00:05:47.740Well, my name is Macy Eleni, and I'm a big sister. I'm a dog mom.
00:05:52.980I'm a lover of 80s music and fantastic 80s and 90s flashy movies like Romeo and Michelle and
00:05:59.980The Roxbury. And I feel like if you just see those two movies, you could pretty much know
00:06:03.860everything about my personality. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. Okay. So now I know. Now I know. This is
00:06:09.080how you should always introduce yourself to people because they will be like, oh, wait. Yeah. I know
00:06:14.220those movies. Now it all makes sense. Now you all make sense to me. That's perfect. That's a
00:06:20.960Perfect introduction. And now I feel like I know you a little bit better. You are also, I mean, now we can talk about the things that you do for work. You were a TikTok star and author. And how does it feel to be a TikTok star?
00:06:35.160It kind of just feels like everything I've been meant to do my whole life.
00:06:38.440I think that what you're doing on the TikTok is very important because, and I don't think that the majority of TikTok is very important, but I think that we're seeing a real backlash against consumer core on these social media platforms, which have been, let's be honest, for the past 10 years, buy this, buy that.
00:06:59.760you can purchase your way into happier motherhood, into happier singledom, if only you have this
00:07:07.700butt acne cream or you have this dress or this $300 straw hat that you will see an influencer
00:07:15.840wearing walking down the beach. And I think we're seeing a backlash of people saying,
00:07:20.900I don't want that. I think this is terrible for the earth. This is terrible for my wallet.
00:07:26.820And you do this so beautifully. You do thrifting and sustainability in such a smart way. I was telling you before we got on, I spend so many hours just sorting through all of the clothes that my friends give me for my kids that get passed down from the other neighborhood kid and then resorting my children's clothes to give to other children to keep them out of the landfills.
00:07:54.460And this is a real job. It is real labor that women are doing. And so I just love your tips and everything that you talk about with your new book is called Second Chances, The Ultimate Guide to Thrifting, Sustainable Style, and Expressing Your Most Authentic Self. How did you get here? How did you turn into this thrifting and sustainability guru?1.00
00:08:18.700true i love that you guys are keeping like a circular wardrobe going like it with your friends
00:08:23.140with your kids and their friends in the neighborhood like that's honestly like beautiful
00:08:26.280to hear especially as someone who like you know i have lots of sisters and there was lots of
00:08:31.040hand-me-downs and like to me it's kind of always been about closet swapping and like making clothes
00:08:35.060last as long as they can and yeah i mean i've been thrifting for pretty much my whole life i
00:08:41.280got seriously seriously into wanting to buy all my clothes at the thrift store when i was like 16
00:08:45.740years old. And I just started falling in love with fashion and plastered Teen Vogue pages and
00:08:50.900nylon pages all over my walls. And I wanted to recreate those outfits because fashion was
00:08:55.740this thing I found that gave me an escape from my home life and from things I was going through
00:09:01.000with my mental health when I was younger. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety at a really
00:09:04.900young age and was struggling with that stuff within myself and within my family dynamics.
00:09:09.580And the thrift store became this place for me to go and escape all of that noise. And it really is
00:09:14.740where i found true self-expression and was able to start building my confidence up and it's been
00:09:19.600such a special place for me ever since then i shared random thrift tips you know back in the
00:09:25.240day under the youtube channel fashion outsider 09 when we were like to you know didn't know if it
00:09:30.180was safe to put our names on the internet or not and i was making like little thrift with me's on
00:09:34.840like my flip cam for literally no one like i think i hit a thousand subscribers back then and i was
00:09:39.400like oh my god and this was like in 2011 or something 2010 and it was just naturally this
00:09:44.380thing i really wanted to share um that kind of now has like snowballed into obviously like my
00:09:49.840whole entire career i always knew growing up that i was put on this earth to like entertain people
00:09:55.860and connect people and that's what brings me so much joy and kind of stumbling into doing it
00:10:00.740through secondhand clothing and storytelling through secondhand clothing like nothing has
00:10:04.700ever felt so natural um to me and when i started posting it on tiktok and youtube and instagram
00:10:10.880It just kind of I feel like the universe lined up for it to be happening at a time when people are starting to wake up and give a shit about the environment and the planet and the people that are behind, you know, the viral fast fashion Amazon sweater that like someone's pushing.
