Oh, how nice it is to get back to my voice. Hello! For a year now, I have felt lost as to how to get back to what feels like me — a core need to (gently) rant and insert my opinion wherever I can. Typing this now, I feel like I am going back to my original roots. Little 14 year old me in her all-white room in New Jersey (if you know, you really know) typing away not knowing that blogging could be her reality…let alone turn into her career. It is crazy after so many years to be in this place again. With that said, please don’t look up my old blog.
Navigating through our ever-evolving technological world, I have been stubborn. I know we all love TikTok but I have been struggling as to where I fit in and how to do it in a way that feels true to me. Video format I have always disliked, due to my genuine shyness and I also feel as if I have been raised on photographs alone (Tumblr being my origin comfort place, where nycbambi was born). This past year has been a reflection of where I fit in and how I fit into the fashion world at all. Sometimes I feel so shy and like it’s too big for me. Other times I feel a craving to be out there and talk about anything and everything and a confidence pulses through me to do so. On this platform, I think I can find a little mix of both. My voice can be heard but by those who genuinely want and care to hear it (if you don’t and are reading this out of curiosity, that’s fine too, I hope I don’t bore you).
I also remind myself that it was me who has gotten to where I am now and taking that first plunge of posting my photographs to Tumblr was the first 'fear’ I overcame. I haven’t done something scary in a while. Every single good opportunity has come to me because of conquering a fear, however minuscule that fear may be. This past year or two I have been doing personal healing, maybe which I’ll talk about soon, but now I am ready to face a fear career wise again. These words might not seem like overcoming a fear, but they are to me. What separates you from the other person is actually doing the thing you talk about doing. So here we are.
It is a curious thing how I got to where I am now, “influencing” for a living (maybe we can have an article about the negative connotation behind that word, which I feel personally and deeply). I don’t argue with that negative connotation, by the way.
I started when I was 14; living in the suburbs, working retail jobs after my stint working in a restaurant coat room, and completely obsessed with Tumblr. I was dying for an outlet to share my own personal amateur outfits and photographs, what you can imagine those would be at that time. I was working for Brandy Melville when I was 14 and used that job to sort of start my styling hobby and fall deeper in love with clothes. I shared the photos I took on my own personal Tumblr, christiescloset. I feel like no one believes me when I say this, but I genuinely had no expectations from it. It was an itch I had to get out, much like this one, and didn’t know about traditional blogging or that this could evolve into what it has today. I know this would be a good time to insert old photos by the way, but I am not that modest.
Slowly but surely strangers started messaging me, following me, asking for fashion advice…I was in heaven. To have someone value my fashion opinion…to this day, it boggles my mind. I started my own separate christiescloset Instagram, kept posting, kept working, and at eighteen moved to New York. That is when the name NYCBambi was born, it was my way of establishing my new geographical location as well as hinting at that I was (still am) a deer in headlights with no idea what I was doing. I studied fashion marketing at LIM College. Throughout college I still kept at it and it grew.
I was lucky to have gotten into it as early as I did. I’m not sure if I entered now if I would be anywhere near as successful. I hit that pocket where everyone was excited about Instagram, blogs were taking off, engagement was through the roof, every post performed better than expected (whereas now you’re lucky to have a twelfth of engagement you had in those days). It also helped that I am white, skinny, fit the mold of your typical fashion sort of girl, a privilege I don’t forget to this day propels me forward. When I graduated college, I was signed to an agency and was making money from partnerships. I took the plunge to do it full time, once again, a huge fear I overcame. I can definitely do a post dedicated to the woes of freelancing. Now I have been working solely on Instagram full time for five years.
I am hugely grateful for where I am now, though social media is shakey and everything seems fleeting. I constantly think about my younger self and it’s funny because she doesn’t feel that far away. It feels harmonious to name this Substack NYCBambi, I am still her and the name feels like a little kudos to all of it. I am ready to talk about anything that you all would like to hear. I’m thinking weekly fashion wants, many mood boards, interior design, music, Q&A, trend forecasting. I am very excited and can’t wait for you all to learn more about me or just for us to feel like a community again. I am very well aware that is all on me by the way. I have just needed time to breathe and find myself again.
Now I am found and I am excited for us to talk. Welcome 🌟