We come to you this week with a very special guest on UMass Style Watch. Not only does she have her own blog, but it stands out from the crowd in a saturated market, with Christianity at its center. Senior communication and journalism major Chelsea White incorporates fashion with her faith in anindividualized and inspirational way.

We sat down with White, inquiring specifically about who she is outside of fashion.

“The most essential thing to my identity is my faith,” White said. “Being a Christian, a follower of Christ…defines a lot of me and how I approach life. I’m very passionate about style and how aesthetics and design can really showcase how God uses those things to help us appreciate His creation.”

White’s faith is where she finds her identity, which got us thinking about how faith and fashion work together.

“I think in the same way that my faith forms every area of my life, it forms the way I dress,” White said. “I think that your clothing can be honoring to God, both in how you present yourself and also the fact that how you dress is like another outlet for your uniqueness and how Christ made you. In those two respects, I think that the way you dress yourself can be more linked to your faith than one might think at first.”

White describes her own personal sense of ambiguous style stating, “It changes constantly. I would say if I want to wake up today and I want to feel bohemian, I would dress bohemian…In general, I would say trendy probably — spunky maybe — but I’m trying to transition into a more professional wardrobe a little bit because I tend to dress like I’m 14 sometimes.”

White showcases the amalgamation of love for fashion and faith on her blog “Trendy Chelsea,” where she shares her favorite pieces like the lavender-hued waffle sweater from Brandy Melville she wore during the interview.

White spoke about her blog saying, ”It’s just a place where I can share my fashion taste, my traveling experience and then my advice related to faith — and then also my journey with my faith.”

White is able to combine all her passions into one blog and use that as a productive outlet of self-expression. In commenting on her content accumulation process, White said, “I think it normally starts with the pictures. I’ll take pictures somewhere or of a certain outfit and then the writing comes along with that. If it’s a faith-based piece, I will usually focus on ideas first and then I find pictures to compliment [the ideas].”

Through strong writing and compelling images on her personal blog, White has accumulated 508 followers on her Facebook page where she posts updates about her blog.

But the process isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It can be difficult being a content creator in a market as saturated as fashion blogging, dealing with things as juvenile, but emotionally damaging, as comparison.

“I felt like I needed to become better at marketing, but I think that took the joy out of it. I think now I am just focusing on creating content that makes me happy and not forcing myself to blog if I don’t want to,” White said.

White understands that posting frequently is what gets your name out there in circulation, but if you don’t love what you do, it won’t be good quality.

Changing gears, traveling is also something that White finds great pleasure in. She’s been to South Africa for a mission trip, Italy for study abroad, Denmark and Spain for Community Santiago (an organization that emphasizes seamless community involvement), Israel for education and other places for the sake of experience.

While traveling, she has gained new perspectives everywhere she ventured, but Spain offered the most life-changing experience.

“I did the Camino Santiago which is a pilgrimage where you walk the northern border. You need the people to support you when you’re walking the Camino or else you aren’t going to make it, and you need people in life that will continue to push you on. Time by yourself in the Camino is also very valuable because you just think and you get to just kind of be on this journey and spend time in prayer,” she said.

White commented on the variability of fashion in the places she’s traveled around the world saying, “In Italy, they dress way nicer than us. This is the conclusion I came to: People in Italy treat their super casual like our normal. And our casual is their athletic, so I don’t necessarily like the fashion, but they dress up more. Whereas in Denmark, I thought everything was edgy and people wore really cool clothes.”

White finished the interview by elaborating on her dream job and aspirations for the future in the industry.

“My dream job would be turning my blog into a business and to be sponsored by companies to go to different places around the world and cover their events. Kind of like in the same way YouTubers are paid to go to London for a makeup event,” she said. “Yeah, that would be my dream.”

Follow White on her social media platforms @itstrendychelsea and take a peek at her blog ‘Trendy Chelsea.’

Cynthia Ntinunu can be reached at [email protected].