Lena Daniels

When did you begin your influencer journey and what inspired you to create such amazing content?

I started taking my Instagram seriously when I was a junior in high school. Back in 2014, influencers were just celebrities and YouTubers -- and having a "great feed" was unique. I started taking some photograph classes and really planned out how my posts would look next to each other. It brought me so much joy and it was one thing people always knew about me. "The Girl with the Cute Instagram Page". I got my first sponsorship in 2018 from the IHC, so I guess you could say that was the beginning of my "influencer journey", however my passion for creating and sharing content has been around so much longer than that!

How do you stay motivated to continue creating unique content under your brand?

Creating content is something that just comes naturally to me. I've always been an "artsy" person, but Instagram and social media gave me a great outlet to share what I create with the world. Whether it is my writing, photography, graphic design, cooking, or DIY projects around my home -- I love having a page where I can be unapologetically myself and share all my fun little updates with the world.

How do you balance running an influencer business as a college student?

It's hard. A lot of college students are taking classes, involved in extra-curricular, working jobs and internships, and creating for themselves. There's often not enough time in the day and can get very overwhelming at times. I was fortunate that my main extra-curricular were both social media-based, as well as my internships and courses. All of that overlap really helped me because my mind was always thinking about Instagram. While that might not be possible for everyone, I recommend not putting too much pressure on yourself. Social media is meant to be fun, so keep it that way. Also, something that worked really well for me was incentives. I would make myself finish my assignments before I allowed myself time to have a photoshoot or edit pictures. That way I didn't fall behind in classes, and it encouraged me to work smarter, not harder.

What are your goals for the remainder of 2020?

My number one goal is to not get COVID-19! All joking aside, it is a big fear, especially while living in Florida. While my main focus is my health and *hopefully* having some sense of normalcy back in our lives, I really want to take advantage of all my free time while working from home to work on my passion projects. I would love to continue to work on my personal brand on Instagram and continue to grow and connect with my audience (we are small but mighty!) I also want to consistently pitch myself to brands I admire. I recently pitched myself for the first time ever, and I was accepted for that partnership -- so that was a huge win for me! Now I'm planning to continue that momentum and hope to monetize more projects coming up!