- 5 minutes ago
For 5 days, our very own Lucie Fink gets to know a new Instagram celebrity. She spends a day in the life of FoodBabyNY, Noelle Downing, Foinika Kay (@ExteriorGlam), Aww Sam, and Katie Sturino the owner of Underpants, Toast, and Muppet.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this is 5 Days of Being Instagram Famous.
00:08Hey guys, it's me. What's up? This week, we're talking about my favorite social media platform, besides YouTube, of course,
00:15Instagram.
00:16I'm still in constant awe of the people who have accounts with over 100,000 followers.
00:22100k! That is a lot of people to convince to click the follow button on your page.
00:27So, these people must be doing something right. In this episode of Try Living With Lucy, instead of having you
00:32guys try to live like me,
00:34I thought that we, together, could try to live like other people. How does that sound?
00:38So, for the next 5 days, I'm gonna hit up one famous Instagrammer each day, each in a different category,
00:45and we're gonna go see what their lives are like, how they do what they do, and how they achieved
00:50such a huge following.
00:52Category number one! Food bloggers.
00:55I feel like almost everyone on Instagram tries to be a food Instagrammer,
00:59but what really sets some of these accounts apart is when they have an additional element that the followers just
01:04can't find elsewhere.
01:06For instance, babies.
01:08I hung out with FoodbabyNY, a family of four who are all, as a collective unit, considered to be Foodbaby.
01:16We're all Foodbaby.
01:19But I think Mike is the real Foodbaby.
01:22We started dating when we were seniors in high school, and I feel like one of our biggest connections was
01:26food.
01:27So, I would say it really started when I was on maternity leave. So, we were ordering up sushi, and
01:32Michael had it all sprawled down on the table,
01:34took a photo, and kind of by accident, Matthew ended up in one of the corner of one of the
01:38shots,
01:39and he noticed that the photos did a lot better when the babies were in the shot.
01:43They are totally family goals, and the kids are so cute and so much fun to hang out with,
01:49and I'm crossing my fingers, sitting here hoping that they adopt me into their family and make me the fifth
01:55food baby.
01:56We bought some donuts together, and then we spent the afternoon in New York City doing what they do.
02:01So, I definitely can get a lot more creative when they're sleeping.
02:08They don't stop moving. You can already see. They never stop.
02:10I'll usually try to just, like, run it, like, go in front of them without disrupting them too much.
02:15Let them chill and see what happens. I can't believe she's wearing the hat.
02:17It's very difficult to get a photo where the food's in focus, and they're mostly in focus behind it, so
02:22it's challenging.
02:24Look at the donuts!
02:25Oh!
02:26Whoa!
02:29So, what I'm doing now is what I... I might have gotten a good one, but I'm still taking some.
02:33So, how many do you take to get the right shot?
02:35I probably have a couple hundred already.
02:37Okay, so let's see what I got. I took a ton of photos.
02:42We go everywhere together. We never split up everywhere as a family with the babies.
02:46Yeah, the only time I've ever slept away from Matthew is when I was in the hospital the two nights
02:50with Samantha.
02:52So, I mean, we're two people that we love dating, and then we love being married, and now we love
02:56being a family.
02:57So, I'm the one that takes all the photos, but it's impossible without Alex.
03:00Other than her having actually birthed them, it's also impossible to run it without her.
03:04Gosh! Oh, my gosh!
03:09Smile, Sammy!
03:10Baby!
03:13You are a little star!
03:17Baby!
03:17It's a baby!
03:18Baby!
03:19You are the biggest food baby in the world.
03:22Can I have a look at you on my nose?
03:26So, you're basically just hanging out with food and kids.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Like, what's the better? Unless you get a puppy.
03:32Well, yeah.
03:32We're good.
03:33I'll give them another food baby before we get a dog.
03:36Yeah?
03:36Cheers.
03:38To food baby.
03:40I'm part of the family, right?
03:42Please adopt me.
03:44Please.
03:44Um, Matthew, if you wouldn't mind, I am dying for some peanut butter panda puffs.
03:50Peanut butter panda puffs.
03:51Dad, we raided the fridge, and somebody is now one less cup of peanut...
03:57Butter.
03:58Oh, my God.
03:59That is good.
04:00Category two.
04:02Fashion bloggers.
04:03I could have chosen just about any blogger in New York City for this, but my heart led
04:08me directly to the adorable Noelle Downing, who's constantly sharing her food adventures,
04:14her travels, and the outfits she's wearing on her blog, Noelle's Favorite Things.
