Never done a post like this before, but guess there's always a first. The very first time that I'm sharing my journey to becoming who I am today. From a timid girl in high school to becoming the Best Fashion Blogger in Chandigarh.
Timid but very creative in art and always participated in co-curriculars. I wasn't a teacher's pet either but I remember 3 teachers who were really fond of me. I used to participate in art contests, inter-house declamations and sports and had also won a couple of times. Did also face partiality in school but got ahead of it later on. Additionally I was always fascinated with fashion and trends since those days. When I was a little girl my mother always used to dress me up in the cutest of outfits, as I grew up I found my interest in reading all these fashion magazines along with novels. I'd get all starry eyed when I saw those big brands and colourful outfits in the published issues. In our summer vacations I'd go to visit my aunt and would read books and fashion magazines from the collection of my loving older cousin sister. Flipping through the pages I'd think even then that I would one day get myself all of this, little did I knew what future held for me.
My father and I went through a very hard time when I lost my mother in 2008. As the only daughter, I didn't know what to do or which direction to follow. My mother had taught me a lot of things about life at a young age as if she knew this would happen. I still remember all of that vividly. She was a fashionista of her times, no wonder!! I used to see her pictures and remember her carrying herself so well. She was my FIRST fashion icon truly!
During that time, I found a bit of solace in the new found world of internet. I was introduced to Youtube where I'd watch these beautiful girls doing their makeup, giving a room tour, a closet tour and showing off their style sense in different ways, I was awestruck!! The first ever fashion blog I read was of Dulce Candy . I'd binge watched her videos and read all those articles online. Back then I had absolutely no idea as to what a Blog was or what a Blogger is. I came across a lot of such blogs with time and would read all of them and save their outfit pictures to the gallery on my computer because I loved them so much.
Time went by as I was growing up, it was in 2013 when my father gifted me a smart phone and I discovered this new application called INSTAGRAM. My first ever post was a shot of these two rings- one from my mother and another one from my maasi (mother's sister). If you dig down my profile on Instagram, you'd still find it. Whenever I posted my own picture, I made sure that I'd hashtag the brands I wore because as far as I remember '@' wasn't a thing back then. I can be wrong but this is just what I was doing, so my captions would go like, "#zaratop #mangojeans" for an example because I was so inspired by these wonderful women and as we shared our love for fashion, I was following their footsteps.
A year later, I came across Aayushi Bangur and Masoom Minawala's Instagram handles. You can't assume how excited I was to discover them because I saw them doing the SAME thing as Dulce Candy but in MY country, INDIA!! I was 19 and that was the moment I got acquainted with the new world of Fashion Blogging in India. I mean, that time I got to know that okay this is a website, its called a blog and how its done BUT now I saw people from my country doing it, otherwise it was just a foreign thing to me.
One fine day in back in 2015, I decided to take a step and start my journey as a "blogger". Those days, it was still a new field and not many people knew about it. It was getting bigger with time in the cities like Mumbai and Delhi but my city, Chandigarh was still new to the concept. I didn't know if it would even pay me sooner or later, I just began solely for my love of fashion. So I kicked it off, I would take pictures of my outfits and post them on my blog, I would also do little product reviews back then and I used to call them "Super Reviews". Because Instagram was new, I gained followers pretty easily and in no time my content and posts got me to reach 14,000 followers. And the same year, my account was hacked. I was so heartbroken, I had put in so much effort to maintain a profile. 4 days went by, I had made a new Instagram which got me 1,000 in no time because of my previous following but I never gave up. I wrote numerous mails to Instagram about my account being hacked and that I wanted it back. On the 5th day, I got a revert from Instagram with guidelines to reactivate my account. I followed them all and boom! There was it, @rubysupergirl was BACK!
My father was really skeptical at first as to what I was doing. This was a field that no one had ever heard of and it was very normal for him to be curious about his only daughter. Then came my first event, which was a store launch of the brand, Juicy Couture in my city. So I sat down with my father and tried to explain why I was supposed to be at the event, and being supportive but also curious, he dropped me to the event and later on I made him read the blog post I did as a deliverable for the brand. As a reaction, he was surprised but still confused till I got my first payment through this job that I had chosen for myself. He was so proud and happy and now completely aware of the blogging scenario. If you ask him now, he'd give you all the details about this field proudly.
In my journey, I've been through all kinds of highs and lows emotionally and work-wise but nonetheless I always tried to keep my spirits high. Till date, I've had the opportunity to work with tremendous global brands like Christian Dior, Steve Madden, Ford, Renault, Promod, Kiehl's to name a few. Now, I've expanded my blog to traveling and I've been to Indian cities, states and International destinations for exploration. Exploring destinations and getting to know about different places and cultures and lifestyle has always intrigued me and I hope life gives me more of such opportunities to travel and discover beyond. It gives me immense happiness and I've worked consistently and so hard for my job that I totally love. I might not have a humongous following like others but I know this is the beginning to something greater and I'd put in all my efforts to reach my goals.
Cut to 2019, when I look back in time I see how far I've come and how much I've evolved as an individual. I won this prestigious title at the TLJ Blogger's and Social Media Awards, still feels surreal becoming the first "Best Fashion Blogger" from my city. I'd forever be thankful to The Lifestyle Journalist magazine and Mr. Ankur Vadhera for giving me and the blogging community as a whole, a platform and recognition in Chandigarh and in the country.
I would forever be grateful for this moment and would always look back at this with immense gratitude in my heart. I'm sure there's a lot more to come and I have a promise to myself and to every single person who writes in about being inspired by me in even the littlest way, I'd never stop doing what I love and I'd always push myself to the boundaries to achieve more.
I read somewhere,
" Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be lead by the dreams in your heart."
-Rubby Singh
