We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alliah Cabradilla a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alliah, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Growing up in a suburban area in the rural areas of the Philippines, I was surrounded by conservative and traditional Filipino’s so it was hard to express myself. There were always comments on how I looked, how I dressed and how I presented myself which made my self-esteem and confidence really low. As a young girl, you don’t realize how those comments get to you and how it damages you. This will sound really cliché, but I compared myself, a lot. I compared myself to the beauty standards of those around me, and asked myself why I did not have those same features, not realizing that everyone is supposed to be uniquely different.
Being lost in those sea of thoughts, I had to swallow every ounce of emotion that I felt every time I saw someone “prettier” than me or if there was someone who had “lighter” skin than me. Once we moved to the U.S. that was when I realized that I am beautiful the way I am. I have always had a liking to taking photos, or photography in general. With my Dad’s old point and shoot Canon camera, I pretended to take photographic photo shoots of myself with the accessories I had in 8th grade. Even though my self esteem was still low, that’s when I started to look at myself differently, and realize that I was beautiful too. Entering my second half of 8th grade here in the U.S. was culturally shocking because I was surrounded by people of different ethnicities, and different uniqueness. Over time, I learned to appreciate how I looked and disregarded what people thought of me, because I know that as long as I am being true to myself and not changing the way I look for someone’s preference, I was loving myself for who I am, and that was what mattered most.
A little over senior year of high school, before I entered my freshman year of College, I first bought my DSLR camera, a Sony a7II, and even though I am not the most professionally looking photographer in the world, I started to find beauty in everything. I took photographic memory of every single moment, trying to take it all in, and create beautiful edits of what made my brain happy. From the single closeup of a flower, to the crowds going wild on Friday Night Lights, and to those sunsets that we would watch after our Marching Band competitions, I found beauty in everything.
Not everything is perfect, there will always be imperfections, but what I think is important is how I perceived myself in my own eyes, and not somebody else’s. Being comfortable in my own skin and finding beauty in everything is how I started to build my confidence slowly but surely. From then on, once I discovered content creation, my self confidence just boosted unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Of course, there are still moments that I would compare myself, it will never go away, but trust me, once you see yourself looking beautiful from a media that you loved making, your self esteem would always be up there.
Just believe in yourself, and romanticize yourself. That’s the key to confidence, nobody knows that you really have it unless you show it. Have confidence and strut it!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Hello!
So this is the part where I essentially introduce myself! I am Alliah, I have three first names, but I just mainly go by Alliah since that’s what I’ve been using since birth! I am a 20 year old stem student, and part time digital creator in a small town named Highland, CA in San Bernardino County! I used to think that I had a specific niche, but now looking at it, I want to just post things that makes sense to me and things that also makes me happy and things that I love! It would be too cliche for me to say that I am not trying to be like everybody else, but it’s quite the truth! Being able to express to people who support me about things that I like, and things that makes me happy is enough for me!
There were many things I wanted to be in life, such as a photographer, archaeologist, baker and fashionista, but now I’m on track to be a Pre-Veterinarian student! Being a digital creator is something I like to do for fun since I like taking photos/videos of everything. Creating content is something that makes me happy and something to keep my mind off my studies when I need a break! It is important for me to have a hobby that I keep going, and content creation is JUST that!
If there is any chance I would blow up on Social Media and become a big time girly, that would be sooo AMAZING! But! As for right now, I’m just happy where I’m at and will continue striving to hitting my miles stones for social media and school!
So feel free to support me if you would like to follow along!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The Three C’s I’d like to remember are these: Confidence, Communication, and Caring-ness. Why? Because these are the things you need to remember. First of all, in everything that I do, I need to have Confidence to do it. I will not be successful if I always think that I will just fail and give up! Being confident is something I am still learning but I am making progress in being confident so I can accomplish things! Communication is a big thing- whether it be in my journey, personal life, or work. You need to be communicative about your values, boundaries, and beliefs! A big thing that a lot of creators do is being pressured to doing a promotion to something that they may not want because of the brand name, but for me, sticking to your values, and/or beliefs is a big thing! Lastly, caring-ness is a rare trait nowadays- you always need to show kindness to those around you. Being kind to even those who doesn’t deserve it will always be better than being rude.
Being positive will attract the good things in life! Now, I know it is not easy to abide by these, but just remember that you either can have a peace of mind or not. I prefer to have a peace of mind rather than thinking about the “what-if’s” especially in my content creator journey! As I reach my 20’s there are a lot of things I am still learning, but by abiding by these 3 C’s, I am also being true to myself! Like I said before, being true to yourself is something that you should always hold yourself accountable for. If you’re having a hard time doing these, it’s okay, it didn’t take me a day to start doing these, it took me years! Try them out one by one until you feel comfortable in constantly doing them, but always and always remember to do what’s best for each scenario.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I log off. I turn off my phone, and just enjoy the current moment. I know this is hard, but, most of the time, we let social media get to us. We unknowingly start comparing ourselves to the lives of other people, but what we also always forget is that we are only seeing the surface. We don’t really know what is going behind the scenes so it is important for me to take a time off from time to time. As of right now, I do this by not going on my social media apps during the weekend, because those are my “off” days. The days where I just enjoy everything else in my life except social media. A time where I sit outside and enjoy the sounds of nature, being around family, and writing personal goals and accomplishments I’ve finished.
We’re all in a different path, and your friends may be successful now, doesn’t mean you won’t be there too. Small wins are still wins, and as long as you’re working hard to get to where you want, you will accomplish things. Hard work is better than doing nothing and just sitting around waiting for things to come to you. Being overwhelmed is okay, that is just the sign for you to take a breather and take things slow. We only live once so enjoy every moment as much as you can because sooner or later, our birthdays will be off the calendar soon.
Don’t pressure yourself to be something that you aren’t. 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/alliahcabradilla
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliahcabradilla/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alliahccabradilla