04:21I started my blog really just wanting to share my life and what I was up to and what I
04:27was doing.
04:28When I was in high school, I really wanted someone to look up to that had a similar body
04:32type to myself, and that was something that I did not have.
04:35I went to her amazing Brooklyn apartment.
04:37Did you design this place with your Instagram in mind?
04:41Yeah.
04:41I mean, honestly, everything I do has my Instagram in mind.
04:45Where she lives with her pet bunny, Monty.
04:48Here you go.
04:50There you go, baby.
04:52Monty, here.
04:54I love you so much.
04:57I wish you all the happiness in the world.
05:00It is the best footage I've ever seen.
05:09It's us!
05:10It's us.
05:11I'm at Noelle Downing's apartment in Brooklyn, and it is hip AF.
05:16I know when you first came here, you said something about it.
05:17It felt so local.
05:18I was like, oh, what's that?
05:19It feels like a New York City retreat.
05:21I had never seen so much clothing in one place in my entire life.
05:26This is one closet.
05:29So this is like the closet that I have more of like my beloved shoes.
05:35Is this just because you have no space?
05:37Um, yeah.
05:39She let me try on her novelty purses.
05:41There is a Christmas tree.
05:43Popcorn.
05:44There's a telephone.
05:45This is an insight of my life.
05:48Baby got bag.
05:50She owns over 100 pairs of glasses.
05:56And the hat display on the wall behind her bed is unbelievable.
06:00I Instagram all day long going to cute coffee shops to take content
06:05and to take photos and blog posts.
06:08Never not working.
06:09Then we got to the hard part of the day, a photo shoot.
06:12Her photographer came over.
06:14Noelle styled me in one of her cute outfits.
06:16I think we're ready to shoot.
06:18Seriously looks so adorable.
06:20And then we went outside into the freezing weather to do a photo shoot.
06:25It is underratedly, ridiculously hard to be a fashion blogger,
06:28especially in the winter when you need to go outside and look cute and stylish
06:33when the truth is you can't really feel your hands or your face.
06:37Okay.
06:38Okay.
06:39It's all worth it.
06:40Hug me.
06:41Oh my God.
06:42Keep your shoulders down.
06:44Make you look warm.
06:45Okay.
06:46Good.
06:47Both of you guys look ready.
06:49Good.
06:49Close mouth smile.
06:51Perfect.
06:52You guys look at each other in line.
06:54Yeah, no we don't look.
06:55Shoulders down and smile.
06:56Don't look as cold as we are.
06:58All right.
06:59This was great guys.
07:04Once we got back inside, Noelle showed me how she sets up her ring light
07:08and then the two of us made the video together.
07:10Hey guys.
07:10I'm really here.
07:10We are rolling.
07:12We're rolling with the homies.
07:16This is Noelle's full time job and she clearly works so hard at it.
07:20It really is something that you can really create a huge career off of and make a lot
07:25more money than even I ever expected.
07:27For bloggers, if you've really built a good brand for yourself, I would say if you have
07:32100,000 followers, you're probably at least making $100,000.
07:37I manage myself and I really enjoy doing it.
07:40I think that no one is better to represent your brand than yourself and I love it.
07:45Next category, beauty.
07:48Being a beauty blogger is a very hard job because learning how to do your makeup and learning
07:53how to do it well is a really hard skill to learn.
07:56People spend years and years going to beauty school and learning the inside tips and tricks
08:00of the trade.
08:01But people like Foynika, who runs the Instagram account Exterior Glam, just started doing it
08:07and eventually evolved from a freelance makeup artist into a huge, huge beauty influencer.
08:13And running her Instagram account has become her full-time job.
08:17I've always loved makeup.
08:19My sister was actually the one who pushed me.
08:21But she was like, I think you're so great at it because you're so great at taking pictures,
08:25doing makeup, of course.
08:26And I was freelancing at that time, so she was like, why not do it?
08:29Now, if you go to her Instagram account, you'll see the types of videos that she's known for.
08:33These short, minute-long clips that show how she's doing her makeup and what products she's using.
08:38Her apartment is filled with makeup and beauty products of every shade and color and texture imaginable.
08:45This is just my brushes that I use every day.
08:48All highlighters.
08:49Um, foundations.
08:51My nudes.
08:52Glitter.
08:53Oh my god, another drawer.
