We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erin Bolden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erin below.

Hi Erin , thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Since I was a child, around age 5 or 6, I was always talking into a camera and making videos. From replicating my favorite YouTubers to recording my daily life, I always knew that I wanted to be in a creative field. As I got into my teens, as most of us do, I became extremely self-conscious and less motivated to film and be on camera. I would say the thought of embarrassing myself in front of an online audience was a huge fear of mine, and as a result, I was steering away from what I truly liked to do.

With the start of the pandemic, I started to do more creative things around the house, similar to how I did as a child, and I found my passion for content creation again. However, I still had reservations about putting myself out there due to outside opinions. Finally after many tough experiences in 2021, I decided to begin my creative career at the beginning of 2022 while I was finishing up a work from home job that I absolutely hated! I always imagine how much I could’ve grown if I had started creating and posting my content earlier, but in all fairness, I believe I started when I was truly ready. Although it would have been amazing to have years of experience already under my belt, I think that it was more important for me to gain more maturity, both emotionally and physically. Without that maturity, I would have been a lot more lost in my journey and I probably would have lost my passion for what I truly enjoyed doing. So in that sense, I am very happy that I chose the time I did to begin my online career.

In all, my experience with the creative career I have is positive because I started at the perfect time for me. I didn’t let fear stop me anymore, and I honestly believe that it happened when it was meant to happen.

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?

For those who don’t know me, I am a natural hair influencer and a social media assistant. I got into my industry by taking a chance and I started making content to inspire my community to love themselves and their hair in its most natural form. When creating content, I mainly showcase various tips, tutorials and hair styling videos to others who are looking for inspiration and informative videos for their own hair.

I am extremely proud to make the content that I do, because it has allowed me to meet so many others in my community who have the same goals as I do. Being able to do something that I enjoy, while also bridging a gap has been the greatest gift to come from my creative career. Not only have I found inspiration in many of the people that I interact with daily, but I have served as inspiration for many others as well. I would hope that my work is helping others to learn the beauty in being themselves and that everyone’s journey won’t be the same. Some may seem easier than others, but it’s important to remember that comparison is the thief of joy, so don’t compare your chapter to someone else’s! It’s impossible to be perfect in anything, but it is possible to be you in everything.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In my opinion, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that I can control what I want to make and what the end product will look like. Being able to have creative freedom over a project that I’m working on is extremely rewarding because I can make the final decision on my work.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I began building my audience on social media by posting what I would want to see. My page began by me creating a picture/video diary page for myself to look back on and view my hair journey, and it grew to what it is now because many others are on their own journeys. I continued to post for myself, and eventually my posts started to gain traction as more people enjoyed viewing my progress as much as I did. My advice to anyone trying to build their social media presence is to just be yourself, and eventually your audience will find you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @erinslocs
• Other: TikTok: erinalyssaaa

Image Credits
Credit: Erin Bolden (@erinslocs on Instagram)