Hey guys, this is Kristy Wu. I’m a digital influencer and this is Milkshake’s ‘Asking for a friend’.
MS: What’s the biggest mistake people make on Instagram?
KW: I think people might have the misconception that you need to present a certain way. I think for me in the very beginning, I was a lot more style oriented and I had a very, very strong aesthetic and I would never stray from that aesthetics, but I think over time I’ve realised that people don’t really care about that, they want to kind of see who you are, relate to you, but that’s something that you learn over time.
MS: 3 things your followers don’t know about you?
KW: I’d say the first thing is that I had a food blog before I had a like fashion, lifestyle blog. The second thing, I would consider myself more of an introvert, so I get really nervous like when speaking in front of a large crowd. A lot of people who meet me think that I’m super like confident, and like you know, outgoing, because of like Instagram and what I do, but I feel like I’m a lot more reserved towards the beginning, and then I open up a lot more. And then the third thing is that I have seven or eight tattoos over the last 10 months.
MS: What’s the biggest misconception of what you do?
KW: I think everyone, including my friends, think that I do nothing all day long, I just like go to brunch, take photos, and like sometimes to an extent, I’m really, really lucky, and really grateful to be able to do this like full-time but there are days where it’s just really stressful, and there’s a lot of work from the backend that you know Instagram doesn’t see, and most people don’t see. You don’t really ever switch off from, like from a nine to five job, you can kind of leave once you leave the office, but with what we do, it’s something that’s constantly on your mind and you know, it’s because I think I love what I do so it’s not like you know a chore or anything but it is hard when you want to kind of unwind and you still just want to keep people updated with what’s going on in your life.
MS: What excites you about the future?
KW: What excites me about the future is that it’s totally, you know, unpredictable. Five years ago, I would’ve never thought I would be where I am today. Like talking in front of a camera, I like had, I could not do public speaking, I like was had the worst stage fright, so yeah this is, has been, a very pleasant surprise.
MS: Have you made any IRL “in real life” friends from Instagram?
KW: Yeah, so I would say like some of my really good friends now are made through Instagram. I think I became friends with a lot of the people that I’m really close with now in the very beginning. So we’ve kind of seen each other grow from the start and it really helps to have friends who are from Instagram because they kind of understand the whole, you know, when Instagram goes down, how it affects us and when the algorithm changed, it kind of is good to have you know someone there who kind of can relate. And like there’s a misconception that you know a lot of the friends that you make from Instagram are fake or they are you know very surface level friends, but some of my really good friends are all made through Instagram. Yeah, they’re real people.
MS: Advice for people starting their career in your industry?
KW: I think it’s always just to be authentic. That’s probably the main thing to have nowadays in this industry, because there are so many people doing it, and you can really see through it when you’re trying to copy or replicate someone else. So, do what you do best, and just have confidence in what you do and want to present to the world.
Check out Kristy’s sleek Milkshake Insta website.