08:54These are my lashes.
08:56Oh my god, just keep going.
08:57And this is skincare.
08:58I don't care.
08:59She showed me her entire behind-the-scenes setup process.
09:03You seat this against this wall?
09:05Yes.
09:05From arranging her softboxes and her ring light to actually rigging up the camera.
09:10I edit and do everything by myself.
09:12It's for like a 30-second video, which that takes probably like four hours.
09:15And then she let me make my own version of the videos that she normally makes of herself.
09:20Record.
09:21It looks so beautiful.
09:22We're recording?
09:25I've never primed my eyelids before.
09:27Nice.
09:28Good job, Lucy.
09:29If you watch any of hers, you'll see how polished and smooth she is.
09:33Very sexy and glam.
09:35Now, check out mine.
10:17At first, I watched myself in that and I thought, wow, I have such a long ways to go before
10:23I
10:24can become a beauty blogger.
10:25But then I changed my mind and I decided, you know what?
10:29I just have my own style.
10:30And that style is making a complete mess while I put my makeup on.
10:34That's fine.
10:35It's snowing on my face.
10:37I'm just contouring for the first time in my whole life.
10:39And then having a professional fix it for me.
10:42That's my style and I'm proud of that.
10:47Now we have to do it.
10:49What do we do with our hands?
10:51Bite it?
10:51You can bite it.
10:52Or it's like a sexy bite.
10:53Well, not always.
10:56Don't be afraid.
10:57You can make it.
10:58Work hard.
10:59Do not give up, which is the most important thing.
11:02If you keep posting, you don't get love, you will.
11:05It's definitely a lot of work, but I love every single minute of it.
11:09Thursday is all about DIY and Instagram art.
11:14I hung out with the lovely lady who runs the Instagram account called Aw Sam
11:18and calls herself an industrial designer and a donut aficionado.
11:23Same.
11:24If you can't seem to wrap your head around what that means,
11:26just head over to her Instagram page and you will pick up her vibe instantly.
11:30I post a lot of my content on my blog and that's where all the how-to's
11:35and the step-by-step photos live.
11:38That's like the first priority.
11:40And then from there the blog photos then go on to Instagram.
11:44Well, you can see like behind me.
11:46It's very colorful, very fun, energetic.
11:50I went to her apartment today to do her thing with her
11:53and I'm not lying when I say that her entire apartment looks just like her Instagram feed.
12:00A ton of props, fun colorful knickknacks everywhere.
12:05It is beautiful.
12:06Oh, that didn't look as comfortable.
12:08That's about as low as I go.
12:10She has a crazy couch filled with DIY emoji pillows.
12:13Did you make all these?
12:15No, but a lot of them I did.
12:17I made that one.
12:18You definitely made this one.
12:18Yep.
12:19My backdrop's over here, so this is what I use for all the photos.
12:23Are these DIYs too?
12:25Yeah, those were one of my first projects ever.
12:28And although her job looks fun and glamorous all the time, it is important to remember how much hard work
12:35goes into this.
12:36So a lot of times people will ask me like is it all fun and games like all the time
12:43and confetti and parties and it's not like that at all.
12:47It's probably the hardest job I've ever had.
12:49This went live this morning.
12:51We styled some avocados for her blog.
12:56So it's kind of like the lighting right now is kind of lower so I might use like a light
13:01or something.
13:01Yeah, so like this is the self timer button but if I need both hands a photo I have to
13:06like press this with my foot.
13:07It is all DIY in that she manages herself, she comes up with her own ideas, runs her social platforms
13:14like a business.
13:15And I usually take things like a lot further away so I do have like room to crop.
13:21Yeah, so I usually leave like a little bit of white so I can color balance.
13:27And then we even did a photo shoot of me using her props.
13:30Wow, you have a hundred pink jackets.
13:33And there's a lot of fur pink ones.
13:36It was like my year of fur.
13:39Can I try one of these on?
13:41Yeah.
13:41Which one should I wear?
13:43I don't know, take your pick.
13:44This one's the craziest one if you want to try it down.
13:47That's the one.
13:48That one's insane.
13:49I don't, I've worn it once because it kind of devours me but it's definitely like a Muppet.
13:58Wow.
14:00It's beautiful.
14:01It really goes with my outfit.
14:03It's actually a kid's coat.
14:05Oh.
14:07Oh my gosh.
14:08Hello.
14:12Do you think this would be a good bracelet?
