Meet Trailblazer Lauren Sebastian

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Sebastian.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lauren. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started BigBlondeHair.com after seeing someone in a magazine that blogged for a living. I had always wanted to be a writer, so felt like it could be my way into that world even though I had a business degree. I was working in fashion wholesale at the time, so started I blogging about a combination of fashion with some Reality TV commentary here and there.

I started to recognize fashion on Reality TV shows I was watching and would do a post here and there. One day I did a post on Kyle Richards’ Tom Ford sunglasses on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and noticed my Google traffic going up. So, I started to focus on that.

This was before affiliate programs were easily accessible, so to monetize I was reaching out to small businesses whose items were featured on The Real Housewives and seeing if they wanted to do banner ads and featured posts (shout out to Reve Boutique and Sassy Strands for being my first clients).

I got my first “big break” back in 2011 when Tamra Judge of the Real Housewives of Orange County shared one of my posts on her Beach Bunny swimsuits on her social media. I got 50,000 hits in one day and the site crashed. She’s my guardian Housewives angel, she really helped me gain my start.

Since then the site has grown into a top celebrity style destination and now covering makeup and decor in addition to fashion. My team has grown to four amazing employees: Sally Steele, Jessica Knottek, Faryn Wegler and Chelsie Shackelford that all provide great writing an expertise.

Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think starting a business is ever easy, but I feel fortunate to do what I do as a job. I think calling yourself a “Boss Babe” and talking about how hard you work all the time is a turn-off, but at the risk of sounding like that, I’ve been successful because of a lot of hard work. Any entrepreneur with a successful business knows what this is like.

Even for say the first two or three years when I was watching my kid during the day, working 40 hours a week on the blog and only making like $500-$1000 per month I still continued to plug away. I worked through vacations (I have gone away once in the 7 years I’ve done this and not worked, and it sort of drove me crazy not to), having the flu and didn’t even miss covering my shows when I gave birth to my second son Valentino two years ago!

But to me, that’s all worth it to be able to absolutely love what I do!

I’d say my advice to young women starting their journey is find their niche to not compare themselves to others. It’s really tough in the world of Social Media not to, but I think it’s so important. For example, I’m not a huge Instagrammer so sometimes I don’t get the recognition others do, but I get that paycheck that a lot of them don’t and I’d take that 100%! Just be you, don’t worry about what anyone else is doing, and work your a*s off.

You also have to remember that you can’t start at the top and you have to put in your time, whether it’s in an internship, working as an assistant or starting a blog. In my 20s, I worked in fashion making very little, working long hours and then waitressing at night to pay my bills. That is how I gained a lot of knowledge that enabled me to start Big Blonde Hair from a “fashion expert” standpoint. Put in your time, be grateful for opportunities, don’t take things personally, learn from everything and if you work hard people notice. They also notice if you don’t..

We’d love to hear more about BigBlondeHair.com.
BigBlondeHair.com identifies what Reality TV stars are wearing and tells our readers where they can buy that piece along with looks for less! We specialize in Real Housewives fashion, but we also cover Vanderpump Rules, The Bachelorette, Southern Charm, Today Show, Very Cavallari, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Live with Kelly and Ryan, Younger, seen on Instagram fashion and more!

What sets us apart from our competitors are that we tend to have the information first (we often have items on the site before the show is over) and we work a lot on our Style Stealers or looks for less. Also, we write commentary with our posts which makes it a lot more personal then some competitors. A lot of the celebs we cover read the site, which is also pretty cool!

I’d also say that I’m proud that we were one of the first sites to provide this service to readers. There are definitely “Style Stealers”, but no one like us.

Which women have inspired you in your life?
Tons of women inspire me everyday, some are in the industry and some are not! For example, one of my best friends has a very successful career with a hedge fund, runs her household and is an amazing mom to three kids. I don’t know how she does it. I have a lot of friends like this that I have a ton of respect for because I find it really, really hard to balance a career with motherhood, and they nail it.

That being said, you don’t have to be a mom to be inspirational. I’m also super inspired by women who take their own path, support themselves and don’t go the traditional husband, kids and a picket fence route. I have another friend who is so valuable to her employer that she is able to work remotely and travel around the world which I find so amazing and kick a*s.

My mom and my grandma are also big inspirations to me. My mom is the nicest, most caring person I know and always puts others first. She was a working mom which I think really paved the way for me to be the same. I hope to inspire my sons by running a company in the same way. And my grandma is the only 91 year old I know that is on social media. She loves to keep young and change with the times which I admire. She’s also tough as nails!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigblondehair.com/
• Phone: 773-540-8324
• Email: lauren@bigblondehair.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigblondehair/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigblondehair/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigblondehair
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/laurensebastianofficial/

Image Credit:
Tek Chung

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