Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha York.
Samantha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Everything started when I was in middle school. I noticed how I would dress differently from my classmates but I never thought much of it. I was never a very feminine girl growing up which contributed to my different approach to my outfits.
Towards the end of 8th grade, I started posting “outfit pics” on Instagram to my 500 followers. Many of these included glitches edited pictures and headless shots of what I was wearing that day.
For a while, I would only post pictures of my outfit without my head in it because I wanted the focus to be on my clothes and nothing else. As I kept this up through high school and experimented with different styles, I noticed a drastic change in my social media following.
Before I knew it I had a bigger following from the creative youth in New York City than I did from my hometown. I always felt like the odd one out where I grew up and throughout my public school experience so it was a pleasant surprise to get positive feedback and compliments from complete strangers who were doing the same thing.
This past year I reached 13,000 followers and decided to take the next step with my platform, so I decided to create a fashion blog. I started the blog in September and I have used it to share the “behind the scenes” on how I style my outfits along with how to recreate the looks on a budget.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest obstacle that I have run into has always been personal. I’m still very young and I’m not directly in the fashion industry so I have run into circumstances where I have to push myself creatively to attract audiences in the best way I know I can.
There are a lot of times where I get very conflicted as to what I should do and I experience something similar to a writer’s block. Ultimately, I think it has helped me create my own unique look but I definitely wish I had a direct way to grow my platform through people who are experienced in this industry.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
samanthaaelise.com is a fashion blog that I started about 6 months ago. My site focuses on my style and how to easily recreate trending looks and unique looks of your own with things that you already own. I’m the proudest of the fact that I run my “business” on my own.
I created the sites, I style the outfits, write the posts, and control all content. To have this kind of responsibility at the age of 17 (when I first created the site) and now 18 has helped me mature and get an idea of what/where I want to take the site in the future.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was a huge introvert in school but I was outgoing and hyper around my family. Being so shy in school made me a great listener and as the years went along I came out of my shell. I was also a huge tomboy throughout most of my life, very athletic, and pretty busy due to being a dancer.
I have been a ballet dancer since I was 3 years old but that was something I always kept to myself until sophomore year of high school when I moved from Missouri to Boston to attend the Boston Ballet School.
I’m still attending the ballet school but I use my social media platform for fashion as my escape from the intense dance world. I’m hoping that I can find a way to combine the two in the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.samanthaaelise.com
Image Credit:
Meredith Hwang, Jack Grohman
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