We recently connected with Maelynn Le and have shared our conversation below.

Maelynn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

I always felt like an outsider in high school and I felt I didn’t belong to any group of friends. I remembered having a lot of stress and anxiety going to school. I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school because I was a transfer student from a different school. The friends I was going to school with, I had to leave them to purse a better-built music program since I knew I would have more opportunities as a musician at that high school. For me, I felt there was no escape of me being trapped in a school where I felt lonely everyday, even though I made the right decision at the end of the day to purse my career dreams.

Back in 2018, I was taking random food photos whenever I go out to eat. I didn’t really have any money at the time to go buy a camera so I normally would take all of my food photos on my iPhone 7. I noticed I had a collection of food photos stored on my phone by I didn’t really know what to do with them. I made a personal IG account back in high school and one day, I was scrolling through my phone on IG and saw eye-popping food photos that really stood out to me. I thought this would be something fun and creative I can do on the side since I had all of these food photos. That is when I found out my escape from reality and my comfort zone away from the loneliness I had.

Food photography and traveling were the ways I copped with me being lonely because it was something that made me happy. I couldn’t believe how much I was growing on my food account and I am loving all of the love and support I have been getting from so many of my friends and family. Ever since then, I am working with so many businesses, creating content I enjoy, meeting new people, and trying out different cuisines I never got the chance to have. I feel in my comfort zone as social media, food photography, and traveling are the ways of me feeling happy. I would like this to be part of what I do for the rest of my life.

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?

Yeah so I am a food photographer and travel blogger on Instagram. At home (Bay Area), I go to different restaurants and create content whether it’s photos or short little videos, I am capable of doing that. During when I am traveling, I work with hotels to create what I like to call it a “food travel guide.” I feel like every state/country has their own food culture they want to represent to the community and I want to showcase as many restaurants out there as possible when I am there. I also showcase my hotel stays as well as I want my audience to choose the hotel I stayed at. I know that the places I stay at is one of the best based on my experience. Outside of this, I am currently a B.M in Music Education in college at San Francisco State University. This is my last semester as a bachelor student and I am hoping to get into graduate school so I can get my teaching credential and my masters as a Music Education teacher. With this degree, I am hoping to teach middle school band as I want to share my passion for music to the next generation.

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

I believe making my clients impressed and satisfied with my work is always rewarding because it tells me that I am doing something right in my wheelhouse. Feeling that I am part of a community is what I strive for the most because like I said, I struggled with loneliness the first two years of high school. I felt since I joined the foodie community, I felt I belong somewhere in life and I have some close friends in that community I made and still friends to this day. I also feel free when I am doing my work because I know there is no limit in terms of what kind of photos or videos I take. I have a creative mind and I want to express that mind by doing what I want to achieve.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I really believe being your authentic self, showing who is behind the camera, show your personality through videos and photos are great ways to build an audience. I use to be so camera shy when I was younger but now, I personally don’t mind at all. A lot of people love to see faces and putting yourself out there is the best way to build a social media presence. I know social media can be deceiving and no one is always going to be their authentic self but if you can, be the best self you can be. Personally, I don’t dress flashy nor fancy every time. I don’t have a lot of luxury items people have since I am a college student. I dress like a middle class citizen and even though I’m not super fancy all the time, I try to be myself as best I can be and I am happy the way I am. Don’t feel bad about yourself just because other people have luxury goods or your photos aren’t up to par. If you want your photos to be up to par, lighting and figuring that out is the best advice I can give to a beginning photographer. You don’t need a fancy camera to take great quality photos as phones are getting better with photography. I started with an iPhone and it worked out for me. I still use an iPhone to this day sometimes. If you want to build your social media presence, embrace who you are, be thankful of what you have, and you don’t need to impress anyone by the luxury items you have like clothes, cars, travel, gadgets, purses, accessories, etc. Utilize the gadgets you have and you can make it work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jupiterdevours1.wixsite.com/my-site
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/the.flexitarian.aholic?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=_2Q58yWDPBPYj-punUUkdg&utm_source=ishare

Image Credits
Photo by: @urbancell_gastronomy