I post a Question Box on my stories nearly every Monday and take a bit of time to answer a handful of them as I kick off the work week.

One question I got recently was “How have WE influenced YOU"”

It stopped me in my scroll immediately, and I knew I wanted to draft a blog post as a reply.

You have influenced me in immeasurable ways. The ability to communicate with so many people through an app, e-mail, or comments on the blog, is so unique. I remember when “chat rooms” started in the early 2000s. And AOL instant messenger became a thing too. We were able to communicate with strangers online, but that has only grown since and gotten more personal.

There are downsides to this, of which I’m very personally aware, but overwhelmingly I feel grateful to have gotten the ability to connect with so many of you online.
I started this website and this idea of sharing beauty tutorials with the goal of just sharing what I knew with other people. I wanted to help, and I’m naturally a “sharer” of information. I used to do it behind the chair, I do it with my friends in real life, and have built an entire business around sharing helpful information, reviews, tutorials, and more.

You, the reader, have influenced me directly by sharing with me what you like to read about or watch. But beyond the content creation part of my job, you’ve opened my mind to so many notions and ideas that I may not have otherwis...