00:10:24.540So I think it was kind of like a perfect storm of me doing this my whole life, having this passion and this drive to like break into this industry and do it for something that I truly feel passionate about, you know, matched with kind of the whole world starting to wake up to like, oh, this way we're mass producing and, you know, consuming clothing is actually really killing the people and the environment.0.80
00:10:47.320it. No, the way we're mass consuming this clothing is insane. Truly, truly insane. And
00:10:55.340yeah, I'm really happy with this circular economy that we've managed to create. Part of it is
00:11:00.880because I had my kids so freaking late that all of my friends have older kids. We've never bought
00:11:07.000anything unless we're at like a very special place, like Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West. And
00:11:12.660we needed some Bobby Joe's t-shirts for the kids. Sometimes you need the merch, okay? And we'll
00:11:16.940turn it into a quilt later on but some you know we've never bought anything for our girls because
00:11:22.100we have so many girls ahead of us a lot of these clothes haven't even been worn yet and when you're
00:11:29.320in the mom fluencer sphere on social media i'm constantly constantly bombarded with children's
00:11:37.140clothes i mean it's never ending and they're i mean not only are they expensive but i think what
00:11:44.860gets me the most is the baby clothes which of course i have three kids and with my first child
00:11:51.120i was like of course i need of course i need all of these i need a 50 onesies and snuggies and all
00:11:56.700of the feedies and the thing and now i'm like those babies sleep in diapers they like my my 20
00:12:04.100month old 20 month old wants to be naked all the time and you but you don't know you don't know and
00:12:10.720I think the internet tricks us into believing that we should be over-consuming.
00:12:14.760The internet is like such a trick in that way because I feel like the same as it is in like the mom community that you're describing.
00:12:20.420It is in like the other communities too, like fashion.
00:12:23.060Like when you were talking about kind of that stuff being the norm to like buy new stuff and whatever and to like buy yourself into a happy life.
00:12:28.940I feel like sometimes in the fashion beauty sphere, I'm like, all I'm seeing is young women being content thrown at them to like buy into this life that will make you skinnier and prettier.0.62
00:12:39.040but it's all things you have to change about yourself and things you have to buy. And that's0.92
00:12:42.780just something I have never, ever resonated with. I think because I was just raised by a single mom
00:12:47.520that was like, you're so much more than physical items and your strength is within you. And I've
00:12:52.520always felt very nurtured to spread that. And I feel like social media and connecting with a lot
00:12:59.220of people on social media and seeing influencers over the past couple of years was my first time
00:13:03.040kind of seeing that people consume in that way and have these mindsets surrounding consuming
00:13:08.540being equaling, you know, a better you. And so I've like really tried to make it a point with
00:13:14.580my platforms to, yeah, only post the stuff that I feel so passionate about. And, you know, to try
00:13:20.100to like show people that you really don't need all of those things. You just need to be you.
00:13:23.680You really don't need all of those things. But, you know, the tech capitalist economy will crash
00:13:30.680if we don't keep buying those things, which is why they're tricking us into buying all of the
00:13:36.180things all the time. It is amazing how much of the baby stuff that you can find for free or for
00:13:44.280such a low cost, just at your local Goodwill. Everyone is constantly getting rid of children's
00:13:51.220clothes. Constantly. When I was pregnant with my surprise third baby, we'd given everything away.
00:14:00.940We had none of the baby stuff left because we thought that we were done. And the stuff just
00:14:05.700showed back up okay like you you've got friends that are getting rid of their stuff you could
00:14:10.460stop by goodwill and get the bouncer and get the bassinet and get all of the things that you bought
00:14:15.940for that first baby first for so so cheap we are going to take a very quick break and when we get
00:14:22.220back i want to talk a little bit about your upbringing you've battled depression and childhood
00:14:26.540trauma and thrifting has really helped you get through that and it's a big part of the message
00:14:31.900on your platform. I think it's very fun that you're such a multi-hyphenate. You're like,
00:14:35.620yeah, we've got thrifting and also mental health here. Come for the thrift shop finds,
00:14:40.280but let's stay and talk about our depression, anxiety, and childhood trauma.
00:14:43.480So let's take a quick break and we're going to talk about all of that.
00:14:53.240Okay, we are back with Macy Eleni, and I want to talk a little bit about your childhood.
00:14:58.700You're very open and honest about your childhood trauma, how you've battled depression, how you used thrifting to get through this.
00:15:06.840For our listeners who have not been following you on the TikToks, tell us a little bit about that.
00:15:14.600Yeah, so I, they go so hand in hand for me, like my mental health and fashion in general and just like sharing my story in general.
00:15:24.320I am from Ohio originally but I live in LA now and I was raised by just like the most amazing
00:15:29.980single mom in the world and it was just her and my younger sister and I my dad left when I was
00:15:35.100about six and like right before my sister was born and that was like a very I was you know in
00:15:41.380the home with my parents for six years and that was like a very toxic time my dad is a narcissistic
00:15:47.080man who I do not talk to anymore and that was a boundary I really had to build over the past
00:15:51.600couple of years. But that's where a lot of my low feelings about myself and like my confidence and
00:15:58.640like my body and stuff came from was words that he would sling at me when I was younger or my
00:16:03.480ex-step mom would sling at me when I was younger. And my mom, an amazing, beautiful person, you know,
00:16:08.580was just 24-7 trying to work to make money to support us. And the thrift store was, yeah,
00:16:13.520the place I fell into when I started falling in love with fashion. Fashion became this thing and
00:16:18.020entertainment that I just became obsessed with because I would read magazines to escape and
00:16:21.980watch TV shows to escape and movies to just go into my own world and kind of remind myself that
00:16:27.060I was waiting for the good stuff in life and that I could get to this place of being able to create
00:16:31.160these stories like these people do on TV and in magazines and in books. So I really lived in that
00:16:35.700make-believe magic world for a long time in my childhood and in my teen years, really telling
00:16:41.580myself to get through it, you're going to be able to create something like this one day.
