STRAIGHT EDGE awesome! Russian Blogger @apollinaariy talks about being different

Hey Loves, 

today we're getting to know @apollinaariy, a Russian fashion blogger and art in person, who has inspired me for over 2 years now. Her eclectic work is a never-ending fountain of creativity. Like a character from a movie she manages to stay far away while feeling close to me. Find out more about her in our interview. 🥰

SheSale: For our readers, would you like to tell me something about yourself first? Who are you? Where do you live? How is it there? And how does your daily life look like?

@apollinaariy: Yea, I want them to know that I am Polina, but my nickname is Apollinaria and apollinaariy in all social media, as a result. That is because my name is widely spread nowadays and I had a desire to be a bit unique. Not the best way, actually, but it works!

Well, I am from Magnitogorsk, Russia, it is a small industrial town, where it is quite difficult to develop as a blogger and create content. However, I started my blog 4 years ago to overcome my fear of communication with people, I was a really shy person. Now I have not such problem but being introvert in social networks sometimes hard for me.

As for my daily life, it is absolutely usual. Going to school and getting ready for exams in the morning, having some extra lessons with my favorite tutor after that and, finally, creating content for my blog and my clients as I also work as a smm manager.

SheSale: Thank you very much for this insight to your daily life so far. 😊🙏 Since I am following you for over 2 years now, I realised that you put all your heart and soul into your work.

How does it feel for you to be so open and transparent about who you are, but not being really able to see & feel your counterpart's reaction? 

@apollinaariy: Well, I came to Instagram to find some people who have a bit similar attitude to life and worldview. So, if I want to create a little kind of family online, it is better to be yourself and show anyone yourself without any masks. I also prefer being sincere and become happy when my audience feels it. Fortunately, my followers are always engaged in my content and my life because I do enjoy talking to them anywhere. Not each media person does it, so I appreciate the feedback I have and feel daily.

At the beginning of my way here I had a fear to broadcast in an empty space, but “ my “ people found me initially and understood me through my content.

SheSale: It matters. It sure does, my dear. You are seen here, heard, loved and wanted by the people who follow you. We are of course interested in who you are and that you are happy and doing good. 😊

People indeed connect through thoughts and shared interests and must not necessarily see each other in person for that. 🥰

So, I was wondering: In some of your posts you told us about the mindsets of people where you live and who you worked with. And it seemed that some of them are (like many people in real life are) a bit difficult. What specifically makes it hard to become a successful blogger where you live? Which hurdles in thoughts, behavior and communication do you have to master? And do you see a difference between the way of life in reality and in our digital community?

SheSale: Some people seem to be quite difficult when you talk to them, you are right. Mostly I had to deal with these people during the working process as smm, fortunately. I guess that a lack of self-confidence really stops me to become more successful, and it does not depend on a place where I live. However, some citizens in the place where I live find it too weird when people take photos or videos or even stories in Instagram in crowded places. As for me, it is strange a bit because different people have places to work which differ from your own.

As for me, I have to master communication in common - in real life I am still painfully shy. And yea, I do not see a great difference between ways of life online and offline as I used to be the same in both ways. But if I have more time to think about it, I may find some differences as being two-faced as we cannot see real emotions, postures and gestures, etc., immediately. Yes sure. We all say communication is key to understanding, but sometimes people think they talk about the same thing when in reality they don't.

SheSale: For me personally, I interpret your work as the personal art of a modern romantic. In some of your descriptions you talked about the discrepancies between rational vs. irrational and the many masks that people wear. Is your brutal honesty a way to overcome such fake images you think? How do people react to that?

@apollinaariy: I hope I understood the question right, so, my descriptions in posts reflect my spontaneous thoughts, as a rule and I just want to be honest with myself and my environment. I tend to think that yea, my honesty is able to help to overcome some fake images, as you have mentioned. People find it extremely risky sometimes because some fake people prefer to hide their true self, but I just speak openly about the way I think and many people are inspired by it.

SheSale: Yes, because you show us who you really are. That's what I meant with complete honesty. However, that also always comes with a high degree of vulnerability. At some point, you give them all information about you, while they hide behind their masks. Does that also frighten you sometimes? Or don't you care about what they think about you at all?

@apollinaariy: Frankly speaking, I care about opinions of certain people that are close to me and who have an experience in any area I’m interested in. Other opinions don’t really matter as there are billions of people in the world and if I have to listen to everyone, it will be impossible to be yourself. All in all, my essential value is freedom and being sincere, so, I want to follow this way.

SheSale: Yes, I have also experienced you as a very authentic person who lives in both worlds - digital and real - as the same. You say what's on your mind and you don't care if it fits your personal brand or not. You are who you truly are.

Nonetheless, Social Media is still media - it can show the reality of things, some idealistic version of it or something totally unreal. So do you think it can be critical to change the branding of your work to a complete new look? Do you think people will perceive you differently? Or is it even possible that Instagram's algorithm will somehow punish you for not following the newest trends and gadgets, when maybe you don't even care about them at all?

@apollinaariy: I am really excited that people on the other side of the screen feel it and see real me. Yea, many people want to follow the template of a “ perfect life “ which even not exists, but bloggers and media people show just the beautiful part of their lives and I don’t think that it’s right. Many other users feel dissatisfied with their lives because of ideal pictures in virtual reality, but no one sees real emotions and backgrounds that are hidden, unfortunately.

I don’t think it’ll be critical to have a complete new look for my work if it touches content. My audience knows that it’s okay to people to try something new that seemed strange before.

