Being a Wanelo Model

About 3 years ago, I was introduced to a online shopping site called ‘Wanelo’.
Short for: Want. Need. Love.
I remember immediately falling in love with the concept.
The site included ‘everything trending in online shopping, now’.
I would spend hours and hours and hours on this site.
The site’s best feature, is a little button called ‘magic’.
Every time you press this button, the site immediately targets it’s search to everything YOU love.
Save a lot of unicorn things? You’ll see a lot of unicornn things.
Constantly looked at sparkly heels? Expect to see tons of sparkly heels.

In my case, I was saving a lot of Disney products and every time I would hit magic I would be presented with Disney clothes, accessories, furniture.. everything.
The magic button is like the ‘Room of Requirement’.
You have a painful yearning for cable knit sweaters? Wanelo will give it to you.

I was like a girl possessed…
I would sit in my first-year lectures scrolling through products on products totally targeted to me.
Harry potter jewelry, sailor moon sweaters, Halloween decorations OH MY.

It was different from other online shopping sites. There is no ‘cart’ or ‘check out’ box in the top right corner.
You don’t have to add items to your shopping bag and feel obligated to buy anything.
You just save. Save to your profile, save for later… save for when your not in debt, or save for when you remove your credit card for the ice block you preserved it in.

Wanelo.

Anyways, so I had always joked that I should get some kind of compensation from Wanelo for all the business I give them. I’m constantly telling everyone to get it and I always manage to pass on the addiction.

Well, a dream is a wish your heart makes bitches.
Because a few months ago I became the chosen one.

I received a message from the Wanelo Instagram account.
The told me that they loved my look, and noticed I had a well curated account with a decent following.
And then the magic happened.
‘Would you be interested in modeling for us as one of our Wanelo girls?’

The real life magic button.
Click. Happiness.

After that it was just all beautiful-ness.
‘We will send you free clothes…”
magic magic blah magic
‘We just need you to take some great photos in our products…’
blah blah magic blah
‘Please send us your measurements’
blah
‘We are so excited to be working with you’

Oh lady… the pleasure is ALL mine.

Over the next couple days the magic just started to accumulate.
Wanelo started following me on instagram.
I received a ‘Wanelo Model’ banner on my Wanelo account.
My followers started to grow like CRAZY.

And now I’m here.
Loving my life… taking pictures in beautiful clothes.
Perpetually checking the mail for new packages.

My account is pretty out there. I like to think I have a very different style that separates itself from the traditional like ‘bohemian, vintage, classy, grunge’.

The best word I can use to describe it is ‘campy’.

From the Urban Dictionary: “Camp” n. or “Campy” adj. refers to intentionally exaggerated thematic or genre elements, especially in television and motion picture mediums. “Camp” style willfully over-emphasizes certain elements of the genre or theme, creating an almost self-satirical milieu

Ya.. I save products geared towards my interests… Disney, Harry Potter, unicorns, Halloween, sailor moon.

I’ve always been a little eccentric with my style. If its covered in sparkles, or old school disney… consider it worn.

If I had a choice between a perfectly ‘pinterest’ colour-coordinated outfit that included a matching hat, scarf, and bag… or a pair of black tights and a over-sized halloweentown sweater… I would choose the latter. So I try to keep my account geared towards me- as best as I can.

There are some downfalls to the job. Its not the easiest thing in the world to get the perfect picture. It’s hard to show off a product while taking a really good picture- I don’t know how instagram models do it.
It usually takes me about 10 tries before I can find something that works.
And then there is always the push to stay interesting right?
You can only take so many pictures in your room before someone loses interest.

And then there’s the whole issue of having to take pictures of myself…
To save myself the embarrassment of looking like a huge loser- I take the pictures by myself… I don’t get someone to take them for me.
I don’t need someone judging me for giving a serious look *SMIZE* to the camera.
But this involves a significant amount of imagination.
The last time I took photos, I took my moms stand-up clothes steamer and strapped my phone to the top with a timer just to get a decent angle of my outfits.

I also may or may not have strapped my phone to a life-size cardboard cut-out of Legolas just so the camera to be at eye height.
….

It wasn’t until recently that Andy bought me a professional camera.
So now I’m hoping to take some professional looking pictures to post for the website.
(the camera is way to heavy to strap on legolas… so I’m going to need to look for some new options)

But ya.. that’s how it happened.
If you are a huge online shopper- I seriously encourage you to check out Wanelo.
This blog is by no means an add- and I’m not even sure if I’m allowed to be posting about my job! But I was promoting this site before I became a part of it. 🙂

I can guarantee you’ll love it.
And while you’re there.. check out my ‘campy’ profile and let me know if I’m doing a decent job.
https://wanelo.com/sare

Legolas seems to think so.

Find your own room of requirement.