I actually can’t believe it’s been a whole four years since I’ve updated this blog. But it’s like they say, better late than never, right? It feels like there is so much I have learned and so many places I’ve been in that (kinda long?) period. Lately, I’ve been taking up journaling (I’m obsessed with digital journaling), and I regret not leaning into it earlier because I love writing. But the truth is I haven’t been truly inspired creatively at all until recently.

One thing that has been fueling my creativity like nothing before has been staying up all night long and playing The Sims 4 on my PC. I have hundreds of sims and generations of families that I’ve all carefully curated, down to their bone structure, hobbies, personal style, cultural backgrounds, personalities, life experiences, and all. It’s actually pretty embarrassing to tell people about. I’ll spend literal hours on hours downloading digital fashions on sites like SimsFinds and Patreon and even more hours dressing them up before I ever even really start playing. My latest project has involved me creative directing my own beauty campaigns with my digital models after being inspired by some fragrance ads that I saw while reading Vanity Fair.

It’s been extremely therapeutic and ironically, it’s been teaching me a lot about the things that I find beauty in, and what I believe means to be beautiful. I’ve found myself reflecting a lot on the features I’ve coveted in the super-glamorous, beautiful women that I’ve always looked up to, and in turn; the societal conditioning that has contributed to the development of my own beauty ideals. It has all been feeling very demystifying. Some of my favorite sims have come to life through exploring the aesthetics of certain subcultures I may find interesting, while others seem to manifest through deep introspection into who I am and who I want to be. I live vicariously through them. I dress vicariously through them. I get to explore every facet of myself and more. They are beautiful, glamorous representatives of all my childhood dreams.

I can’t help but imagine what these images would look like printed in a real magazine alongside my writing. I’ve been toying around with the idea of it a lot. Perhaps one day that idea will come to fruition. For now, I’m just glad I’m blogging again, and that I finally have somewhere good to post all these fabulous pictures.