Instagram is my Boyfriend.

And we’ve been serious for about 6 months now. Ok not my actual boyfriend, I know I’ve been single for quite a while but I’ve not become completely deluded or given up all hope yet – don’t worry Mam. The aim of this post (my first blog post, yay!) is to explain the relationship I have with the gram and how I started this blog, as I thought that would be a good way to kick things off.

It all began when I had a lot of time on my hands back in October as I was struck down with glandular fever. As a single gal (feeling very Carrie Bradshaw rn) I felt so lonely being off from work and isolated from the world, my family and friends were incredibly great but I was mostly in quarantine for a good couple of months. I needed something to take my mind off my illness. I turned to Instagram as it was the only thing I could manage to do from my bed. I realized I had a lot of outfit pictures I’d never posted before and was surprised when the likes and follows started to roll in.

After the feedback I’d received I started to take it more seriously, I changed the name and made it a business page, I even bought this domain and the email ad, you know just incase. By December time I started to feel better and began taking outfit pics on the reg, around Christmas I reached my first 1 thousand followers and it was an actual buzz. Fashion blogging is always something I’ve flirted with (I remember speaking to a successful fashion blogger telling her I’d love to start one but wouldn’t know where to begin) but it was at that 1k point when I thought ‘You know what I can actually do this, why not me?’.

T-shirt and beret: Fanclubclothing.com/Trench: Miss Guided (similar)

I’d found something to get me through that terrible time as it gave me a renewed sense of purpose, it was actually making me feel better day by day, maybe because I was receiving such nice comments which cheered me up. I’d also grown a little support network with some wonderful (and down right hilarious) gals who all shared the same female empowerment sentiment and interests that I had. I began to wake up and go to bed with instagram, I was no longer alone in my room! (In a none creepy way)

Aside from internet pals, before you think I’ve become a hermit, it’s also become something fun to do with my IRL mates. We’ve now made it a thing of going for a brunch catch up then taking outfit pics (by far my favorite weekend activity). Popping out at work on my lunch break with my work wife to get that all important outfit shot is also one way to break up the working day. Who needs an actual boyfriend when you’ve got that kind of support from your gals eh!

To me the gram it’s about SO much more than gaining likes, although don’t get me wrong they don’t go amiss ;). As a fashion graduate I have a real passion for the creativity of styling so it really does p*** me off me when people scoff at it and make remarks such as ‘it’s not real life though’. Because actually for some, it is. From what I know of the industry so far a lot of work goes into it. Whether you think it’s real life or not it brought me back from the brink of a very depressing time, for that I’ll forever be grateful to the gram and defend it as if it were my boyfriend.

As with any relationship it can be love/ hate, maybe when your pics don’t do as well as you’d hoped and it makes you feel a teeny bit down when you’ve put time and energy into them or when you’re struggling for content as it’s been a very rainy week, when that happens I do begin to feel the pressure creeping in BUT that’s all self imposed pressure, there are no rules and that’s what’s so great about the gram. Like every good boyfriend it will always be there (unless it ever gets replaced for a new younger model named Vero) but let’s not think about that and just enjoy the romance.

A x

Photos by: Andrew McGovern