What I'm passionate about

Dear Dayre,

Two more days before @Evonnz and I fly away to Phuket! Ehehehehe.

I know Japan wasn't that long ago.. (about six weeks?) but man, feels like an eternity!

And since I got back, it's been super busy on TVD and all other work fronts.

In fact it's going to be June tomorrow wtf! Half the year has passed by just like that!

But I'm ready for a beach vacay lol but gonna be spamming the sunblock for sure!! I get tan super easily 😫

I used to swim a lot and whenever I swim regularly, my shade of brown is like..

This.

And this short hair obviously wasn't working out for me hahahaha

Also, my mother is so chio in this photo! Always lament about how she did not pass on her genes to me 😓

Celebrating mummy's birthday later tonight at Dempsey wheeee! Been a long time since we had a family dinner! And my parents invited my in-laws (YZ's parents) to join us tonight too 😁 Sounds like it's gonna be jolly!

Since I'm going on a beach vacay, I got my nails (finally) done!! Beach theme with seashell embellishments and all!

In true yinagoh style: pastel and rainbow haha! I love rainbow colors on my nails makes me happy looking at them.

Thanks to #thenailartelier!! My nails really needed a fresh coat of paint, now they are ready for vacay too!

It's only gonna be a short trip, just 4D3N, but I'm looking forward to it!

A close-up that I posted on Snapchat.. 😍 Whoopee to pretty new nails!

And of course, Sunday is another work day again: Photoshoot time so I can go for my short vacay with less guilt and worries!

Excited about the apparel for shoot later! 😍 My greatest satisfaction from shoots is seeing the beautiful end product photos on-site.

Though I'm wondering if it's time to start hiring another staff for TVD to handle more of the ops: including the photoshoots/styling, and more of the creative direction.

I'm considering hiring interns to help with ops and customer service too!

Any takers..? Hehehehe 😁

Please email me at ask.yina@gmail.com!

Tell me the following:
*Estimated work period commitment (for internship)
*What job scope you're interested in
(styling/creative direction, social media/marketing, customer service/ops)
*And tell me why I should hire you!

1st June also marks our sixth month anniversary, just like that 😱

And we got some really sweet gifts delivered from a lovely person: Valerie at The Artisans Apron!

I met Val at Blessed Brides and she's now started an artisanal bakes venture with her sister, who is so talented at baking. Just look at those gorgeous frosting swirls on the cupcakes! And they tasted very good too! They're @theartisansapron on Instagram!

Check out their cupcake bouquets. So gorgeous!

In my previous entry, I was talking halfway about dishing out advice as a business owner, and also doing what you're passionate about. And @littletinysun mentioned that many youngsters nowadays don't know what they love to do or are passionate about.

Hmm.. To be honest, I never saw myself in the apparel/fashion industry when I was a kid, or even a teenager!

In fact, I hated the idea of being a "boss" because I'm naturally lazy lol and I always felt like being a employer was so much less stressful and less fun.

Never did I see myself becoming a "blogger" or "influencer" too!

It bothers me to see young girls aspiring to become "popular" on social media or wanting to become "bloggers" because I don't know, somehow I feel like it's almost unhealthy for a young person to have such social media aspirations.

I came across this article via @merryloveweddings and it's so sad 🙁

A young 19 year old girl who appeared to be smart, talented, popular and pretty committed suicide despite the happy and beautiful lifestyle that she projected on Instagram.

And sadly, this struggle is so real thanks to social media nowadays.

Snippets of the article below:

"…THE LIFE MADISON projected on her own Instagram feed was filled with shots that seemed to confirm everyone's expectations: Of course she was loving her first year of college. Of course she enjoyed running. Her mom remembers looking at a photo on her feed and saying, "Madison, you look like you're so happy at this party."

"Mom," Madison said. "It's just a picture."

…Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self.

With Instagram, one thing has changed: the amount we consume of one another's edited lives. Young women growing up on Instagram are spending a significant chunk of each day absorbing others' filtered images while they walk through their own realities, unfiltered.

"No image captures the paradoxes of Madison's Instagram account more than the one she posted just an hour before jumping off the parking garage. Holiday lights are twinkling in the trees of Rittenhouse Square, and Madison put a filter on the image that produced an ethereal quality, almost as if the night is underwater."

…She seemed acutely aware that the life she was curating online was distinctly different from the one she was actually living. Yet she could not apply that same logic when she looked at the projected lives of others. Before going home for winter break, she asked Ingrid, who was also struggling at Penn, "What are you going to say when you go home to all your friends? I feel like all my friends are having so much fun at school."

