Ayana Lage
What’s it like to live so publicly through your blog?
Even before I started blogging, I was relatively open about my life online — in 2015, I wrote a first-person essay about being hospitalized for depression and anxiety that gained a lot of traction. So it feels natural to me to live publicly through my blog, but it can be unnerving to meet complete strangers who know so much about my life!
Is it hard to keep an authentic feed?
Yes and no. I try to always keep it real in my captions, but the pressure to have a curated feed makes it difficult to ever feel like things are 100% real. I don’t ever just snap a picture and throw it up, you know? There’s editing, applying presets, tweaking little things in Lightroom and Photoshop...it’s a process. But at the end of the day, I am presenting my authentic self. Just a curated version, I think.
What is the main goal of your blog? Is it the goal you had when you began?
Love this question! My main goal for blogging is to inform and inspire millennial women. When I launched my blog, it was fashion-focused and I didn’t really veer away from that, so my priorities and goals have definitely changed in the last 2.5 years.
What’s it like being an influencer as a WOC?
It’s interesting! On one hand, brands are finally starting to prioritize working with a diverse roster of influencers, so I do feel like I’ve had a fair amount of opportunities. But on the other hand, I still see brands that only work with straight-sized white women, and it can be discouraging to feel like you don’t fit the “Instagram influencer” mold.
There’s been a trend amongst influencers of showing “Instagram vs. Reality”, with behind-the-scenes looks at certain photos. What are your thoughts on this trend?
I think it’s amazing! I sometimes shoot “behind-the-scenes” videos showing how a photo comes together, and I always get incredible responses from people who are grateful that I’m being honest about what it takes to get a photo. I think that it’s a fun reminder that influencers are just normal people.