

My blog has come full circle from a hobby to a job and back to a hobby once again. I wasn’t trained in advertising, and I didn’t go to portfolio school. All I did was create a blog and throw myself passionately into creating work. My photographs and blog posts got better over time. It took me almost four years to get to the point where a global ad agency would hire me full-time. Ira Glass was right.

So to anyone out there who wants to use social media to build a career as a creative, just get out there and do it!