Wow y’all, what a whirlwind the last five weeks have been. If you’ve noticed the radio silence on here then you may have realized something was up. To sum it all up, it all began with a click. I clicked on a phishing link from an email on accident while at work and not genuinely paying attention. Before I knew it, my Kayleigh’s Kloset Instagram account had posted a photo trying to sell jail broken iPhones, my password and email were changed, and my whole “blogging world” was in a downwards spiral. At first I thought it was funny. I had been complaining so long about trying to balance everything; a new job that takes up more attention and effort than my old one, a social life that I refuse to ever give up because I’m still young and it’s one of the best parts about living in the city, sleep + sanity + health-because you can only choose one of the three-and blogging all at the same. My blog had become almost burdensome to me at a point. I started doing more on the weeknights with new people, so going home and sitting on my laptop planning posts and the next days content didn’t take priority in my head. Taking pictures during brunch or rooftop hopping on the weekends was no longer appealing, and waking up before the sun to try and cram a photo session before work lost its spark. All in all, I was almost relieved to have a hacker take away my blog Instagram and largest social media platform that has brought me more opportunities than most get in a lifetime. That was until it all hit, and I realized I lost half of myself that had been around for nearly four years.

The overall feeling of losing my Instagram account? Heartbreak. Feel free to laugh as hard as you want at it, because I did too at one point and I know exactly what you’re thinking; “this chick is crying about losing a social media account how pathetic.” And you’re 100% right, because it is pathetic. But what really started to get me was the opportunities that would be missed without my stupid social media platform with 55,000 followers. Most of my jobs and internships hired me because I had a blog. My university, the University of Oklahoma, had me take over their Instagram account to showcase tailgate style my senior year in a town where fashion is so minimal but there are people who are just as passionate about it as I am. I held panels at my old Fashion Camp, Banson NYC, where I talked about the importance of interning, blogging and how to really make it in this industry to high school and college kids from all over the world. This blog, and my Instagram account, was so much more than just a social media platform or a website URL. This was something I started because I loved fashion and wanted to live in New York, but was living in Norman, Oklahoma where I wasn’t really able to do anything fashion related. I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else, that I had what it took to make it in NYC one day. I spent countless, sleepless hours working to build up my account. I blogged full-time out of college just to build a higher following. I was just in the process of expanding and in the process of working on some great campaigns until all of this happened.

It has definitely made me take a step back and look at everything. While it’s been nice to not have to worry about posting content 3x a day on Instagram, and on the blog 3-4x a week, I’ve just felt like something has been missing. I’ve always referred to myself as a blogger, and when my Instagram was hacked I felt like I wasn’t deserving of that term until I realized that that was the initial problem. I’m a blogger because I have a blog, not because I have an Instagram account. With this whole new/old journey revamp I’m hoping to post new and more content relating to lifestyle, beauty products, life in NYC and working in beauty PR. It’s almost nice to start over because it’s basically like I rebranded without even having to try. Sure, I’ll miss having a large Instagram following, but knowing I’ll be posting the same quality content as before has my hopes up that I’ll be able to build up my Instagram following in no time. So here’s to hoping, and if you’re ready to follow along this next venture then be sure to follow me on my new Instagram account!