Star Tribune: Behind the Scenes of "The Styled Life"

Some of you already know that the Star Tribune published an article about me yesterday called The Styled Life written by Aimee Blanchette. As a blogger, I felt it was practically my responsibility to share how this article came together! I've always regarded the newspaper as an art form. Realizing I would be within the pages of my favorite form of media felt like the highest cloud I could reach.

My writer, Aimee Blanchette, and I started with a quick lunch downtown a few weeks ago to get a feel for her idea, and a couple weeks later, I found myself sitting down to a three-hour brunch with Aimee and two guests: a tape recorder and a legal pad. I'm still not sure how I fit my entire life story into three hours. A couple of weeks later, Aimee and photographer Leila spent a Saturday morning at my apartment while I opened the weeks' packages.

 Trying on some quirky Katy Perry for Claire's samples

My writer, Aimee

Photos by Caitlin Fultz

I was a roller coaster of emotions when it came out yesterday (not unlike my every day, but understandably intensified). It was unbelievably hard for me to not be in control of what was being said about me. I tend to be a very private person; I like doing the writing, not being the one written about. But the feedback from you all was so overwhelmingly positive + encouraging that it made everything worth it. I'm still struggling a little with having that much information about me out in the world, but now I'm back in my little corner of the Internet on Zipped, and life can continue on as normal. 

I heard this once: "Discussion is good. For those of us fortunate enough to be the subject of magazine articles, it may be our responsibility from time to time to raise the level of debate." As the subject of a newspaper article (wow), I keep coming back to this quote, however out of context it is to my situation. Style blogging is not of interest to everyone, just like Star Wars or soccer or party planning, but if you read the piece and were unfamiliar with me or my business before, all I can hope is for someone to learn something new or see things from a different perspective. Mine isn't a story that will change the world. Its purpose is about as simple as the purpose of my blog: to maybe inspire someone somewhere, even in the smallest way. I couldn't do it without you.

A million thanks.