Storyteller

 

Remember that one kid in elementary school who would always color outside the lines? That was and is still me, except I do it on purpose, always. With a touch of whimsy in my wide open heart, I’m constantly looking to break down walls and explore that fluid grey space between “what is” and “what could be.”

That was how I started my “self-branding” speech at New York University the other evening. Rather than beginning with the usual “Hi, my name is ___,” I toyed with several openers during the preparation process, all embracing a storytelling angle, because if you strip away everything down to my very core, that’s essentially who I am. I’m a writer, a storyteller, a painter of words.

In 2014, this space was born out of that desire to create, capture, and immortalize feelings and thoughts through images and words. I’m forever that girl walking around lost in thought and music, with wind in hair, camera in hands, head in clouds. A couple of weeks ago, I was huddled in a coffeeshop with a fellow blogger, chatting away about our fashion posts. Immediately, I noticed two girls who had been typing away on their laptops at an adjoining table exchange glances, and then begin exchanging notes to each other on their screens before moving away to a farther table  to continue their discussion.

“Fashion blogging” often receives a lot of negativity, especially since it has become such a saturated niche. Regardless, it’s a form of creative outlet, and although I’ve been striving to break away from being labeled as just a fashion blogger, I couldn’t help but feel a little indignant. We’re all content creators and creatives, and regardless of whether we’re respectively passionate about fashion, music, food, film, writing, travel, photography, or even coffee, we’re each bringing a new perspective to that particular niche, and what’s amazing is that we get to view them through each other’s eyes and soul. At the end of the day, we all wake with the same sunrise and feel with the same sunset, yet we each experience every second of it so differently. Celebrate creative freedom. This is a community lucky enough to have so much diversity to build upon each other, creating things that only collaboration across the most diverse passions can achieve. There is no room for petty and arrogant negativity. Tune out the scorn – that white noise – because this world needs more creatives like us.

And this is exactly what I envision josephine-ellen to be. After a bit of a renaming and a rebranding, this is now a safe space for creative ideas, happy collaboration and artistic execution. It is a form of escapism, a place for rediscovery. There will always be storms brewing and people criticizing, but I’ll still be here, true to myself and to you, striving to push out colorful content and reigniting dimming embers. It’s forever about exploring, creating and inspiring.

Now let’s go make some magic happen.

Film: Dylan Lopez