Creator Spotlight: How @artsyagnes stays on pointe with dance, social media & a sustainable lifestyle!
Agnes Muljadi is a Los Angeles based vegan ballerina running a successful social media profile under @artsyagnes. The amazing dancer captured the hearts of her 140k followers through beautiful ballet inspired content and advocating a cruelty-free lifestyle. Her impressive following, consistent engagement and photogenic skills have attracted over 130 brands to reach out for collaborations and allowed her to successfully launch a popular vegan body oil. We are honored Agnes took the time out of her busy lifestyle to speak with us about her passions, building relationships with brands and followers, and what’s next to come!
1. How long have you been dancing and how has ballet helped you create really unique content for brands?
I started taking ballet when I was seven so I guess I've been dancing pretty much all my life. Ballet is essentially the foundation of my Instagram feed and the majority of my content. I love creating a ballet content and it's great to know that the majority of the brands I've worked with are very much drawn to the art form as well.
2. What has always helped whenever you felt creatively stuck?
Honestly taking a ballet class fixes the majority of my creative blocks. I also love going to the museum for inspiration.
3. How are you able to balance, dance, work etc.?
Oh yes my schedule is quite insane. Being a social media influencer as well as a dancer requires a tremendous amount of commitment, work ethic and time. But I am learning slowly to carve out time for myself. It's extremely important for me to recharge myself so I can be that much more effective in what I do. Meditation and yoga has helped a lot as well as setting positive intentions every morning.
4. What do you want to provide your audience with? How do you want to be remembered?
Instagram has given me a valuable platform to start a dialogue about two things that I am passionate about: ballet and the sustainable lifestyle. I find it extremely rewarding to introduce brands who genuinely care about improving the wellbeing of the people, animals & environment through their use of health-conscious, sustainable and ethical practices. If my content helps even just one person to realize that they're constantly voting with their choices and dollars, then I would consider my social media efforts to be worthwhile. I would love for my audience to start asking important questions such as: when I buy this piece of clothing, am I voting for fair wages or unsustainable sweatshop practices?
ARTISANskin x ArtsyAgnes Vegan Body Oil
5. You’ve worked on many amazing collaborations, how do you build deeper relationships with these brands?
I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with so many amazing brands. I think communication is key to any relationship. I always ask a lot of questions in the beginning to find out exactly what the brand is looking for and what kind of content would make sense for their product. Other than that, I always strive to deliver the content within the time frame we've agreed on.
6. What are some of your best practices on handling any arising conflict during a collaboration?
Luckily I haven't really had any major conflict with any of the the brands I've worked with. I think again, communication is key and the most important question that I always ask myself is what would work best for this particular product? There were occasions when I would've loved to create a different type of content but it just wouldn't make sense for that particular product so at the end of the day, I think our job as influencers is to do what's best for the brand.
7. Is there anything you would like to change about how brands and creators work today?
From my experience, everything seems to be working pretty smoothly so far. The only thing is I started noticing how a lot of the influencer feeds tend to look very similar. I think originality is essential for many different reasons and each of us as influencers should strive to create content that uniquely reflects our lifestyle.
8. Lastly, any exciting projects you’re working on we should keep a look out for?
I recently started doing a weekly ethical OOTD every Friday where I put together different items from sustainable brands and create a head to toe look. All of the items featured are vegan, sustainably and ethically made. It's been getting a ton of engagement and I've also received so many messages from people who truly want to live a more conscious life. So I am very excited to expand on that. I am also currently working on a few ethical looks for a magazine campaign which I am super excited about.
@artsyagnes 11/11/16 ETHICAL #OOTD