SheSale: I'm glad to hear that you were able to find the type of followers and friends online who would support you, your decisions and dreams. Since I am never visible on Social Media myself, but make my online shop about the people only, I was always wondering how bloggers feel on the other hand.

I realised that some of the lovely ladies I work with sometimes disappear from Social Media completely without me knowing the reason for that. Sometimes they come again, but with complete other topics. And when I learned about some bloggers who couldn't deal with the pressure the external world puts on them for having to be perfect rather than real, I slowly started to see that problem.

And as for the changes connected to new trends in social networks, I guess, that everyone follows them in a way to match time or promote themselves online. But we can interpret new trends in the way we think and it will be much more interesting.

@apollinaariy: As for me, I create content based on my feelings: now I have a lack of calm time in my life, so I try to reconstruct it offline. One day it can change if something inspires me in it.

SheSale: Yes, after all art imitates life. 🥰

@apollinaariy: Being blogger is hard because of the pressure, as you said. But it’s necessary for bloggers to understand that such difficulties exist and they are normal as not everyone share their opinions or way of life. These difficulties make us stronger and help us to be ourselves, we should remember it.

SheSale: So basically, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? When it comes to push backs and critical views I mean.

@apollinaariy: That’s true, you are right. And if anyone has such “ problems “, it means attention to the person, his or her actions that make people feel something. Finally, critical views may be given as a result of negative emotions as envy, etc. That means you are in a right way but not everyone can be happy for others.

SheSale: That's indeed true. Since I talked to some of the people who feel these negative emotions towards bloggers they don't even know personally, I had the impression some of their extreme views and feelings were mere projections. Of their own unhappiness and lack of something, they didn't even know. It seems that some of your work and also the work of others triggered them. To think that other people's lives are perfect or as Americans would say, "keep up with the Joneses" which basically means rlthe grass is always greener on the side.

@apollinaariy: You’ve just written the words I wanted to add, actually. Thank you for understanding. SheSale: To me personally, all these extreme emotions are neither necessary nor logical. Together, we are creating another world online that no longer is only a parallel world, but very much a sphere of real understanding, emotions and interactions as also the real world can be or not be. So, do you as a more experienced blogger have some tipps and recommendations for younger bloggers (to be) of how they can stay true to themselves and not become too distracted or even irritated in a negative way by such people? How do you manage to always stay true to who you are and care for yourself in stressful periods of time?

@apollinaariy: I want people to follow their real desires and values, achieve their aims and not refuse from them because of outside factors. Just listen to yourself and trust your soul - then you will follow the correct way that provide you with positive experience from day to day. Live your life. Not your relatives’ or society. And please, do not forget about your values. SheSale: Wonderfully spoken. 😊 It matches the quote of you I found when it comes to work. "Don't rely on someone else's experience, but make your own." To me, it's very refreshing to see that you transport your values into who you are and everything you do. Like your moral guide and compass. What exactly are your values?

@apollinaariy: My values are being free-minded, independent and open to other people, also honesty and trust. Inspiration: inspire and be inspired too.

SheSale: That's was my next question was about. To ask you how you find your inspiration?

@apollinaariy: I find my inspiration around in the world as it’s full of all necessary resources. It may be a soft warm light in honey shades in my room early in the morning, visual content in Instagram, works of arts, conversations with my tutor or with other people as we are having right now! I try to see the little things that make our life fulfilled.

SheSale: I found a very interesting blend of ordinary things and situations from your daily life mixed with higher concepts of scientific theory and philosophy which maybe stems from your art classes in school. Is this channel and all work that you do mainly a search for who you are?

@apollinaariy: Absolutely. It helps me to find myself and express my mind. It is a 0,1% of mix which takes place in my mind, I think.

SheSale: What are the other 99,9%? 😊

@apollinaariy: I think that they are unpleasant moments, reflection and other musings about work, future, ideas, etc. SheSale: Unpleasant? Or just the normal things in life?

@apollinaariy: Yea. It connected with relations with my parents, people, who I considered as friends. Such experience makes me stronger, however, my activity here suffer from it. I don’t have a desire to talk about it as it’s a bit waste of time. It’s a psychological injure but it gives me food for thought anytime. And makes me who I am now )

SheSale: Yes, we don't have to go into detail about it. People in our personal environment always influence us or shape who we are - if we want or not. But I think at some point in our lives we all (hopefully) realise that it is OUR lives - YOUR life and MY life - that we have to live. That it's not our task to follow the rules of others or be understood by them. That we are free to chose who we are and who we want to be in the future. Real human bonds and connections must not necessarily come from blood or a long time spend together. People change. People find out who they are behind society's conditioning. And if they're are brave enough, they leave the nest and start to fly. By themselves. 😁 Which brings me to my last question for you: What is your personal vision for the future? I read that you want to write dramas and also make films. Is that where you see yourself in the future?

@apollinaariy: As for the future, I just want to be connected with cinematography, languages, people, do something I enjoy and inspire people. SheSale: That's indeed a very creative life you will be living. 😊 Sourrounded by beauty, aesthetics, real emotions, nature and freedom. I wish you all the best on your way and all the strength, support, necessary time, energy and passion to make your dreams come true. 🥰 You definitely found a fan and supporter of your art in me. ❤ And now, that we had the chance to talk some more about you, I feel more connected and understanding of who you are. Stay always true to yourself and let nobody distract you from YOUR way to happiness. 🥰❤

@apollinaariy: Thank you so much for such great words, hope one day we can have a meeting and another warm conversation live. Wish you all the best and thank you for having me💛