14:18For me like my feed has always been a place for people to come to like get their happiness for
14:23the day.
14:24It was such a colorful and inspiring day and if any of you follow me on Instagram you'll see that
14:29of the people I've met with so far this week Sam's aesthetic is definitely most closely linked with what my
14:35Instagram aesthetic is.
14:36So clearly I was very inspired and now I'm off to go take some pictures of sprinkles because I just
14:42don't know what else to do with my life.
14:44Today is all about puppies.
14:47This afternoon I hung out with Katie Starino the owner of Toast, Muppet and Underpants and each dog has her
14:54own unique personality and her own Instagram account to go along with it.
14:58I am the doggager for Underpants, Toast and Muppet.
15:02I manage their careers and like their brands and I write and post and take all the photos.
15:08All three are puppy mill rescues and Katie is a huge advocate for hashtag adopt don't shop.
15:16Puppy mills are like commercial breeding facilities for puppies for pet stores.
15:21They send the babies out too soon.
15:24They don't really get what they need from their mom.
15:26My big thing is when someone comes up to me on the street and says I didn't know what a
15:30puppy mill was.
15:31I almost bought a dog from a pet store.
15:32I didn't I adopted because of you.
15:35Katie and I took the girls on a walk.
15:38I'm gonna start a live video.
15:40Okay.
15:40So we can talk to some of their fans.
15:42So I know some dog moms who have like an editorial calendar.
15:46They've got it all planned out.
15:48They have professional equipment.
15:50They have like they know how to like produce videos.
15:52And I'm still just like shooting with my iPhone.
15:55I try to keep it really organic.
15:58I like to do a video when I have something going on with them.
16:01Opening on like a Muppet peeing.
16:03Pants watch out.
16:04Watch out.
16:06Toast is the diva obviously.
16:08Muppet is not famous.
16:10It's funny because people are like oh Toast is so famous because of her tongue.
16:14But Muppet actually has the same tongue condition.
16:17But no one cares.
16:18Underpants is pretty new.
16:21Got her a year and a half ago.
16:22And she's just all about getting fame in America.
16:26Don't film this part.
16:28This is the glamorous part of dog a drill life.
16:31This is bad.
16:32And then we spent some time in our New York City apartment.
16:34Hanging out together and taking photos of them.
16:36So Toast tell us about your book.
16:39Toast frequently takes walks to get some space.
16:42It's true.
16:43You got a house guest that you hate?
16:45Take a walk.
16:46So what?
16:48Guys this is how easy it is to get Toast to go to sleep.
16:53When I tuck her hands up like this.
16:56And then I just go under the blankets, creepy a rubber tummy.
16:59And then she falls asleep.
17:09The dogs always are invited to do really fun, crazy things.
17:13We're invited by fancy hotels to go have these like vacations and stays.
17:17And they're both wearing like custom Ralph Lauren cashmere sweaters.
17:21But I'm also a body positive blogger.
17:25My blog's called the 12ish style.
17:27So I essentially split time between doing the dog stuff and doing the 12ish style.
17:32Like the dogs keep me very humble.
17:34Because the dogs are way more famous than I am.
17:36A brand will contact me but they want to work with the dog.
17:39But they don't want to work with me.
17:40A lot of people approach me and ask,
17:42How do I make my dog famous on the internet?
17:44I always say, and this is very controversial, don't.
17:48It's very time consuming.
17:50I am a firm believer that if you don't have a specific or a different point of view at this
17:55point,
17:56it's not going to happen.
17:57The market is saturated.
17:59So of course, even though I'm telling you this is not worth your time,
18:02this was the absolute most amazing thing to happen to me.
18:06I got to write a book.
18:08We have gotten to be on Good Morning America.
18:13This looks like a green screen.
18:15It is.
18:18She was not on a real private jet.
18:21She's only been in first class.
18:23She hasn't flown private yet, which is a real travesty.
18:27We've done so many crazy things.
18:29I mean, Toast was a model for Karen Walker on posters up all over the world.
18:35Right now, she's on billboards for rescue all over the country.
18:39We foster dogs and they get adopted in like a day.
18:42So like there's all this, this really special stuff that we get to do because they are famous.
18:48Why isn't Pants more famous?
18:49But why isn't she more famous?
18:51Why aren't they dancing.
18:53But why aren't they dancing.
18:54So that is, I'm telling you that's the case.
18:54I'm not making it.