We were lucky to catch up with Melanie Hernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Melanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I must say, I have been blessed with amazing parents who have impacted my life and inspired me in so many ways. My parents are professional entertainers and have been forming bands and performing together since before I was born. I was raised going to band practices and with music and musical instruments all around me in my home. I naturally was inspired to sing and play and have been doing so all my life with their guidance. They enrolled me in the Performing Arts Magnet Program at Van Nuys High School where my passion and abilities bloomed even more and then I went on to be a music major at Los Angeles Valley College for a while and continued to dabble in music at UCLA. My parents gave me my first steps and the tools needed for my musical journey and they continue to inspire and teach me today.
When it comes to fashion, my mom has always been my biggest style icon. During her singing career in the Philippines and USA, she always had the most glamorous and fun dresses and outfits. Think, Cher in the 70s. She even has dresses similar to hers and Tina Turner’s and more. I literally wanted to sing and dress like my mom someday. Even in her everyday life, she was always so well put together and stylish. Growing up, she had me and my older sister dressing our best, often in matching outfits. Playing dress up at home and pretending to be my mom, trying to wear her heels and dresses was definitely a thing for me when I was a kid and I hoped to fit into them someday and now that I CAN, it makes her so happy to see it and also see that I’ve developed my own style and fashion sense.
I grew up going to a private school in Van Nuys called St. Elisabeth, where we were required to wear a uniform. However, every now and then for free-dress days, I made sure to dress as extra as possible to express myself. I really felt like myself when I could go all out in a new outfit my mom and I put together; glitter, loud colors and all!
They have definitely inspired me my whole life in music and fashion.
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?
I always dressed up in my every day life. After being less busy with school, I decided to start an Instagram featuring my outfits. I did keep in mind that I wanted to work towards officially promoting clothing brands and being a brand ambassador. So what I did was, I started having my mom take photos of me and my outfits at home since I didn’t have a tripod. Once I started posting, some of my friends reached out and offered to take photos of me as practice, as they were trying to practice their photography skills and also grow their Instagrams. So, I started doing photoshoots! One of my photographer friends even gave me my first tripod so I can take better photos on my own. Ever since then, I started taking better photos of my outfits.
Since then, small businesses have reached out for me to work with them and represent their brand. I have been shown on websites such as Elhofferdesign.com, Popgalaxyclothing.com, mageapparel.com and more! One of my first brand ambassador programs was with jordandene.com and through them, I got to see what being a consistent brand ambassador was like.
Bigger brands such as Her Universe, Box Lunch and Hot Topic require a certain follower count to be eligible to be a brand ambassador for them, so I had to work towards my following and just keep posting and creating content. I eventually reached my goal and was able to proudly represent all of these brands as well as represent Fun.com and EntertainmentEarth.com for collectibles, toys and more.
Being a brand ambassador means that you are promoting items from these brands. It’s the best form of advertisement these days since everyone is on social media. By promoting these items, these brands are able to reach a larger audience and sell their products. I am happy, proud and honored to be able to do this and I have enjoyed every minute of it as I continue to grow and branch out.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is being able to inspire. You can be your truest self, dress in whatever makes you feel good, promote the things you love, in my case it’s geek clothing based on my favorite fandoms. This kind of clothing was not readily available in the past or when I was growing up, especially not for women or girls specifically. Now that more and more nerdy styles for women are available, we are now fully able to flaunt what we love and really wear our hearts on our sleeves and that is a beautiful thing and is becoming more popular especially with the advent of social media and being able to see what other people are wearing and promoting and selling and wanting what the person they see online is promoting. It’s exciting! I wish I got to grow up with wearing all the fandoms I wanted even if said fandoms were more of a “boy thing,” but now our younger generations can and flaunt their truest selves.
The same is true with music. Music was always meant to inspire. It inspired me growing up, no matter what genre. I sing and play a few instruments and when I do share music and whatever instrument I’m playing whether it is piano, guitar, ukulele, ocarina or bass, I get comments on how much people also want to learn. I was recently on a TV Show called LEGO Masters Season 4, now streaming on Hulu, where I did play music and sing. Although I only played a couple songs, I got a few comments from people saying that they went and bought a ukulele after watching the show because it seemed like so much fun to play! So I would say the most rewarding thing about being a creative is about being able to inspire, especially the youth and being able to spark interests in them.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Yes, like I mentioned before, I started very small. And I know that sometimes the hardest thing one can do is START, no matter how much you think about starting something, you just have to take that leap and START even if it’s small baby steps. I started taking photos of myself and recording music, not really knowing if people would really like it. But I wanted to express myself and I did. I now style my outfits based on my fandoms and play music from my favorite fandoms and even dress up doing it at the same time. So far the response has been well received. And don’t worry about tough critics, just do your best. Your people and following will find you.
The next hardest thing to do is to stay consistent. I still struggle with this as life gets in the way and in my case, I have way too many hobbies and it’s hard for me to even keep up with myself. I mostly post on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok but I literally JUST started using my YouTube again since I felt like I needed a separate avenue to share just music. Starting and staying consistent can be difficult but we have to try our best to keep up and recognize the trends while being your own authentic and creative selves.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_petite_geek?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069735637332&mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-hernandez-20a12a30a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepetitegeek?_t=8pq2nnq6Qtr&_r=1
Image Credits
Purple Guitar
Photo Cred: Stephanie Pressman
@spressmanphotos
Star Trek: Jenny Parks Cat Print Dress
Photo cred: Jinyo
For @popgalaxyclothing / popgalaxyclothing.com
Dracarys Tee
Photo Cred: Bryan Dahl / @dahl.memoirs
For @jordandene / jordandene.com
Hogwarts House Color Dresses
Photo Cred: Lauren Elisabeth / @laurenelisabethphoto
For @elhofferdesign / elhofferdesign.com
Nerf This Dress and Windbreaker:
Photo Cred: Tim Santos / @abadjay @capturedl1ght
For @mageapparel / mageapparel.com