As the month of love and romance is upon us, come New York Fashion Week and all its frigid glory. I, for one, am fully prepared to layer away and brace the brutal cold that is New York winter. But prepping outfits and attending runway shows are least of my concerns. As the glitz and glamour of fashion week overshadow the intense prep work that goes back weeks in advance.

As bloggers, we don’t just sit around and wait for invitations and sponsored partnerships. If your aim is monetization off of your blog/social media, you have to seek out brand collaborations actively. What doesn’t make it on the gram is the endless researching, the excel spreadsheets filled with PR contacts, personalized email pitches, strategic planning, and the work we put into our creative content. Unless you have an agent or management team, you’re essentially running your own publication. In other words, you lead the creative direction by overseeing all original content-writing, photography, and branding.

Instagram is a visual platform, and part of the game is curating an aesthetic feed. It’s a digital space that is meant to inspire not a place to measure your self-worth or wallow in self-pity. It's easy to get lost in self-comparison but what you see on the gram is a curated reality and not actuality. If a stranger’s Instagram makes you feel bad about yourself, unfollow them. Be mindful of what you feed your mind; your confidence is your responsibility.

Self-worth and confidence go far beyond aesthetics; it stems from personal accomplishment and growth. You can curate the prettiest feed, wear the most expensive clothes, have the fittest body in all of the lands; your confidence will still quiver if you don’t define your unique purpose and set substantial goals for yourself.

PC: Michelle Sun

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @sharonlitz

<3,

Sharon

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