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

Victoria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

This question comes to my mind a lot. Being a part of the older portion of Gen Z, I grew up watching YouTubers and content creators in their early years, doing creative and entertaining things online. In a parasocial kind of way, we (me and the creators I watched) grew up together. The only difference was, while I went on to pursue higher education and begin a career, their careers had already begun and were established through YouTube’s creator program.

I think I always wanted to be a visual artist through the media of video. I remember being in my high school’s television production program and absolutely falling in love with editing videos and discovering how simple and fascinating it was. I would spend hours editing… still do haha. I remember one day in class, our teacher, very casually, asked “Who has thought about creating YouTube videos?” and everyone very timidly kept their hands down except for maybe one person. I remember feeling slightly embarrassed because I wanted to raise my hand but didn’t want my classmates to think I was lame or seeking attention.

Looking back on it, sometimes I wish my YouTube journey would have started there because it seems like in the last 8-10 years YouTube really changed people’s lives and provided an opportunity to be creative and get paid, all while working on your own time, wherever you wanted.

When I discovered I wanted to pursue video content and YouTube, it was years later and I was in college. I spent months watching more video creators and asking myself “If I did YouTube, what would be channel look like? What would my channel be about? What equipment do I need?” I took notes and gathered my thoughts and finally made that jump when I was ready and proud of my work. I told myself that I wanted to make videos that I enjoyed watching because if I couldn’t sit through it then how could I expect others to. In doing this, capturing video content slowly turned into capturing still images and pursuing photography as well. I became really good at retouching and editing images. I was able to strengthen my niche and concepts, and provide others with multiple visual experiences in one project. This helped me take things to a whole other level.

All that to say, there are times when I compare myself other creators, who pursued YouTube and video creating a lot earlier, in those moments, I do wish I had started a lot earlier but at the same time, I know that if I did, I wouldn’t have made content I was proud of, with the skills, knowledge, and creativity that I have now. I probably would have created a lot of things that would have made me cringe and it would be very difficult to watch haha.

I started when I was ready and sometimes that is the most important thing, especially when pursuing something creative. You have to do it on your own time, which can be very hard when you’re trying to make your creative passions a professional business. Although, professionally I sometimes find myself wishing I would have started my creative career sooner, I know what was best for me was starting on my own time, in my own way.

Victoria, 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?

My name is Victoria Lomboy, I go by @loveviki online (YouTube, instagram, TikTok). I am a Visual Artist and Video Creator. Something people often say when describing me is “She’s always up to something!” and I’ve found that to be a very accurate depiction of my brand. i specialize in recreating fashion trends, editorial concepts and sometimes celebrity looks for fun. I am a one-woman show. I style all my projects (including diy projects etc.) I do my hair and makeup. I film (video), shoot (photo) and edit them all.

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

The most rewarding aspect would be those moments when you’ve created something you thought you couldn’t or something that was even better than the last thing you created. Those moments when you impress yourself. It’s such a fulfilling feeling. You impress yourself by expressing yourself. It makes it all worth it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m not proud of this but before I began my creative journey, I would see others begin their creative journeys and I would just ignore it. I wouldn’t engage with their posts or click their links or check out their work. I don’t even really know why. It was almost as if I had learned to ignore it when someone decides to put themselves out there. It wasn’t until I saw all of the work that went into video production and content creation that I realized how important it is to support others along the way.

It was when I first started out that I learned the people closest to you may not always support your dreams and I had to unlearn the habit of ignoring someone when they’re trying to put themselves out there.

Today, I’m grateful to those who believed in me from the start and watched my videos and engaged with my content. It taught me how to support others.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveviki?igsh=MTRrMjc5Nzc0eTlncg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@loveviki?si=CBjOkBJgw0U8aRvS

Image Credits

“I wish you well” shoot taken by Edward Mark. Rest of photos submitted were taken by me, Victoria Lomboy.