Pinning My Personality: My Pinterest Fashion Journey

Graphic by Isabelle Hauf-Pisoni.

The first time I heard about Pinterest, I was 12 years old. One of my older sisters was pinning my hair back with a bobby pin and sectioned it off in the most 2012, totally chic way I had ever seen. 

“This is what everyone on Pinterest is doing, Livi,” she said, and I felt instantly prettier through the help of a simple bobby pin hack.

My older sisters used Pinterest for quick hairstyle hacks, recipes and DIYs for their apartments. When I made my account shortly after hearing about it from my sisters, I repinned hairstyles, holiday baking ideas and “Harry Potter” fandom facts (embarrassing, I know). Pinterest quickly became my favorite social media website, and it continues to be to this day. Unlike Instagram, I never felt the pressure to impress my followers with my posts, nor to compare myself to the content I saw. Through the years, I always turn to Pinterest when I need a little inspiration. By high school, it turned from a place where I kept helpful tips from the internet to a vision board for my lifestyle and fashion sense.

It is my favorite place to brainstorm my future. I decided to dissect my fashion evolution by going back to my Pinterest feed, which, when you get all the way to some of my first pins, is a little embarrassing. So I’ll start with high school.

EARLY HIGH SCHOOL

Early in my high school career, I was obsessed with autumn fashion. This screenshot only gives away a fraction of the amount of winter sweaters I had repinned during this time. I loved red, skirts, flower crowns (well past their time) and black tights under anything. I definitely wore the most makeup during my early years in high school — I took the time to cake on foundation and the perfect red lip. I basically took all my fashion inspiration from Taylor Swift.

MID HIGH SCHOOL

By the middle of high school, I grew into my personal fashion sense pretty concretely, rather than basing it on seasons or trends. I loved blouses that tied in the front and I think I wore the pictured blue striped blouse about 100 times during my junior year of high school. Inspired by Harry Styles, I also began to take a few more risks when it came to what I wore. I had a pair of gold wire glasses that I wore quite frequently with outfits (it was a big deal for me). This was also around the time my friends and I took photos wherever we went — so I was probably dressing my best the most frequently during this time.

LATE HIGH SCHOOL

I went through a very California-esque phase late in my senior year and into the summer before college (I attribute it to my discovery of Emma Chamberlain). I dressed in brighter colors than I ever had and liked to dress down looks (sneakers with dresses was, and still kind of is, a huge move for me).

NOW

While I’ll probably look back at this phase and cringe someday (like I have with all my past fashion endeavors), I’m dressing very simplistically these days. Over the summer, my favorite outfit was jeans and a white T-shirt. I have also developed a love for olive green and, as seen in the screenshot and photo, decided to cut and dye my hair.

The thing I love most about Pinterest is the way it lets me experiment with ideas without actually doing anything. I could probably spend hours scrolling through my feed mixing and matching outfits, food and apartment decorations. It is the perfect social media in my opinion, because you see your friends’ ideas and goals rather than a highlight reel of their lives, which leads to no negative comparisons. Plus, it is the perfect place to execute my vision boards for 2021.