Why Scrolling Will Never Inspire Me
Here’s something you probably wouldn’t expect: I don’t like social media very much. I love it for work…but not for anything other than this.
Yes, my entire business revolves around it. Yes, my career is built on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. But outside of posting, responding to some comments, and sharing my work with you, I’m rarely on there. I don’t scroll. I don’t browse. I don’t even have a personal account. What you see online is my one and only.
I think this surprises people because the assumption is if you’re on social media for work, you must also love being on it in your personal life. Like you must be addicted to endless scrolling, or documenting your every thought and moment. But I couldn’t think of anything worse to do with the little free time I have.
Why would I want to spend my downtime flicking through hundreds of posts from random people who are curating a life that isn’t really the life they’re living? Let’s be honest, so much of what we see online is how people want to be perceived - you’re rarely getting the full picture. I know that because my audience doesn’t get the full picture with my own social media. Why? Because it’s my business. If I had a storefront, you wouldn’t find me eating breakfast, ironing my clothes, having a cry, or inviting guests for dinner in it, would you? You’d find things in there that I want you to see. The things I clearly like and enjoy.
Maybe it’s because I’m an 80’s baby. I grew up in a time when the idea of showing your portfolio meant dragging around a literal leather binder with your work inside. That was the norm. That was how you got seen. Now the leather binder has been replaced with social media feeds. Social media is my portfolio. It’s my way of putting my work into the world. It’s not my diary or my therapy. And it’s definitely not my hobby.
And this is why I don’t connect with the term influencer or even content creator. Those labels feel glued to the performative side of social media. I see myself simply as a creator. I create. That’s what I’ve always done, and it’s just part of who I am.
Look, even though I don’t like social media, I love what I do. I love educating. I love sharing what I’ve learned through experience. And I love the part that happens off the algorithm, like the messages I get from you.
What keeps me here isn’t the likes or the follows, it’s the messages I get from you. Over the years, people from all over the world have written to me about how my videos have helped them. Some lost all their confidence after a divorce. Some were finding their way back after cancer. Some just needed a little push to feel like themselves again. And somehow, makeup tutorials became part of their healing.
That still baffles me. Makeup is my art, my job, and my creative outlet. So to hear that it’s also become a bit of hope, or even just a distraction for someone who really needed it, is what makes all the noise of social media worth tuning out.
So I guess what I’m trying to say, is that I don’t like social media for scrolling. But I love creating. I love teaching. And I love this community that’s formed around that. That’s the part that matters to me.
The rest is just noise. With that I want to say thank you. Thank you for supporting me, connecting with me, and thank you for being such a nice bunch of people!
