If younger me could see me now, she’d be so proud that I started speaking more positively. When I first started posting content in high school, I was bullied so much to the point where the negative discourse quickly turned into negative self talk. I thank God every day that He gave me the courage to stick with it, because although I still have imposter syndrome in this space & quite a bit of self doubt here and there, I’ve come SO far as a person, and with that, as a creator. It’s been the biggest honor to be invited back to some of the very places where I battled with my own self-worth to talk about what I’ve been able to accomplish in these last few years. This week I had the privilege of being invited to my Alma Mater, University of San Diego, to speak to USD’s American Marketing Association. Not only was I able to share my own journey and lessons I’ve learned throughout the early stages of my career, but I was able to have so many beautiful 1:1 conversations with people who carried genuine curiousity - what a blessing! I was genuinely way more nervous to stand up in front of a classroom of students than to post online to 700,000 strangers…how ironic right? Also, last month I was so honored to speak at the high school I graduated from - St. Joseph’s Academy - about my experience in content creation & what it’s like to work in social media marketing. Being able to encourage and inspire young women is so surreal when I used to sit in their (exact) seats. I don’t take opportunities like this for granted, and I can’t help but thank my teachers, professors, managers, friends and family for pushing me to keep going through all of my self-doubt. Thank you guys for being here and for believing in me, even when I haven’t always believed in myself! - @taylorpolcyn2