A collection of young creative women discuss the topic of self confidence within the creative world.
Self confidence had always been something I really struggled with growing up. Coming from a small rural town surrounded by welsh farming kids, someone who was obsessed with Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Britney Spears as you could imagine didn’t really fit in that well. When I was at home in my bubble listening to their music and studying every single fashion show from the early 90’s onwards like my life depended on it I had no worries what anyone thought of me and I was overflowing with confidence. But as soon as I would go to school it would disappear instantly and I would always try to “fit in”.
I was never really happy with myself or how I looked and I would always shove my ideas and dreams to the back of my mind and just did what everyone else did because I saw them as confident people (because they were happy) which I thought I would become if I did what they were doing. And in all honesty that stayed the same for a number of years until I realized that true confidence and self love comes from being happy and comfortable in your skin. It didn’t magically happen overnight but slowly but surly, bit by bit the more I started living life for myself the more happy I was becoming which meant I was becoming a lot more confident with myself.
Today a huge amount of my confidence comes from the clothing and fashion I wear. Fashion and music have always been my biggest passions and finally fully embracing them and myself has giving me such amazing confidence and outlook on life. I get a lot of my style inspiration from watching new and old fashion shows and also from the people I follow on Instagram and one day I hope to have a career in either or, or both as I hope to inspire people in the way I have been and still am being inspired.
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Hey Hey everyone my name is Sasha aka Sasha Fierce I would describe my personal style more so like all over the place. I usually either like to dress up or down and when I dress up I go for a chic luxury look very simple with either all black or I’ll color block, && when I dress down I’m usually in a street wear look giving you a nice vans sneaker or some uptowns. I gain confidence and deal with societies standards just overall being myself not following others or doing the NORM
But I love everyone and usually get along with everyone for the most part and sprinkle good vibe salt all over the place.
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Getting ready in the morning is often my favorite part of the day. I love waking up and letting my mind take control of what direction my appearance will take for the next twelve hours. When I am looking in my closet and putting an outfit together or in my bathroom doing my makeup I am focused on nothing but those things. I like to think of this infatuation with my looks as a mix of an outward confidence and an utter respect and love for the creative field and art that is fashion.
I pull bits and pieces of inspiration from everywhere. My older brother has always been one of my biggest inspirations in all aspects of life, and in my opinion the way you lead your life has a direct correlation with the way you dress. A versatile lifestyle leads to a versatile wardrobe. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and for this I am so thankful. The Bay is renowned for being a melting pot for all kinds of people, and after growing up around all these different types of personalities, I have learned to appreciate small aspects of all types of styles. Most of my friends are also very into different types of fashion, and so I get a lot of inspiration from them as well. This appreciation of variety translates into music as well, having grown up on all different kinds of music; Black Flag, Sinatra, Radiohead, Wu Tang, Sublime, etc. This broad taste in music has carried into my current life, which affects the way I dress profoundly. If I had never heard or watched the music videos of My Chemical Romance or Yung Lean, my style would be so far off from what it is now.
I am nowhere close to confident in every aspect of my life, but I do have a pretty strong sense of self. I know what I love and I know what I stand for, and fashion is one of those things. Now, I will never not be excited to put together a look and rock it with confidence and ease, but it was definitely not always like this for me. In eighth grade, I started to experiment with my looks in ways that my peers were extremely uncomfortable with. Looking back on my style then, it was not revolutionary or honestly even that good, but it was not what was normal or societally accepted at the time. Each day, I was faced with the choice of making myself happy or making other people happy in terms of my appearance. When I first started to express myself through my clothing, I received harsh criticism from so many people I knew. People that I looked up to, people that I wanted to like me, people that were extremely close to me. At first, I was very discouraged. It seemed that as soon as I had started to like the way I look, I began second-guessing my taste. However, each day I decided to continue wearing what I wanted to wear instead of what I thought others wanted from me. My real confidence was only achieved after I realized that dressing for myself is so much more rewarding than dressing for anyone else.
I think that social media, especially Instagram, is an extremely powerful platform for people to express themselves. Online communities change people’s standards vastly, and this can actually be a good thing. I feel more comfortable sharing my pictures on Instagram when I know that there are other people in the world that might see it and appreciate it or even be inspired by me. I am inspired by so many people on Instagram, but I also realize that this can be a slippery path into self-consciousness. If you look at one person’s Instagram who you think is perfect for too long, you begin to forget that they, too, are a person outside of social media. In addition to feeling pressure from the standards of social media, I go to a fairly conservative high school. Here, due to confidence in my style and lack of dress code, I dress how I please. Still, this does not mean that I do not notice the disapproving eyes of my peers. This can be uncomfortable to deal with as somewhat of an introvert, but I know that as soon as I look in a mirror, my uncertainty will be quieted by the resounding knowledge that if I want to look good in my own eyes, I can.
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A few weeks ago when I was shopping, the sales associate asked me what I was into and what my style was. I didn’t know how to explain it then, and I still don’t know now. What I can say is that it ventures from my grandpa’s closet to the newest fad on Highsnobiety, and everything in between. All I know is that I’ve come a long way from my deathly embarrassing hipster Tumblr days’ style. Back in the day, I wanted to wear what everyone else was wearing; my personal style was whatever was trending at that moment, never after, and (god forbid) before. I tried to find one distinct look I was into and wanted to conform to one particular aesthetic – didn’t work back then, still isn’t working now. Over the years, I’ve stopped trying to find a niche to fit into and instead wanted to stand out and be unique (most cliché phrase in the history of all things fashion.) It’s worked out pretty well so far.
I can’t lie, I’m not the edgiest account on Instagram and probably won’t ever get featured on snob shots, but I’m okay with that. I’m comfortable in what I wear, whether it be a full sweatsuit or a LBD, and I’m pretty content either way. A lot of the time, I look for the tackiest and ugliest pieces on the street and find a way to make it (slightly) less atrocious. It’s just whatever sparks my interest, in all honesty.
I was born in Beijing but I grew up in Vancouver, so whenever I go back it’s still a culture shock. It’s ridiculously conservative in China, and I kind of enjoy just seeing how far I can push it before I get yelled at ( mostly by my parents though, oops ) I think my confidence genuinely stems from my lack of care of how I’m perceived; I kind of just do whatever I feel like and as long as I enjoy it, it’s all gravy.
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I love to be able to feature and talk about other inspiring women and men on social media. Everything from fashion, art, lifestyle it all has it’s place in the creative world. Connecting with others through our work and creativity has been the most inspiring thing to be apart of. If you’re interested in collaborating with me or featuring your creative work on geenarae.com contact me below.
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geena rae 
Wow, I absolutely love this. Amazing post .xx
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thank you love!
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I looooved this post, they’re all pretty stylish and awesome ladies! ❤
https://danielasoriano.com/
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thank you!!
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