Nico Addai

Yes. I’m going there.

1. Get an Instagram account and never stop looking at women and men that look better than you and are doing better in their lives than you are.
2. Forget that social media rarely ever show the full picture, and you only see what they want to you to see.
3. Start buying all of the makeup brands that they endorse or front and fail miserably trying to contour and highlight and whatever they tell you to do in those one-minute videos
4. Give up on Insta and start a Pinterest.
5. Incessantly pin ‘How-To’s’ and ‘Make Your Own’ that amount to ridiculous amounts of money being spent on mason jars and Wasi-tape then utterly fail at those ‘easy’ DIY projects…
6.  Then ask randos on the Internet what they think about how you look and act through Twitter, Reddit and YouTube and any other Internet based chat room.
7. Develop a self-deprecating outlook when those randos say you look ugly or slutty because they stay online everyday with you.
8. Give up and try a new aesthetic that’s sustainable.

Aesthetics are hard. They require so much effort that at times it seems like it’s not worth the time because most of us are messy and lazy. However, we need to be honest with ourselves: whether we’d like to admit it or not, the way we present ourselves to the world is the way we will be treated. Do you want to be treated like a businesswoman? A feminist? Non-binary? When it comes to our own upkeep, self-esteem presents itself as a personalized aesthetic.

What is an aesthetic? It used to be a bougie word used to describe a visual scene that was typical of a certain culture, region, or place that had distinct color swatches, furniture, paintings, and so on and so forth. But now it’s basic girl vocab for like, your personal style. Why we needed to make personal style sound more bougie, I will never know but for now, it’s really big on most visual social media, as aesthetic not only describes the makeup of your house, or place of living but also to an extent your personal clothing style and personality.

And for girls, that means Kardashians, pastel filters, duck face and ughhhhh the dreaded motivational quotes on landscape images. Ugh, those are the stuff of nightmares. Quotes from aesthetics like “I have missed classes because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to wear.” are the reason why more tomboyish and just plain lazy girls like me avoid making a signature style. Most definitely, but they have started to lack in their individuality because of how over saturated they’ve become in media. Don’t get me wrong, they’re cute. Having a personal style is integral to having an identity:

Whatever your flavor, figuring it out can be difficult in your first couple of years of college. Believe me, I’m still trying to figure out my own style.

Questions to Ask before you begin

1. Who are you, personally? Too deep, too fast too soon? Then…
2. What’s important to you? What’s the most important thing you’re looking forward to in this stage of your life? Take for example college; are you there for the academics or for the guys?
3. What do you think compliments the most important thing right now? An organized planner, a cute and flirty manner, a calm demeanor?
4. How will you present this important detail in your life to other people?

After the questions….

Style Journal

Ex. Good-girl Tomboy

I am a college student who’s studious and likes the quiet. I came to Wellesley for its academics point-blank. Although it’s beautiful scenery and the generous financial package had something to do with it, I’m in college to get a degree and then head off to medical school.

That means precision, time management, and cutthroat to the point attitude. But something also important to me is looking like my parents’ daughter; you know the church girl that always has a positive testimony to present, even when everyone else’s life is falling apart? I’m that girl. Sadly.

But even with those clear goody-two shoe characteristics I have, I am lazy af. Maybe that’s because I have traditionally boyish tastes; I like superheroes and comics, sci-fi and science. I like calculation. I like my sweats more than my dresses, and makeup for me consists of chapstick and mascara if I’m lucky. I’m frugal, and it shows in my makeup collection.

The only place it skips a beat is my family and my hair. Although I’ve been natural for quite some time, it’s only recently that I’ve begun learning how to treat and care for my hair outside of protective styles. It’s been challenging, but I love it.
Inspirations: Ella Fitzgerald, Strategos Six, The Natural Hair Movement

The Baes of my Aesthetic

Color Scheme: Navies, black, white, transparent and clear, dashes of monochrome color here and there.

A messy mind, a messy room.

Accents: Mason jars from Dollar Tree, post-its stolen from your dad’s office, thrift shop goods from sustainability sales and Primark, the cheapest basic girl store on the planet. I only get staples, denim jackets.