We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amia Serrano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amia, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Now I am, but in the beginning I wasn’t.

I styled part-time and interned with no pay the first few years of my career as a stylist and finding work was harder back then than it is today because Instagram was just coming out along with LinkedIn. The way I found work was actually through Model Mayhem and Craigslist.

It took a long time to network and build a solid portfolio so that people will hire me and I’m still building, still learning, still evolving, but it feels really good to earn a living for it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In the beginning of my career as a fashion stylist I was actually working a full-time job for the Department of Justice. I would use my vacation and sick leave and when that ran out I would use leave without pay just to style projects during the week and normal business hours or try and style some on the weekends when I was off of work. These projects weren’t paid either. I even interned for a stylist that I found on Craigslist, which was also for free and for the experience. A lot of sacrifice of time and money on my end.

Eventually, I got was contacted on LinkedIn by a tv producer to style their tv host and, of course, I took it. I then started getting so busy with the show and my schedule becoming more sporadic with multiple shoot days every week, I had to either resign from my full time job or go part-time and show up on days I’m supposed to be there. I decided to resign. It was a very hard and emotional decision I was leaving job security while living in NYC. I don’t regret it because that was when I was forced to learn the “freelance” side of working: owing taxes at the end of the year, needing to find work all the time, budgeting personal finances so I don’t go broke (which happened multiple times). It’s been a continued learning experience going through different seasons as a stylist.

My experience since consist of brand campaigns, editorials, music videos, press/red carpet, commercials, even personal styling. As of the new year, I started a YouTube channel to help aspiring stylists by sharing ‘What’s in my kit?’ and answering ‘How Do I..?’ questions regarding styling. What’s also cool is that I have an Amazon storefront that has everything and similar to what I share in my kit for convenience to those interested in buying items for themselves. I did all of this because not only do I get these questions asked a lot, but I didn’t get the help I needed when I first became a stylist. A lot of it was self-taught and learned along the way. Now, I want to help others with that. No gatekeeping here!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The final product of an image and seeing client’s love the looks they’re in.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Styling is not all glitz and glam because I get to go “shopping” and “play with clothes” and work with celebrities. I have irregular work hours and long work days on set. There’s no job security. There are times where I have to wait to get paid 2-3 months after finishing a job. No medical benefits are provided by my jobs. It’s just not your average 9-5 job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amiaserrano.com
• Instagram: @amiaserrano
• Linkedin: LinkedIn/Amia Serrano
• Youtube: YouTube/Amia Serrano

Image Credits

Donald Pliner
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez
Zyra Gorecki
KOAD