Zoe Young had a typical middle school experience. She wore braces, her parents drove her and her friends around everywhere, and she had her fair share of awkward moments. She also had 1,000 Instagram followers.
1,000? Not impressed? Let me remind you this was 2012, and 1,000 followers was kind of a big deal, especially for a 13-year old girl.
Young, who is now 22-years old, sits with me in her childhood bedroom while telling me about her experiences being “Instagram famous” at such a young age. Her blue walls are decorated with photos, movie posters, concert tickets and cameras on shelves, giving a visual as to what she finds most important in life, art.
“How do you have so many followers?” “Why are random people following you?” “Did you buy your followers?” Those are just some of the questions Young was asked as her Instagram following swelled to 271,000 followers in just four short years.
It all started when she got her first digital point-and-shoot camera in sixth grade and kept it by her side to take photos throughout the day. A curious learner, Young would explore her camera, studying every setting and mode available, figuring out the best technique to make her photos interesting and unique.
While other teenagers were meeting up with their friends at the mall, Young was connecting with other teen photographers who would come to California to take photos for their Instagram feeds and bond over their passion for photography.
Tumblr became a source of inspiration for her and while scrolling, Young noticed the filters people were using from the app Instagram—unlike anything she knew.
“I kept seeing the film aesthetic filters that Instagram had, so I downloaded the app because I wanted to put filters on my photos,” Young said. “I had no idea it was a social media app until I started using it.”
Once she joined Instagram, her photos quickly made their way to Instagram’s popular page. This page is now called the explore page, but at the time of Young’s newfound “Insta fame,” the popular page was a grid of nine photos that were the current most liked photos on Instagram.
Almost every photo that she posted landed on the popular page, gaining major traction to her Instagram account, netting her thousands of new followers each week.
Young never downloaded Instagram with the intention of being famous. Maybe that’s why she was so successful. Her authentic love of photography quickly grew to 200 comments per post, filled with people tagging their friends to see her posts, some even adding that they wanted to recreate the photo. Her followers were getting an inside look at her creative process, and to say people were engaged—would be an understatement.
Young and her best friend Sam Klegerman, a talented photographer as well, would get picked up from high school together by Young’s mother and execute their newest photoshoot ideas back at the Young house. Their ambition for expressing their crazed reality of being young teenagers trying to figure out who they are and how to fit in came to life through in their photos, always being transparent and honest whether it was in the photo they took or the caption that went along with it. Transparency and honesty were in every photo and caption they posted.
“Instagram was a platform that was specifically made for photographers and photography. I fully felt seen. I felt like I could express myself and not be afraid of what I posted.”
From maneuvering her floral couch from inside her bedroom to outside in a field, to climbing up gutters in her neighborhood, Sam and Young were determined to post creative pictures every day, even if it was just an outfit they liked and wanted to capture.
Young used any free time she had to take photos, whether it was of her or her friends. She loves using a DSLR camera for planned photoshoots, but always keeps her film camera on her at all times to capture photos of what she and her friends are doing, allowing her to capture the moment while keeping the photo a surprise as she won’t see it until it is developed.
When I asked her if she has a preference for her digital camera over her film camera, she took a quick pause and looked over at her cameras sitting to her left, “I like film because it doesn’t take me out of the moment because I can’t look at the photos right away. It helps me become more patient with my own work.”
(Bikini Knit Top in Blue/Green by Fashion Brand Company)
As time has gone on and followers have dwindled off, she’s shifted her focus to not only photography but also art and fashion.
Fashion is an important part of Young’s identity, and creating unconventional outfits in the morning allows her to express herself as an artist beyond the realm of photography.
“I used to not care whatsoever about what I wore in high school, and now I’m more harsh on myself and I don’t know why.”
T-shirts under dresses, monochrome outfits, pants under dresses and layering whenever and wherever possible were typical of Young’s aesthetic in the early years of her Instagram fame. Although today her outfits consist of more vintage items like baggy jeans and funky tops, she dresses for herself, always pushing the norm and often being first to try out new trends. She chooses to dress this way because it’s not only a form of expression but also boosts her mood.
“If I wake up in a bad mood I can just put on a great outfit and then be in a better mood instantly” Young said as she gazed past my shoulder at her overflowing closet behind me.
Although Young always loved expressing herself through her clothes, she truly fell in love with clothes when she went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market for the first time in 2015. It’s one of the best flea markets in the world—people travel from all over the world to peruse the tents and stands at the Rose Bowl for some of the most eclectic, vintage items.
Flea markets, thrift stores (as long shopping at them aren’t taking away resources for people who depend on them), and online secondhand clothing websites are where Young hunts for most of her clothes. Her goal? To have a closet made up of fully secondhand clothing.
Finding vintage items to add into her five-layered outfits excites Young, as she begins planning out her outfits for the rest of the week in her head, thinking of all the combinations she’ll be wearing. Creating outfits out of many different types of clothes and materials is almost like an art project to Young.
Young’s desire to create goes beyond photography and fashion. After being on the yearbook committee in high school where she and her classmates created the book with just a blank template, she fell in love with the idea of creating from scratch.
In the past couple of years, she has expanded her curiosity of digital design as she illustrates art pieces on her iPad Pro and then posts them on her art Instagram page. From portraits of her and her friends in their dream outfits of puddle pants and big cable knit sweaters, to informative illustrations on topics like the importance of voting, she’s found this new form of art allows her imagination to come to life.
“I can create whatever I want to create, which opens up a whole other world of expression, creating things that don’t exist nor could ever exist.”
As Young’s creative skills keep reaching new heights, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if one day Young is the creative director behind your favorite clothing brand, or perhaps even the brain guiding the future’s coolest fashion trend. She is, after all, the holy trinity of photography, fashion and design.
Here’s a list of Young’s favorite movies, Instagram Pages and brands right now. Take a look if you want to see where Young gets a lot of her inspiration.
MOVIES:
INSTAGRAMS:
@lisasaysgah @fashionbrandcompany @palomawool @ganni @linmick @ramennnnn @kiosk48th @3womenco @hannastefansson
SHOES:
Nike Air Zoom Spiridon Cage 2 Stussy Fossil
New Balance X JJJJound green 992 sneakers
CLOTHES: