We recently connected with Claudie Pierre and have shared our conversation below.

Claudie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The first time I knew I wanted to start pursuing my creative side professionally was during the pandemic. I had a hard time realizing my potential and the pandemic was the first time I realized it was possible.

Growing up in a Haitian household I was told that the only way to be successful was to go into the medical field. I have always been a creative person, but I had no option to pursue it. I loved taking art classes, I took photography in high school which gave me the opportunity to do an art show. Even though it was doing those things at the time I didn’t think I was creative.

I honestly didn’t figure it out until college when my friends pointed out to me that I was good at what I was doing. Some of them came home with me and found some of the pictures from the art show and took it back to the dorm. It shocked me because I really thought I wasn’t talented at all.

When I first started blogging in
2018 it was my way to vent about my struggles. When I started, I was actually anonymous. I didn’t anyone to know especially my family.. It was hard enough trying to change my major to psychology so tell them about a blog would have been worst.

The pandemic made me realize that I needed to go for what I actually wanted. I realized I put in so much energy in things I didn’t want to when I could’ve done the things that I loved.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I’m Claudie and I’m a blogger that focuses on lifestyle, fashion and mental health.

The thing that set me apart/what I’m the most proud of is the mental health check in I do on Instagram. Every Monday I do a mental health check where I talk about how I’m feeling. I provide a list of feelings words so other people can talk about how they feel as well. Mental health awareness is so important to me.

I feel like it’s my way to connect with people. I love getting comments on how they can relate to what I’m going through or that they needed to hear a certain message.

Instagram is all about an aesthetic and looking good but life isn’t always perfect. I want to normalize that even though it looks like I have it all together behind the scenes I might actually be having a rough week but I’m still pushing through.

I’m not going to lie being on Instagram makes you want to compare yourself to other. You see  other peoples following and think why am I not there yet. The moment that I stopped worrying about numbers and started focusing on building a community the happier I’ve been.

My goal is to make sure that every platform I have is a safe space. I know that sometimes it’s hard for others to talk about what going on in their lives and I’m hoping I can normalize it.

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?

I think something that non-creative struggle to understand is that sometimes even though I might be doing something that seems “creative” it doesn’t mean I’m creating.

When I’m really struggling and can’t get myself to write I might pick up a side project. For example, I spent most of the quarantine redecorating my mom house. I loved it but for me that was just something to get my mind off of things. If I’m not taking pictures or writing I don’t feel like I’m creating something.

So it might seem like I’m productive. In which I technically am but I’m really distracting myself from my reality.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are some many things I wished I knew when I first started blogging. I honestly didn’t realize a lot of the mistakes I made until the pandemic when I took it seriously. I think that was the issue though, I didn’t think of it as a career before now that I am taken it seriously I’m playing catch up.

I wish I knew that basically every platform has some type of blogger group. A lot of people offer courses or services that can help you out. I think the most important for me was figuring out SEO. Now that I’m learning I have to fix some old blog posts.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.definingmyessence.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/definingmyessence
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/D_myessence