My IG journey

Lately I’ve been thinking about aging and realize that I am constantly comparing myself to the “over 50” women influencers on Instagram. There are some that I am really inspired by and others, through no fault of their own, leave me with much self-doubt and disappointment in myself. The lives they present seemed filled with joy, fancy vacations, and lots of lovely things. They get spa treatments, facial rejuvenation and procedures, luxurious skin products and makeup and last but not least the CLOTHES! There is no doubt that these women are fabulous at presentation and work hard to present this to the many IG fans. They are considered the rock stars of IG and definitely get some celebrity treatment.

Then there is my account. I started probably about 5 years ago. My goal was to just present myself making the most of the clothes that were in my closet. I would put looks together and my photographer husband would, sometimes begrudgingly, take my picture. It was a fun hobby at first and I was really motivated to build my account. It was growing a fair amount until one day I had been put on restriction by the secret IG gods for reasons I never fully understood. I believe maybe they thought I was using “bots” whatever that means. I eventually built it back up until one day it seemingly just stopped growing. I soon began to realize that many successful IGers were really good at shopping and creatively presenting their newly purchased items to the IG audience. So good that retailers took notice and began sending them free items to present. But not me.

I was in the process of going minimal and was doing the opposite. Moving away from my permanent tropical background to the new minimal apartment life in DC did not fare well to growing an Ig audience. Along with trying to minimalize “the stuff” in my life I found myself maximizing my worries and critical thoughts. These thoughts led to a defeatist attitude and I wanted to quit. Besides, my sense of style had taken a hit. I finally decided to try and embrace my new appreciation for athleisure and focus on the beauty of my new surroundings.

Recently those same IG gods added a feature that allows users to hide the number of likes from public view. This has been a game-changer for me because I can focus on posting what I like and not worry about what people think. I actually used to delete posts that didn’t get many “likes” thinking I was somehow making my account look better.

Here I am now enjoying this project. I focus on documenting my life and personal fashion. I am not comparing myself to other women and their successes and instead I’m focusing on my own achievements and the beauty that surrounds me in Old Town Alexandria. I love minimalism and sustainability and take pride in wearing much loved pieces over and over. I don’t feel the need to shop shop shop. I have to admit I would gladly love to be “gifted” beautiful things in return for posting about them. For now I’m satisfied with being my best self and encouraging anyone who crosses my path to do the same.