Two Latinx Influencers Give Us their Advice on Our 2021 Resolutions
By Bianca Marcof
As we start a new year it may be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel during this pandemic or find a motivating force to thrive in 2021. We normally resort to resolutions such as exercising, changing our eating habits, and unplugging from social media more often.
In a digital world, social media has its negative effects like comparing our lives and appearances with others, but a lot of positivity can come from the smiling selfies on our screens. Social media influencers have dedicated their accounts to helping others and sharing knowledge on subjects like health, beauty or fitness - things we think about when forming our New Year resolutions. With their large followings, typically ranging from a few hundred to millions, they have managed to turn what they love into a lifestyle.
Latinx influence is growing on platforms and these influencers are reminding us to love ourselves, live our best lives, and celebrate our culture. Now that 2021 is here, these are a few things we can learn from them:
Believe in yourself. Don’t give up even if you start small.
When Priscilla “Prissy” Torres, @thefashionmuse_, set up her blog five years ago - an idea she got from her friends who would always ask her for style advice - she knew she had to start somewhere to get to where she is today. In her earlier days, she would post her “outfit of the day” inspirations, also known as #OOTD photos.
“I made my blog and it was horrible. It looked horrible. But I was happy with it,” she said. “It was just a start for me, and you always have to start somewhere. And soon after I started my Instagram account, I would take mirror selfies.”
@thefashionmuse_
Her 37.2K Instagram followers did not show up overnight. Once she established her blog, she began to reach out to local boutiques, hoping to collaborate and get her name out there. That’s when her Instagram began to pick up traction and brands reached out to her.
“They weren’t any big-name brands, but to me, I was super excited to at least get someone that wanted to collaborate with me,” she said.
@lexdelvalle
New Jersey native Alexia Del Valle, @lexdelvalle, also persevered to get her follower count up. The Puerto Rican TikToker from New Jersey signed up on the platform last year just to view a friend’s concert video that was gaining traction and Alexia accidentally began to gain a large audience, over 1 million followers to be exact.
“I then started to see people on my ‘For You’ page and seeing their videos and I was like, ‘I can see myself doing this.’ I’ve always been someone who had to make my friends and my family laugh, so I just thought I’m going to try to do it and I did,” Alexia said.
She added, “For a while, the videos did not go anywhere. But that was not my goal, it was just for fun and then it just kind of happened.”
Turn what you love into something that can inform and help others.
Alexia posts relatable, comedic videos. Most of it is centered around her ethnicity. The first video of hers that ever went viral was a celebrity look-alike video of singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the “Queen of Tejano music.”
“I try to make my content positive and I go with what’s trending to add my own spin to it,” she said. “What I’m hoping that my followers can get from [my content] is just being yourself. I always try to be myself unapologetically. I post content and I don’t really care what anyone thinks about how I look or how I act.”
Alexia has made videos mimicking a Latina mom and has an “If a Latina went to Hogwarts” series, giving a spin to the popular “Harry Potter” books and films. In one video, she’s on the phone with her mom trying to convince her that she’s not doing “brujeria” (witchcraft).
Since she is 6 feet tall, she pokes fun at her height in a lot of her videos. She hopes she can make viewers laugh and feel good about themselves.
“I’ve made a lot of videos where I try to get relatable because I’m very tall, so I’ve made videos about my struggles with my height and my experience. I do that to hopefully connect with people that can relate with me and relate to other body image issues,” Alexia said.
Take risks. Life has a funny way of not having everything go as planned, but sometimes it turns out to be better than you expected.
When it comes to how they got to where they are now, both Prissy (@thefashionmuse_) and Alexia (@lexdelvalle) said the same thing.
Alexia: “Don’t have any regrets and wonder ‘what would have happened had I just done it.’ Just go for it.”
Prissy: “My parents have always told me, ‘If you don’t take the risk, you’re not going to know if it’s going to work out. And if it doesn’t work out, then you know that you tried.’”
When Alexia chose digital media as her college major (she graduated last month with a degree in communications), she didn’t expect to work on her own social media branding and represent herself.
“When I graduated, I thought, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ But now I’m full time trying to see where this goes,” she said. “It was never for me. Originally, I wanted to work for a company and just be a social media or communications manager.”
When brands started to reach out to her, that is when she thought it was something she could do. Working with Cover Girl for Hispanic Heritage Month was a huge deal for her, so it was a boost to know that there are brands seeing her potential.
“If you ever have any goals or something that you want to do, just go for it because I feel like, for so long, I struggled with the confidence to do it,” she said. “I think a lot of people don’t put themselves out there because of that fear, that judgement from other people. At the end of the day, you have to think about yourself.”
@lexdelvalle
Prissy has a similar message: “It’s the year that people should start doing something that they love for them. If you have a corporate job, but you have a hobby on the side, I would say really put the effort in that hobby.”
Right before graduating in 2018 with a degree in Public Relations, Prissy realized her hobby was going to become much greater.
“I remember telling my parents and at the time, I had a part time job at an office. And I remember telling them, ‘I think I’m going to quit this part time job and dedicate myself to making this full time,’ and I’m blessed that I have very supportive parents because at the time, that part-time job was my income,” she said.
@thefashionmuse_
As a result, she quit her job and began to focus completely on her social media. She was already getting compensated for her work as an influencer. It was a risky decision, but looking back, she is glad she made the move.
“Graduating college was my pivotal point in deciding; do I want to be in corporate all my life because I graduated with a PR degree or do I want to give this a try because I know I have potential in this?” she said.
Embrace and be proud of your Latinx roots.
Coming from a family that immigrated to this country following the American dream, Prissy is proud of her roots and hopes to continue sending a positive message to Latinx women on being themselves and reaching their full potential.
“I come from a family of women who are very strong, and we’re Hispanic. I’ve come across women on my platform that will reach out to me and will tell me, ‘Thank you so much for posting that, you don’t know how much I needed that,’ so I think one of the things that really motivates me to keep going and keep increasing my following is really just making women feel empowered and confident, whether that be through fashion, beauty, my everyday life and my own personal struggles.”
Similarly, Alexia wants to empower her followers and bring Latinx representation to everyone’s social media feeds as an influencer, which is a community that has long had an issue with racial and ethnic inclusivity. Most of Alexia’s content revolves around being Latinx and she even calls out invalidating comments against the community.
One particular video that she made calls out a follower who made a comment complaining about Latinx who don’t speak Spanish. As a response, Alexia lists reasons as to why someone may not know Spanish despite being Hispanic such as “they were adopted,” “are not from a Spanish-speaking country,” “were never taught,” “have a disability,” or “forgot after learning as a child.”
She finishes the video by putting “you are all valid” on the top of the screen.
