We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cristina Montiel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cristina, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I started my content creation journey right after a global pandemic started. It took me a full 6 months of boredom and idle to realize I had to take the leap. I was always passionate about fashion and beauty. My free time was often looking through red carpet looks and makeup/skincare tutorials. But I was too camera-shy to actually show some of what I did to my social media following. But something clicked during the pandemic, and being inside made me want to have more human connection, it was much needed during that time! Also, I was working from home and perfected my #wfhoutfit.
Now, many outfits and makeup looks later, I grew an amazing community. But had I started earlier, I would have enjoyed this wonderful content creation world for way longer than I have! Regardless, I am beyond thankful to call this my hobby and being able to make it a form of income.
Cristina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a full time corporate girly, an engineer and STEM led professional. But I am also a creative and fashion girly!
I love creating everyday outfit ideas that anyone can get inspiration from. Being relatable and genuine is what I like the most, simply because thats what also inspires me from other creators.
Being my true self and showing up is what led me to work with amazing brands like YSL Beauty, Armani Beauty, Lululemon, Ogee Organics, ShuShop, Cider, JW Pei and more!
I love what I do, I truly do.
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 believe people outside of the content creation world are not aware of the amount of work it takes to put a photo, video or even audio content out there. It’s so easily watched and scrolled through that it often feels “too easy”. But there is a lot of work behind it, a lot of passion and also creativity.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think its easy to give up at the beginning of your creative journey, as you’re still finding yourself, you’re basically working for free, and a lot of people are criticizing you. But that resilience will all be worth it at the end. Even as a small creator, you see the results and its amazing what you can accomplish monetarily, the network you create and the friendships you cultivate!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.cristinastyledcloset.com
- Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/cristina_styled
- Other: https://Www.tiktok.com/@cristina_styled
