Two words come to mind when I think of Krystin Lee. Creative and colorful. Everything about her beams with creativity and color. Krystin Lee, is a top Canadian lifestyle blogger, but she didn’t originally plan it to be that way.
Aside from running her successful blog, Krystin is a social media director for a PR company called Talk Shop Media. For a lady who is known for her fashion and city smarts, she’s just like a lot of us— a girl living in a suburb minding her own business.
“I was born and raised in the suburbs and to be honest, never saw fashion or style as something that appealed to me until I was about 17 or 18. Till then, my mother had to beg me to wear a skirt, not wear items covered in studs and to wash my hair,” Krystin said. “In school while studying for Business Management, I decided to take a hard left and shifted my focus to Digital Communications. I worked to pursue a career in Marketing Communications working on both client and agency side for consumer-packaged goods, financial services, home decor, healthcare and more. I shifted my passion to social media about 5-6 years ago and I now work as a Director of Social Media at Talk Shop Media in Toronto.”
With her education and full-time day job, Krystin stands out from a lot of people in the blogging world. Her drive and determination to share with the world a part of who she is, has an inspiring effect on many. With almost 200k followers on Instagram, lots of people seem to agree.
“I've always loved the phrase, ‘Work Hard, Stay Humble.’ I think the blogging industry presents opportunities to potentially feel disconnected from real life or what 95% of your audience faces on a day to day basis. Continuing to work full time was always important to me as I feel it helped me relate to readers better,” Krystin explained. “I know what it's like to be working against tough deadlines, to be exhausted from a 40-hour work week slugging in and out of the city on a jammed train, to know what it means to work towards a promotion and even just realizing those little celebratory moments in life. I'm not saying those who blog full-time are neglectful of those moments as they too have milestones they personally work towards; but I always felt this was an important cornerstone of my personal brand.”
Krystin started working in PR and was able to catch the wind of the emerging blog market back in the early 2010s. She started hers in 2012, under the name Suburban Faux Pas, which she recently rebranded this year.
“This project has been a labor of love. For years I went back and forth on whether I wanted to be identified with Suburban Faux Pas or just my name. Over the years I realized that it's not a faux pas to be a style advocate - even in the burbs - this was a source of style for women who lived in rural, city and suburb dwellings. At the end of the day, they were all looking for a creative source or outlet and so I felt the name of the outlet no longer served its purpose,” Krystin said. “So, about a year and a half ago, we got to work on KrystinLee.com and how we would bring those popular blog content pillars to the forefront and design a site that felt more aligned to my personal brand.”
Krystin gets inspired like everyone else and has her go-to bloggers, pinterest boards and magazines that she loves to glean from. As a blogger, Krystin’s content focuses on being a fashionista, a worldwide traveler and surprisingly, a home decorator expert.
“I love interior design and home decor projects. My husband and I bought a tear down on a lot we loved in our city,” Krystin shared. “We're working towards savings goals of making this project a reality but getting to renovate our home - on a serious budget - was a fun project.”
Krystin is definitely a woman of many talents. We are excited to see what she is going to bring into the future with her new blog.
“Find your niche,” Krystin said. “I truly believe there is a place for everyone but before you begin creating content, understand what value and story you bring to the table and how can you utilize your channels to further pass along this message.”
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1. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Hit snooze!
2. What is your favorite thing to wear?
Colorful Dresses.
3. If you could pick one word to describe you what would it be?
Creative.
4. What’s one beauty tip you would pass on?
Keep a lipstick in every purse!
5. Everyday is better with: Coffee.