My Journey to Becoming a fashion journalist: How I Accidentally Found Fashion

 By Lila-Rose Cantrill 

Credit: Lila-Rose Cantrill - Urban Outfitters 

For as long as I can remember, I had a pretty clear idea of where I wanted my career to go.

I wanted to be a crime reporter.

I loved investigating stories, asking questions and getting to the bottom of things. Journalism always felt like the obvious path for me, and when I started university, I imagined myself eventually working in crime journalism.

Fashion journalism wasn't really part of the plan.

In fact, I accidentally applied to study it.

Yes, accidentally.

At university, I had the opportunity to choose a module and somehow found myself applying to study fashion journalism. My first thought was that I would simply change it. Fashion wasn't what I had originally imagined myself doing, so why would I stick with it?

Then my teacher encouraged me to give it one lesson.

So I did.

And, rather unexpectedly, I loved it.

There was something about fashion writing that felt completely different for me. Sometimes I can sit staring at a blank screen for what feels like forever when I'm writing an article. But when it comes to fashion, the words seem to come naturally. I actually enjoy sitting down and writing about trends, style and the people behind them. 

Fashion is art.

It surprised me.

I started writing a few fashion articles for university, and throughout that time, one person in particular became my biggest supporter: my fashion teacher.

She was incredibly encouraging and always made me feel like I was capable of doing something with fashion journalism. Her feedback helped me grow, but more importantly, she made me believe that maybe this was something I should actually pursue.

Then everything changed.

The university began making teachers redundant, and unfortunately, she was on the chopping block.

Losing her support was difficult. She had been the person encouraging me to explore this side of journalism, and without that encouragement, I found myself slipping back towards what I had originally planned.

Crime reporting.

For a while, I pushed fashion to the side.

But there was always something there.

A little itch that wouldn't completely disappear.

Every time I saw a fashion story, discovered a new brand, put together an outfit or found myself scrolling through fashion content, that feeling would come back.

Maybe I wasn't finished with fashion after all.

Eventually, I decided to take a step back from writing altogether. I needed some time to figure out what I actually wanted rather than continuing down a path simply because it was the one I had originally planned.

And now, I'm here.

I'm about to turn 21, and suddenly the decision feels much bigger.

I'm at an age where I'm thinking seriously about what I want my future to look like, what kind of career I want and, most importantly, what actually makes me happy.

So I've decided to lean into fashion.

Not because I've completely forgotten about crime journalism. Not because I suddenly have everything figured out. And definitely not because I think becoming an fashion journalist is going to be easy.

I'm doing it because fashion is something I genuinely enjoy.

I want to create content, write about fashion, discover brands, share the things I'm loving and build a space that feels like me. I want to combine everything I've learnt from journalism with my love for fashion and lifestyle content and see where it takes me.

Maybe this will eventually lead me into fashion journalism.

Maybe PR.

Maybe content creation.

Maybe influencing.

Honestly, I don't know yet.

And I think that's okay.

For so long, I thought I had to know exactly what I wanted to do. But sometimes the things you accidentally stumble into can end up being the things you love the most.

I never planned on falling in love with fashion.

But maybe that's exactly why I'm giving it a chance.

So, this is me taking the leap.

From aspiring crime reporter to fashion girl, journalist and hopefully, one day, influencer.

Let's see where it goes.