Checking Instagram is like opening a magazine to see a fashion advertisement. Except an ad is branded as what it is: a staged image on glossy paper.

Instagram is passed off as real life.

Yes, people filter their photos to make them prettier. People are also often encouraged to put filters on their sadness, to brighten their reality so as not to "drag down" those around them. The myth still exists that happiness is a choice, which perpetuates the notion of depression as weakness.

Of course, I'm sure this girl was suffering from undiagnosed depression and had a lot more deep seated issues that caused her to want to take her own life.. But she was just 19.

And ironically, I can understand how she feels completely because for me, having a carefully curated Instagram feed is part of my job, a sizeable chunk of my income comes from my blog/social media and I can't deny the kind of attention and critical screening that I go through when I want to upload something on IG.

And when I look at the Instagram feed of other people out there, I can't help but to make mental comparisons at times. Wow, this girl is so gorgeous, that girl has such an amazing figure! This other blogger is always taking such incredible travel photos!

After which I start feeling lousy about myself.

But I feel that what this article really shows is the disparity between Instagram and real life: which we often forget when we're enviously looking at those perfect little happy squares on IG.

Time for photoshoot!! Carry on updating later!

*waves*

Yayyy ended shoot whoopeedoo!! Thank you dear @tasteofapple for being so chio always. Those legs need no photoshop hehehe~~ And yes I've already started editing the images! Efficiency on a Sunday, I love it.

Just met @evonnz at Millenia Walk to collect some Lorna Jane apparel from Hic'juice pop-up store, and I'm now headed for mummy's birthday dinner at Long Beach tonight!

Back to my earlier topic..

Who knows what's really going on in the life of that seemingly-perfect Instagram personality you follow?

Instagram is awesome and I love it, but I think we all need to be reminded that at the end of the day, life is a lot more than just a feed of pretty pictures.

I try to remind myself of that too!

So yeah, I'm glad I have Dayre for posting all my random thoughts and bad days and ramblings. And I think I feel more balanced too cos having to worry so much about whether that photo I post on IG is going to hit XX amount of likes or not is really very tiring sometimes 🙁

At least here, I don't worry about the amount of likes or whatever so much. It's really just a space for me to share my thoughts, feelings, and experiences that I wish to share about.

And that's also how I started in the "blogging scene", because I truly enjoyed sharing about my life, and writing because I loved the feeling of being able to "connect" to another person reading what I write and being able to relate to me.

Not because it's such a glamorous and perfect lifestyle and I get to attend events or get sponsorships and free products or fly around the world, although I am very grateful for those perks!

Forty minutes way too early for dinner so I'm sitting outside Long Beach now waiting for everyone else to arrive!!

And all primped up from earlier chui photoshoot self hahaha. Usually during photoshoot I look like an "ah sam" and feel like one too.

So glad we had a good shoot today and I feel less stressed now about being away next week!

It's very fun to travel and I love it, but I also put in a lot of OT hours to make up for it too! Was so reluctant to drag myself to office for shoot today.

One of the hardest part about being your own boss is that there is absolutely no one and nothing to help push you and motivate you.

Sometimes I just want to give myself a break but at the same time I know that I will feel so much better after I get the work out of the way.

💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

And that's why I mentioned that real passion for what you do will bring you very far!

As much as I sometimes complain about work or dread the hard work that accompanies photoshoots, I always feel hyped up after an awesome shoot or after a exceptionally successful collection.

But what is my passion, you ask me?

To be honest, I don't think that my true passion is FASHION, per say. I enjoy fashion and dressing up, but I think my true passion is in wanting to EMPOWER the average girl out there.

And every aspect of what I do is directly or indirectly related to that!

When I say empowerment, it's being able to value-add to another person's life.

For instance, with the apparel I sell on TVD, I'm very particular about cutting and fit. Because I myself am not a perfect size 6, and in fact, I've been fat for most of my life, I understand how it feels like to keep trying piece after piece of apparel and still not have a single piece look good on me 😭

That's why I always do my best to ensure that the cutting and fit of all the apparel I bring in on TVD are as good as possible! And when you wear it, you'll feel beautiful and stylish in it 😍

It's the same with my blog and other social media platforms. I hope that with whatever I share, I can somehow manage to empower another person out there with new perspectives, some newfound knowledge (even if it's sharing beauty tips/products) or just bring some positivity and inspiration to you 😁

Everyone should feel good about themselves!

That's why I love all my jobs!

It makes me happy to have been able to be impactful in another person's life, no matter how small or fleeting it may be.