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

Alright, Lucia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’ve always had an interest in making visual art, but I wish I had taken my content career more seriously sooner, although not as soon as I initially wanted to. When I was 12 (in the beautiful year that was 2010), more than anything I wanted to be a beauty-guru/YouTuber. Every day I would do my makeup—which I wasn’t allowed to wear outside of the house—and talk to myself as if I were talking to a camera. (One time my mom overheard me and thought I was talking to her and was like “are you talking to someone right now” and I had to be like, ugh, you’ll never understand me!) My mom said I could start posting on YouTube when I was 13, which was, conveniently, the age when I started to hope that no one would ever perceive me, literally and honest to god, ever again.

I’ve always been good at sticking to an aesthetic though, so in a sense I think I could’ve started earlier. When I was 14 I had my “color scheme,” which was a grouping of colors that I stuck to when buying clothing so I could be the best version of myself, i.e. a shabby chic girl. I had a pale pink girly Tumblr. The colors, by the way, were various shades of brown, pale pink, egg shell blue, and white. You might be like, who cares, and to that I’d say, fair! I mostly just wanted to illustrate that I’ve always been obsessed with curating an aesthetic, even when I didn’t know what the word “aesthetic” meant. I think that would’ve made me a committed (?) content creator throughout my life, but I’m glad I didn’t start when I was a teenager. I wish I’d started a few years earlier, in my early 20’s, because I like to imagine who I could’ve been if I did. I don’t believe everything happens for a reason or when it should, but I’m not that regretful. I’m really happy with the community of sweeties I’m building!

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.

My name is Lucia (she/her) and I’m a visual artist and content creator. I’m currently working on my MFA in Fine Arts at SVA and making content on YouTube/Instagram/TikTok centered around fashion, thrifting, and lifestyle.

My visual art practice is mostly centered around romantic love & intimacy, although everything I make is about vulnerability. I primarily work with textiles and tend to use a lot of secondhand materials in my practice because I like the idea that I’m giving a new life to sweet objects that have otherwise been forgotten & discarded. I’m a very sentimental person and I think (and hope) it shows in my art.

Online, my content is largely about fashion—currently mostly cottagecore and grandmacore in terms of aesthetic. While I want to make content that feels in some way aspirational and/or visually appealing, I’m also really interested in being myself/vulnerable in my content in a way that is fun/entertaining/relatable.

I’m really proud of the community I’ve built both surrounding both my art and personal accounts—I genuinely think everyone who reaches out to me seems so cool and like they really get it, even based on limited interactions. I’m so grateful to get to connect with people who share my interests and seem overwhelmingly sweet. Sometimes I’ll run into people who have seen my work online while I’m thrifting, for example, and I’m always like AHHH! What a beautifully small world we live in!

I’m always nervous that I’m being off-putting and weird when I meet people, that I’ve in someway misled people, which is also funny, because I don’t think I come off as particularly polished online anyway.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love hearing that I’ve made someone feel understood. I really strive to make people feel seen, because all of my favorite art makes me feel seen. When someone comments or shares something like “felt that” or suggests that I seem like them, I feel so grateful.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Sorry, because I’m about to be so annoying and cliche… but be yourself! Even if it’s a slightly more curated version of yourself. People want to know YOU and what you’re about. You are inherently much more interesting than a hypothetical idea of who you could be, because you exist. It’s not even that there’s “only one you,” it’s more so that people want to feel connected to creators, and you are doing both yourself and your audience a disservice by not being yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/loveletterrecipient
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveletterrecipient
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@loveletterrecipient