Enterprising Liverpool Hope University student Aimee Puleston is using the skills she’s learned on her course to become a successful lifestyle blogger.
Aimee, 20, has just begun her third year at Hope studying Media & Communication alongside Film & Visual Culture.
Away from her studies Aimee has also launched her own website - Galerie de Aims - where she writes about fashion, beauty and travel, and has also interviewed BBC celebrities.
Having launched the site in May, Aimee is already collaborating with a string of independent fashion brands while also becoming an ambassador for an accessories firm called ‘Loopy London’.
And it’s the Liverpool native’s hope that she’ll be able to grow the platform to a point where it becomes her full time job.
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Speaking about how her degree helped to create the blog - and how her blog now influences her studies in return - she explains: “I’ve definitely been able to use some of the things I’ve learned on my course in order to set up the website.
“The photography and filmmaking techniques I’ve studied in my practical classes are now being put to good use, helping me when it comes to photoshoots and product flat-lays for the website, while I’ll be uploading videos to the site in the future.
“My website has also been the catalyst for me choosing to develop an app this year during classes at Hope - where I want to bring together lots of different independent fashion brands into one marketplace.
“Ultimately, I would love to be able to take my blog full time and have Galerie de Aims as my main source of income.
“I’d also love to launch my own fashion line, too, and I have plans to expand my blog to include an online shop selling homewares.
“I’m really excited about what the future has in store and my choice of undergraduate programme is really helping me to realise my dreams.”
Aimee says the website itself was the product of uncertain times amid a global pandemic.
She reveals: “Galerie de Aims was started in May of 2020, during the first Coronavirus lockdown in the UK.
“I had finished my second year, and all the coursework that came with it, and was spending the lockdown reading through various blogs and websites.
“I’d always dreamed of having my own platform and this seemed like the perfect time to give it a go. I began planning in late April and by May 11th the website was live on WordPress!
“I honestly think it’s the best thing I have ever done.”
In recent weeks Aimee has penned different features on autumn and winter fashion - while also chatting to Jenna Lambra-Stokes, the star of smash-hit BBC series Race Across the World - you can read that article here.
She’s also been getting vital marketing and PR experience through her work with various different brands and agencies.
Describing the ethos of her website, Aimee adds: “I like to think my website helps to give small and independent businesses a platform to talk about their collections.
“I also think it’s a product of having a dream, and then trying to make that dream come true.”
Of course, social distancing measures have proved problematic for a lifestyle blogger who loves to get out.
And one of the initiatives that Aimee - a huge admirer of French fashion and culture - has launched sees readers submitting and sharing their romantic love stories.
Aimee adds: “It’s something I’ve got in development and hopefully it can be a monthly collection of people’s love stories, whether they choose to be anonymous or not.
“It can be love for another person, or perhaps a place or even a memory. And hopefully these stories can be a little ray of sunshine in the gloom of the pandemic.
“I’d encourage hand-written submissions, too.”
As a woman about town, we also quizzed Aimee about the best place to eat in Liverpool.
She laughs: “Oh my! This is such a hard question because there are so many great places.
“I’ve always had a love for Bold Street, so I’d recommend Mowgli or FOGO. Coffee Shop wise, I love Mother Espresso and Ropes and Twines.”
To find out more about studying Media & Communication head here, and for Film & Visual Culture, click here.
** Loopy London is a student-led brand and one Aimee is an ambassador for. They create bespoke earrings and accessories and you can shop them here: www.loopylondon.com
