Crossroads

Hello, How are you guys doing ? Amazing I hope! I am writing a bit of a different blog post today. This is something that has been on my mind lately and I feel like I've been a bit absent on social media (especially on youtube) these past couple of weeks.  As you all know fashion blogs are a dying format. The original rise of Instagram, and now short form content like TikTok has basically made them obsolete.  I won't go into much detail because I've talked about this multiple times, but I've always kept up with it because I LOVE posting on this blog and taking photos. I do have a background in Photography so creating blog posts brings me so much joy. I no longer feel the pressure to try to build an audience on here because realistically the people that are reading this come from one of my other platforms. No one is searching up my blog to see what I'm posting.  It's liberating because I can post when I want and what I want...ok I still just post outfit photos but you get my point.  However the platform I'm struggling with is Youtube. 

Youtube has been a HUGE part of my life, from watching it after school throughout all of my teen years, to posting myself or years. I LOVED all of the fashion content that was constantly being uploaded and it was a huge community.  I loves fashion, beauty and lifestyle videos. There was styling videos, whats in my bags, travel vlogs, casual small vlogs (under 8 min), makeup tutorials, basically anything girly! I love diving into someone else's world through their videos. But with short form content on TikTok and Reels this type of content has basically disappeared from the platform. At least its not at the scale it once was. I feel alone over there and not part of a youtube community. I also feel like its hard for people to find my channel or watch my videos because its not what popular on Youtube.

Youtube is definitely the most connecting platform in my opinion.  On instagram/TikTok you can just post and thats it, people follow you but rarely unfollow. But Youtube is completely different,  You have to be able to grab someones attention for them to want to sit through one of your videos because they are longer. Building a connection is important. I also find youtube more intimate in the way that you slowly learn about another person through their videos. Kinda like when you have a TV show that has 25 episodes per season VS a 10 episode mini series. I feel like I connect better with the character if the show is longer and I see more sides of them as time goes on. Does that make sense? 

That being said, I don't think many people feel that way anymore. I think everyone is caught up in short form content* that no one is really uploading on youtube anymore, at least not fashion/beauty content. I know analysis/deep dives, history, movie review videos are performing well. Because the long format caters to those types of videos. So this is where I'm stuck and don't know what to do.  I want to keep posting fashion videos but I don't think many people are interested in long form content about fashion anymore? This is going to be the second week I go without posting a video and its keeping me up at night (not exaggerating). I asked you guys on my community page what kind of videos you want to see because I am all out of inspiration. I feel like anything I post won't perform well, meaning you guys aren't interested in that type of video... And I want to post videos that you want to see. Some of you gave me some great recommendations and I have ideas for a few videos for next week. Thank you to everyone that commented and for your support! but I feel like I still need to sit down and think about the future of my channel. 

Another factor that has nothing to do with the change in social media, and is more about a change in myself. like I said, I grew up watching youtube and reading fashion blogs and then on instagram. so I feel like my brain is conditioned to shoot content like a fashion blog/instagram. I know it sounds crazy but there is a specific style of photography we see (or used to see) on instagram. Low angle, the building perfectly in the background... you know the style of photography. I have been trying SO HARD to erase that style of photo from my brain for the past couple of years. I want my photos to look authentically vintage (1940s/30s) so I've spent the past few weeks on Pinterest looking at inspiration for the direction of my content. I want to edit my photos (colours) a bit differently and allow myself to get a bit more creative with photos. Video is a bit more challenging because there isn't much to reference in terms of inspiration. I'm still trying to find the direction I want to go in, its hard to film something without having an idea of what you want the end result to look like.  I'm trying to find a new/different way to film my videos but I just don't know what that is yet. 

It might take me some time to figure out what my content will look like so bare with me for a bit, I feel like I've had this issue time and time again but I am finally sitting down and making some changes. It just makes me sad that fashion videos have basically disappeared from youtube but maybe allowing myself to be creative in the way I film will be the creative outlet I need.  I'm not sure... as the title of this blog post states I'm at a crossroad and I'm not sure what to do. Sometimes I feel like Norma Desmond, in my vintage room not accepting the changing times (Minus the unstableness LOL). I just love what I do SO much, but part of this job is also growth and reaching new people so I have to keep that in mind as well.  If you have any suggestions or want to talk about the future of this type of content on youtube let me know in the comments below or DM me on instagram.  Thank you for hearing my ramble, this is something that's been on my brain for the past couple of weeks and I wanted to talk about it. 

* Before I finish this post I just want to make a final note on short form content: I am not against it, I think its a new format that allows people to be creative in a different way and I think that's amazing ! People have clearly made a career out of it and I'm sure my content would benefit from it numbers wise. I probably should be posting on TikTok but I've seen enough reels to know I wouldn't enjoy it. I also have so many platforms I post on that I don't need another one.  People have told me to just repost the videos I post on instagram on TikTok and just close the app. But I can't... I want to connect with you and talk in the comments. I'm tired of creators treating it like they are talking on a megaphone to people, I want my content to feel like a cup of coffee, one on one with a friend.  I don't know maybe I'm clinging on to the past and it will affect my content and opportunities I can get ? but at what cost you know?  Whats the point of having a large audience if you don't connect with them ?