A Journey of Coming Into My Own with Love, Bonito

I think the most common question I get asked is: “So you’re the VP of Design, and you seem really happy in this path - but WHAT exactly do you do, and more importantly - HOW did you get here?!”

To the latter question, I often attribute some of it to timing and luck, but a large part, as boring as it sounds, to simply going through an elimination process.

Let me elaborate.

All of us have many interests: certain subjects, dreams and professional goals. But we don’t know the nature of our interests until we’ve tested them with reality.

As a youth, I knew I liked the creative arts — dance, music, photography, fashion. I thought I wanted to be a professional ballerina, work at Vogue Magazine, maybe be a psychologist. But I didn’t know exactly what order these interests came in.

So, like most young adults, I spent my 20s wading through these interests. Just like trying on clothes, some, like ballet, didn’t fit no matter how hard I tried, while I discovered new ones along the way. I found out that fun and freedom were more important to me than stability. Also, while I loved design, the creative stimulation I craved was not just in the traditional sense of drawing, but more about the ability to engineer change, and navigate unexplored problems.

Through these seemingly aimless years, I gradually found that I could articulate the order of these interests a lot more clearly. I could rank them on paper, and devote the most energy to my highest loves.

This was what opened me up to a world beyond luxury fashion into start-ups and eventually, Love, Bonito. In some way, I would say that this is how my current role found me.

This, to me truly represents Coming Into Your Own — when you’ve found a space to inhabit where you feel completely free in yourself and you yourself solely own.

Once you’ve found this, you’re not moulding yourself to some pre-defined idea of success — you’re experiencing life by your own set of criteria. You have a set of actions or things you enjoy, and feel most in alignment when you can practice them through all aspects of life.

Of course, the road to finding this moment was not without bumps. The first role I took barely scraped the minimum wage (yes, I chose this path for passion, but no amount of passion is enough to sustain your struggle to pay rent for the next month). I experienced an environment which made Devil Wears Prada seem like a documentary. A fellow creative friend of mine used to joke that our corporate friends must have somehow gotten the memo to board the “Train of Life” while we’d been left behind on the platform. During these years, I considered doing a new degree in Economics from scratch and felt like I did not have a plan for life or a clear direction.

But this is all part of the process. To quote Matthew McConaughey - defining ourselves by what we are not is the first step that leads us to really knowing who we are.

On Love, Bonito 's 12th Birthday — I’m reflecting on how she has come into her own as a business, and more importantly how she’s played a part in the lives of so many women through different stages of their lives.

As we celebrate our anniversary, I’m excited to see what’s to come, and even more so for those within our community. Growing, evolving, and coming into your own is a series of events that continues to evolve through stages of life; and for those here - I hope you’re able to discover your own perspective on the world, and what makes you tick ?? So, tell me…

How are you Coming Into Your Own?

#LBAnni #ComeIntoYourOwn #LoveBonito