We were lucky to catch up with Malia Miglino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Malia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I think there comes a time in every creative life when one has to take a chance; for me, that was stepping away from my survival job which happened to be working as an MUA for film & television to pursue my career as a historian, travel blogger, and TV host. It is a really difficult thing to take a chance on yourself but I feel as though so many people came out of the pandemic with their own epiphanies as to what they wanted from life and as the whole world collectively watched how short life is, more and more people stopped putting off chasing their dreams and just finally did it. That was what I did. I had the great luck of being brought on to a show called “Haunted Discoveries” as their on-camera historical researcher and that gave me the confidence to put all of my efforts into my historical research & content, travel blogging, and on-camera work.

After spending 10 years treating it like a hobby, I saw such a difference in audience growth and engagement when I started taking it seriously as a job. I have been amazed by how much my mental shift dictated the success of my work. Hard work won’t pay off unless you believe it will and you take yourself seriously. I think that has been the biggest change for me and how I now make a full-time living pursuing this work – I believed I could and I have.

Malia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Malia Miglino, I am an L.A.-based historian, TV host, and travel blogger who has spent 16 years living in Los Angeles and working in the Film/TV industry. Like so many people in this city, I have done a ton of different jobs. I moved down here to act and ended up training as a MUA and worked steadily doing that for the majority of my time in the city whilst juggling other career paths like on-camera work, writing, producing, and then spending as much time as possible on what was increasingly becoming my happy place – historical research. I started making history-based video content on YouTube 10 years ago and with the advancement of social media, started diving deep into short-form content on Instagram and TikTok. I have a ton of different passions but history, storytelling, and travel have been a life-long love that I am so happy is now my full-time career. I got cast on the new paranormal show “Haunted Discoveries” as their on-camera historical researcher, allowing me to take the full jump into travel blogging and historical research full-time. Having been in Los Angeles for the better part of 2 decades, I am always struck by people who think the city has no history which is why I get so much fulfillment out of sharing stories from this city in particular which is why being known as the “L.A. history girl” means so much to me.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My greatest hope is to inspire people to care more about their local history and historic cemeteries.

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

The community of people you meet along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lahistorygirl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macabremalia/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/maliamiglino
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@la_history_girl