So many people are scared to try new things and explore their passions.
Usually, this happens as a result of limiting beliefs. Those beliefs could be: I am too old, I don’t fit in, or I don’t have the resources. The list of possible barriers can go on and on.
But for one 66-year-old who used to be a full-time professor, she didn’t let anything stop her from living her passion for fashion.
New York native Lynn Slater started “Accidental Icon,” her fashion blog that garners much attention from millennials and Gen Z-ers, after photographers at New York Fashion Week mistook her for a model.
She used to be a social justice professor who still promotes and speaks up for important issues on her Instagram, where she has garnered 748,000 followers! In the past six years, after being discovered, she has been signed to multiple fashion campaigns, walking international runways and showing off her unique style.
She told CBS News that she never wants to let society put her in a box.
Her style is self-defined and she has a unique way of looking at fashion from the inside out—and you can really see that by perusing her blog. Her blogs are really about how fashion and style feel to her, instead of what fashion looks like to society or to others more generally. It gives a different take on what we usually see, which usually defines fashion by what is “on trend” or “in style” for that season.
She shares in her CBS News interview that in order for people to develop and define their own sense of style, they can use what she calls “identity-driven style.”
She wants to help people reach their own personalized style by defining what their style means to them in three words. She says the world is constantly looking outward, which actually puts distance between them and the world outside.
As she explains, understanding how we define ourselves inwardly can really help us tweak our own personal style.
Lynn’s story is an inspiration to us all.
What is even more interesting is that she wasn’t always comfortable taking pictures! She is an introvert and said that the best way she got over this hurdle was to wear sunglasses when she started taking photos. She implies that there is nothing stopping anyone from overcoming obstacles—it’s just a matter of taking the risk.
As her story proves, the risk she took was absolutely worth it!
She didn’t let age hold her back and was constantly finding ways to reinvent herself.
For her, fashion isn’t about having the money to buy things or reinvent yourself, it is about choice. Her blog is for women who live interesting but rather ordinary lives. This means that one doesn’t have to be a celebrity or reach some social status to do and capture their dream life—one just has to decide to live it!
Her story should be a lesson to us all: follow your dreams, live authentically and always be true to yourself!
Though people are finally taking notice of her blog, we’re guessing that we’re going to hear more from Slater in the next few years!
To see her style for yourself, check out the video below:
Please SHARE this with your friends and family and get ready to be inspired.
