“Working Like A Blog”

AUSTIN, TX– Do you want to own your own business in college and work on your own time taking pretty pictures of yourself wearing pretty things?

Well so do a lot of other women in college and out of college. When it comes to having a fashion blog, the competition is intense. In Austin Texas being a fashion-centered city, there are a handful of blogs that have reached an esteemed status like being featured in fashion magazines in Austin.

College students fashion can range from those who do not try very hard, wearing just your plain tee and athletic shorts. To those who take fashion and beauty very seriously and use the internet to flaunt their style and share tips with their fellow Austinites. But this is no hobby, as these girls have turned their blogs into a working business.

Most fashion bloggers here in Austin are mostly white females ranging from 20-30. Posting either 2 times a week or every day, they can reach up to 10,000 followers. Boutiques and clothing stores contact them for collaborations, and these ladies expect their share. But as I searched through the internet, only searching for Austin Texas fashion bloggers, I noticed that it was predominantly white female women around the ages of 20-24.

With Austin being so diverse and UT being such a diverse college, I was surprised to find that there really are not that many popular diverse bloggers. As I kept searching using hashtags, the most diverse people I found were mostly Asian women and a couple male bloggers.

I talked to my friend Sarah Wong who is a fashion/beauty blogger in Austin, attending The University of Texas studying Petroleum Engineering. Born and raised in Australia and then moving to Texas, her blog is one of her escapes to be all things girly. But this is no fun hobby, as she takes her work very seriously.  

She has had her blog for six years but only in recent years has she taken it more seriously. She posts about fashion, beauty tricks, and helps give college living advice. Dedicated to her work, she treats her blog as a business. “I believe in the compensation of the work I do and those who help with my photographs, who I pay to take my photos. It’s fun to do but I deserve to be paid for the work I put into everscreen-shot-2016-10-31-at-8-31-50-pmything.” Sarah explained. She hires people wanting to expand their portfolio of photography, and pays them for each shoot. “My blog is called The Bella Insider, Bella meaning beautiful. I want to show people fashion that is beautiful, simple, and classic” she explained.

Pictures of herself and her posts of her best college tips get the most attention from viewers. Instagram is also her most noticed platform for her blog. She gets about 6,000 hits every month on her website that she manages herself and updates twice a week. At only 20, Sarah is making money and being sent on trips commercializing products, all the while working hard in school and even being secretary of the Women In Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Organization at UT. She even runs that blog all on her own. Even though the competition is rough, Sarah told me that anyone should try it if they are thinking about it. But there is a lot of work to keep up with it all and please your target audience.