An unconventional fashion blogger trying to find her place on the internet

My cousin Tammy recently messaged me to remind me of the fact that there’s an old YouTube channel of mine lurking in the depths of despair with a whole host of cringeworthy videos on there – the main focus initially being on my hair growth journey (vom) which eventually progressed to fashion and a little bit of beauty. She sent me the link to one of the videos and I then got lost in a haze of my younger voice chatting shit. It was when I was watching these horribly filmed videos – some were captured on the webcam of my laptop where you can hear the buzzing from the fan of it overheating, some so pixelated you’d think I was in the film Pixels and others so dark it’s hard to see what the fuck I’m talking about – that I would love to go back to my younger self and give her some home truths about what she’s doing and what’s to come.

And here we are, 5 years after the death of that channel, about to give 21-year-old Gaby some life advice;

CARRY ON WITH YOUTUBE

I sometimes wonder if I had stuck it out back then if I would have had a better platform to do what I love now. I stopped it after I got a full time job and “didn’t have the time” to film, edit and upload anymore. Yes it was cringey, but it was so organic and innocent – I didn’t have adult life to worry about back then, the only proper makeup brand I’d heard of was Bare Minerals and I used my fingers to apply all of my makeup. Life was great.

Don’t ever take out a payday loan, credit card or overdraft

I’m going to put my hands up and admit that I was one of those people that caved into all of those payday loan adverts you used to see on the telly – having worked in finance for a few years I know that these are absolute cons and prey on the vulnerable, fresh out of education and down right stupid graduate/students.

I also decided to get a “student account” which gave me a credit card with a £500 limit and an overdraft of £1000 – WHO DECIDED THIS WAS A GOOD PRODUCT TO SELL TO STUDENTS?! It took me years to get out of that bastard and I abhor the bank manager that talked me into it. What a dickhead.

CLEAR UP YOUR BASTARD BEDROOM

There aren’t many pictures of my old bedroom around, but I managed to screen grab this legend when I was re-watching my videos and I’d ducked down to pick up a shitty top I’d bought from Primark. Bags of Diet Coke on the bed, pictures taped to the door, mounds of necklaces hanging on the wardrobe door handles and the embarrassment of the wardrobe door open for the world to see.

This is absolutely shameful.

Stop banging on at Aaron to marry you, it will happen and it will be the most beautiful day of your life – now shut up

I cannot tell you how many times I hinted (read nagged) to Aaron about getting married. I was and still am absolutely obsessed with this man, I wanted to marry him, have his babies and a fairytale life – yes we’re married without any babies, living in a one bed flat on a council estate, but give it a while and we’ll have our house with a garden – THE DREAM!

Don’t take everything to heart

You’ll have some knock backs and it may feel like the world around you is crumbling, but stick on a brave face to ride it out. There are some shitty people that you haven’t come across before, be ready for them and know you’ve been as authentic as you can possibly be.

And here we are, 26 years old and married with a new name, same old random sense of style, but a fresh perspective.

What would you tell your younger self and can you relate to any of these things?

21 year oldfashion blogfashion bloggerLifelife goalslife tipswhat I’d tell my 21 year old selfyoutubeyoutuber