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<\/figure>\nBack in elementary school, aside from the usual answers of \u201cI want to be a doctor when I grow up\u201d,\u00a0 I wanted to be a full-time author.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But even before that dream, I wanted to be an artist\/painter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t remember exactly when that dream became my dream. The only summer activities I really stuck to without quitting was art classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d tried ballet but quit right before our recital.<\/p>\n
There was a summer I got into tennis because my crush was a tennis athlete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But art? <\/p>\n
It was something I discovered I loved on my own, and enjoyed doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So much so that I wanted to make a living selling paintings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But as I grew up, I discovered more interests like reading and writing. <\/p>\n
Then I wanted to become a full-time author.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I may not be a full-time author, but I did keep the promise I made to myself: I published a book<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even if it took more than a decade, I\u2019m so glad and proud of myself for following through, albeit it took becoming a kpop fan and my ult group to finally give me that nudge to keep going even if I\u2019d had countless rejections looking for an agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n I did go full-time with my blog<\/a><\/strong> in 2020, but we all know what happened in 2020. So it took a backseat after a while when I needed more stable sources of income.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then I discovered UGC work and pivoted to video content.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was something I never thought I\u2019d be doing since I was a writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now I\u2019m a vlogger? I mean, yes, I did start a YouTube channel back in 2016 because I was inspired by vloggers like Zoella who documented their daily life. But I was so, so shy!\u00a0<\/p>\n If you watch my first few videos, I don\u2019t at all sound like me. I was soft spoken. Don\u2019t ask me what the heck that accent was. I like to call it the shy accent.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I focused on blogging. And I blog continuously for years and years.\u00a0<\/p>\n From my own blogs, a travel + music blog to writing for local online concert publications, managing the school magazine in College, I was focused on writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then during the pandemic, as is the story with most TikTokers, I opened a TikTok account<\/a><\/strong>. One of my best friends had been telling me to get on TikTok as early as 2020, but Izzy back then was still so camera shy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Again, it took my love for Astro and wanting to be noticed by my ult kpop group to get over that shyness and open an account because I wanted to join the \u201cOne\u201d dance challenge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At first I started posting TikToks about blogging since my blog taught others how to blog (I even had a course back then on Skillshare but impulse deleted it, which I regret! Maybe it\u2019s time to bring it back) alongside writing about travelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n But naturally it became a place for me to share my love for KDramas<\/a><\/strong> and KPop and that\u2019s when I had my first viral video.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, I finally hit 10,000 followers on TikTok<\/a><\/strong>, 11,000 on Facebook<\/a><\/strong> and 8,000 on Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Can you believe the girl who was SHY to be on camera was now a digital content creator making videos?\u00a0<\/p>\n And posting videos had landed me UGC work that I became a full-time UGC creator.\u00a0<\/p>\n But with that, meant blogging, writing, ready, had unconsciously taken a backseat. I was all-in on my work both UGC and growing my accounts as an influencer.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, lately I\u2019m being called to go back to my first loves like writing, reading, blogging and yes, even painting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back in High School, I could finish reading a novel in under a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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