Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mar Lopez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Mar thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

Growing up I was a really quiet and shy girl. I was always questioned why I was so quiet. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me. I couldn’t understand why people couldn’t just take me as I was. I just focused on doing well in school so that I could have a great career in the future. I was blessed with a great career opportunity in corporate but again was always being pointed out for being so quiet. I became a mom and that is when the switch began inside of me that I needed to stand up for myself. I was so quiet so it was always taken as being weak. I was working so hard in a job where I was constantly praised for being great at it but wasn’t being paid fairly. Eventually I decided to put a pause in my career and be a stay at home mom. I put aside the guilt of letting others down and realized I needed to care more about not letting myself down. I quit my job and decided to focus on raising my kids atleast until they started school. From then I have started my social media pages. In.mars.kitchen where I get to share my recipes, in.mars.cart where I share my shopping finds, and in.mars.shop where I share my thread art and creations. So far I’ve gotten to work with a couple of brands but most importantly I’ve been able to take care of my family and my mental health all while doing what I love. It’s been an amazing journey and it’s only the beginning.

Mar, 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?

When I decided to start my social media page I would do so much research to try to find out how to reach more people and even find success in it. Everywhere I looked it was the same advise: focus on one niche. The issue I had with that is that I had so many different things I wanted to share. I wanted to share my love for cooking but I would also be shopping at a store and would come accross great items I wanted to share with others. Eventually I took on another hobby which was my thread art. So I decided to not limit myself anymore. I wanted to share all of it. That is how I created my three pages.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Try your best to shop from small businesses. There is so much work that goes into creating and artists should be compensated for their hard work. Support comes from more than purchasing from them. It also comes from following their social media pages, spreading the word about their work, and just giving them words of encouragement.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to inspire other that being shy and quiet and “too nice” is not a bad thing. You are not weak. You don’t deserve to be taken advantage of. You are important and you do belong. I want to reach out to as many people and encourage them to be themselves. There is so much more to this quiet and shy girl.

Contact Info:

• Other: I have 3 Instagram and TikTok pages: @in.mars.kitchen @in.mars.cart @in.mars.shop

Image Credits