As many of you know, I have been on the Instagram come up hustle (as my good friend likes to say), and I have been able to collaborate with a variety of brands.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as easy as it looks… it very much is a part time job.

It takes so much work, even to have a sub-par one like mine. Only somewhat learning the way it works can be exhausting. I’ve read countless articles and But on the same token, for me, it’s not that serious. I’m not out here pretending I’m someone I’m not. It’s still me, just that I’m taking way more pictures and annoying my friends much more. My life hasn’t all of a sudden changed, I just document it more (often in better lighting).

And still, I don’t have the technological savviness to use presets (I’m only now learning what they are), or to have a perfectly seamless blog (I just had a friend undo the disaster it was for a year—lol). I write and have my friends take pictures (most of the times they’re subpar when compared to the perfect photos of other bloggers taken with anything but their phones—the horror).

I don’t wear special things that I later change out of, and I don’t suffer in the cold to take a picture in a cute mini skirt or in the heat with the perfect turtleneck, I do what I regularly do. In fact, I don’t even iron my clothes—never have, never will. I don’t curate my pictures so that my Instagram looks like the gods smiled upon it; it’s colorful and all over the place—just like me. And until I have the money or the time, it’s kind of just going to stay the way it is.

I guess people will have to follow me if they like me just the way I am.

Sorry folks, but I’m not perfect and neither is my gram. Brands that want to work with me, will have to deal with the fact that, for now, I’m just a B student when it comes to Instagram. That I have a little kid, and I do what I can. That I do my own hair and makeup and force my poor, picture-hating husband to take my pics in crappy lighting to later over expose them…all on my phone.

Honestly, it’s who I am. I’m real. And maybe one day that will change (I promise you the day it does, I will be getting paid for it and you all will know); but until then, you’ll just get me. And I’ll just work with brands I like and I believe in. I can’t promote things I really don’t love, and I think most of my friends know that. 

And I don’t criticize those of you who do all these things. Good for you; I applaud you. It’s so much work. People really have no idea. All you content creators, who have perfect instagrams and are constantly working—I see you. I know it’s difficult, and I appreciate you guys because I love me a good gram. I am just not at that level yet… I mean, look at those wrinkles!