Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Kollie
Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Honestly, it all started as an assignment for my Senior Capstone class. I was prompted to establish a legacy within my community. When creating the premise of my project, I was told to do something that I would enjoy and relate to the research I had done prior to this assignment. The thesis of my research stated, “Society’s psychological and behavioral role in consumerism has proven to negatively influence the fashion industry’s sustainability due to the human desire for more; subsequently, this desire for more influences the economy and the social norms that facilitate consumerism.” This crucial part of my research helped guide the premise of my project.
After a bit of brainstorming and few rejections, I decided to create a campaign for sustainable fashion advocacy. I had planned to create informative YouTube videos and fun, community-creating insta/tiktok posts. With a few YouTube videos and Instagram posts later, I’ve accumulated over 13,000 views on all platforms.
Throughout this project, I’ve found a lot of joy. I found peace in the connections, successes and failures I’ve made along the way. So instead of ending my project, I decided to continue on and hopefully learn more about fashion journalism. Now, I still continue to make posts and YouTube videos. Once I graduate from high school, I hope to travel more and meet new artists and along the way promote sustainability.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One thing I have always been good at is comping up with a lot of ideas, but this positive characteristic is like a double-ended sword. Yes, I have many ideas,… but I have MANY ideas. It was very hard choosing what to post. It was also hard continuing multiple series that I had created because I would forget about them and move on to the next topic. Not only did this make a lot of my social feeds in-cohesive, it created grounds for disorganization.
Because I am still a high school student, my TIME MANAGEMENT skills were surely tested. I had a hard time keeping up with the posting schedule. I had planned to make 2 insta posts, 1 YouTube video and 1 reels/Tiktok per week. Balancing content creation with the, already chaotic, antics of my everyday life put me under a huge amount of stress. This pressure reflected in my personal life and in my social media posts. Every-now-and-then, I would create a post just for the sake of creating a post (to keep up with the numbers), totally losing focus of the message I was trying to promote.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Basically all I do is share my exploration with those around me. Whether it be through research, quick little interviews, or a journal entry, I want people to understand that sustainable fashion is a practical concept. I think what might set me apart from people is my emphasis on mindset. I view sustainability, in general, as a MINDSET. Once you’ve embedded all your behaviors with the definition of sustainability, you see the world in a different way.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice is to always do everything with purpose. Like I always say, cultivate a mindset that always seeks and acts on a purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kolliekouture.my.canva.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kolliekouture
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KollieKouture
- Other: https://linktr.ee/kolliekouture24
