Meet Elizabeth Hugen

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Hugen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with ELIZABETH below.

ELIZABETH, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Growing up, I always wanted to do one thing – be a fashion designer. It was ingrained in me from a young age and to this day, remains one of my biggest passions. However, the road was not easy and many things blocked my path along the way. I grew up in a small town with no connections to the industry and naively thought that talent alone would open doors. After high school, my parents divorced and we moved to a different city. Shortly after, I moved out on my own and in the next couple of years, I had a very unstable living situation. I put all of my stuff in the cheapest storage unit I could find and basically lived out of a couple of boxes as I moved from place to place, even becoming homeless at one point. It was truly one of the lowest points in my life. I can’t even put into words how it felt.

During this time, I worked 3-4 jobs to provide for myself and somehow was still able to go to school full-time. Although I couldn’t go to an art school right away like I wanted, I was so grateful to have enough financial aid for community college. Education was always very important to me and I had the belief that I absolutely needed a degree in order to make my dreams a reality. After graduating with an AA degree, I looked into art schools to continue my education. I applied to a few top schools, got accepted and consequently had to turn them down as my financial aid didn’t come close to what I needed for these very expensive art schools. They were also all located in very expensive areas of the country and of course, I didn’t have the funds to move. At one point, I considered driving 5-6 hours everyday to attend classes but came to realization that it just wasn’t feasible.

A family member told me about a new art school that opened up near them so I made the choice to move 5 hours away from my family, friends and new boyfriend (now husband) to pursue my dream. Due to the 2008 recession. I never found a job so I had to live off of my savings account. I was so broke that I lived off of one pack of ramen noodles a day and I was incredibly lonely and depressed. After 7 months, I moved back home with $0 in my bank account and thousands of dollars in students loans. I had been scammed out of $20k from this “school.” I have never felt so helpless but I didn’t give up. This was the only thing that I’ve ever wanted in my life so I finished out my education at a local 4 year college.

However, what they say about art degrees is true – I had a terrible time trying to find a job! And not even in my field but, in general, as I was now “overqualified” for any entry level job (which I needed for experience… and to pay my bills). I did end up finding a job but I never gave up on my fashion dream and after many more obstacles and many more years, I finally found fashion blogging, which completely changed my life and led me to where I am now.

Resilience has always been part of my DNA. I’ve never been one to give up. If something doesn’t work, I keep trying until it does. I’m stubborn that way. And with this situation, I never had a plan B. I just had to make it work, no matter how long it took. Luckily, I’m also incredibly patient, positive and hopeful, which helps tremendously when things get tough.

Along my journey, I’ve learned many things. One of those is that sometimes when we force something, it’s doesn’t always turn out the way we intend. This doesn’t mean that it’s not meant for us but perhaps, it will come along through different means, or at a later time, or maybe we are meant for something that better suits who we are. Regardless, the most important thing is to never give up on something that you love. Having been through some of the very worst situations of my life and coming out in an even better place has taught me to be flexible, fearless, and more grateful.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a content creator that inspires others to embrace soft femininity, everyday elegance and an adventurous spirit through fashion, beauty, lifestyle and travel posts and videos. I absolutely love what I do! It fuels my passion for fashion, creativity, femininity and connection. I’m best known for my expansive dress collection and love of pink!! My favorite thing about what I do is the community that has come from it.

Growing up, I found it hard to relate to others at times and it was difficult to find others with mutual interests. With my community, I can connect with many like-minded individuals from around the world creating a mutually supportive and encouraging environment. The internet can be so incredible in this regard! To connect further and share my love of styling, I recently launched my free Feminine Style Personality Quiz and 3 part mini-series to help my readers and followers find and perfect their unique, personal style!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three most impactful qualities during my journey have been passion, authenticity and flexibility. Passion is very important when going into something like starting your own business. Self-employment can be very unpredictable and if you aren’t passionate, you have nothing to propel you forward during the hard times. There has to be an important underlying reason to do what you do. This is also why optimism is vital.

Being authentic to who I am has always been very important to me and for this reason, I rarely fit in. I always thought there was something wrong with me, but I’ve come to the conclusion that we are all different in such beautiful and unique ways. This is something to be embraced! My authenticity is the very reason that I’m able to create such a unique presence on my platforms. My advice: Just be who you truly are – those that resonate will find you.

Flexibility has been a skill that I’ve had to learn along the way. I used to be very rigid, controlling and perfectionistic out of anxiety but over time, I’ve learned that my life works much better when I’m more flexible and adaptable. This flexibility has allowed me to be more open-minded, receptive to new skills and ideas, and considerate of unique opportunities that come my way. Before, I would have tried to plan out every single detail of my life, feeling victimized when it didn’t go according to plan. These days, I’ve embraced a complete mindset shift with endless possibilities. Anything can happen, which makes the journey so exciting!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Early on, it was very hard for me to manage my time and work-life balance. I thought that in order to be successful, I needed to constantly be working. I was fearful of being homeless again. I was also quite the people pleaser and never wanted to let anyone down. I said yes to everything, which led to burn out. I realized that while I do love my job, I don’t want to solely live to work. Working for yourself is exciting but it can be hard to know when to turn it off.

Therefore, I created office hours for myself and stuck to them. Instead of overextending myself, I created a more realistic workload. The biggest shift was my mindset. I learned how to respect my time, effort, knowledge and boundaries. There are still so many skills that I’m learning along the way – one of these being proper stress management. I make self-care a priority with mediation, journaling, bubble baths, skincare routines and romanticizing the simple things in my daily life.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Josh Hugen

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