00:16:45.900And even when I didn't believe it, like I was just trying to hold on to that. And that's what kept me going was like doing everything for future me. And when I found fashion, I was like, oh, my God, this is incredible, but like so untouchable to me. I can't afford any of this stuff. I can't even afford to, you know, go buy the knockoffs of this stuff at like an Urban Outfitters or Paxson or wherever like the girls at my school were shopping.
00:17:06.620so I found Salvation Army and it became my everything it just truly truly became my
00:17:12.680everything being able to go in there where it doesn't matter like your income bracket or where
00:17:16.660you're from or what you look like or your size or anything it's just about like expressing yourself
00:17:21.560and finding things that you like and going into the different sections and doing literally whatever
00:17:26.180you want being around people that don't look like you that are different than you that are outside
00:17:30.740your bubble and like meeting people you know because I feel like so many people exist like
00:17:34.940in their little bubble of people that dress like them and talk like them and act like them. And
00:17:38.560the thrift store really opens that up. There's no target demographic like at a normal, you know,
00:17:42.900retail store. And that really did it for me. And it just became this place where I can go. And even
00:17:49.600now, like when I'm having like the most stressed out time, I can just go to the thrift store and
00:17:53.300shut it out all out for a little bit. And I want to just, you know, start sharing that magic with
00:17:57.760other people. I realized like when I started, I think when I posted my first TikTok that was a
00:18:03.960thrift haul like that went viral in 2020 like so many of the comments were like what is this what's
00:18:09.320going on i didn't know like this is not what i knew thrifting to be because thrifting has been
00:18:14.040until recently very stigmatized there's been like a very classist look at it of like oh that's just
00:18:19.400for poor people so it must be you know in turn dirty or gross or all these things i heard growing
00:18:25.200up about the way i shopped and all just totally drenched drenched in classism um and things
00:18:30.460people have been told and societal norms and trying to, you know, break that in a fun way
00:18:35.500on my platforms and be like, no, it's just a fun place to shop. It's the right place to shop. It's
00:18:39.940where we should all be shopping because all of this stuff already exists that you want to find.
00:18:43.600And if these fast fashion brands are pumping out, it all exists at the thrift store and in the whole
00:18:48.520secondhand universe. And from being in it for so long, I've realized that, you know, a lot of people
00:18:52.840in this space of secondhand shopping have mental health problems that they deal with and are trying
00:18:59.440to, you know, battle some kind of demon in the thrift store has been able to really like
00:19:02.760aid them in doing that. So yeah, it's been like a very beautiful journey. But like I said,
00:19:08.240it all goes hand in hand. I couldn't share fashion content without sharing everything else that I do
00:19:14.000because it just I just couldn't do it. Like I'm someone that just like I can't be that fake on
00:19:19.280the Internet. It's very it's always been very hard for me my whole life to like paint a pretty
00:19:23.240picture that everything's perfect. I tried to do it a lot growing up when I was a cheerleader and
00:19:27.620wanted my family to look like everybody else at the school that I went to and, you know,
00:19:31.280was embarrassed of certain things. Like I was fully trying for so long when I was younger to
00:19:35.100project that perfect image that I feel like a lot of like content creators try to do now. So like
00:19:39.840I'm 31, you know, I'm tired, like I can't do it anymore. Like I'm so happy to have platforms at a
00:19:45.020time when I'm just trying to be myself and, you know, help others to do the same.
00:19:51.820Do you think that your audience has responded to your actual authenticity? We see a lot of
00:19:57.160fake authenticity on social media, to be honest. I mean, I call it faux-thenticity. It's a thing
00:20:03.040I'm trying to make happen like facts and mean girls, but I don't know. I don't know if it's
00:20:06.800going to catch on. Do people want reality now? Are we sick of the glossy bullshit that we've
00:20:14.240seen on social media for so long? I think so. I exist in kind of like a, not a bubble, but like1.00
00:20:20.620I exist in a world on social media that I've curated for myself. You know, I always tell
00:20:24.340people be your own editor-in-chief of your own feeds and like unfollow people that don't resonate
00:20:28.560with you and follow people that are different from you that look different than you and speak
00:20:31.980different than you and all that stuff and i think that yeah people love the real i always get way0.77
00:20:38.800more feedback on my videos where i'm just being my fucking self um to the max than when i'm just0.64
00:20:44.360like trying to put on any kind of facade which i don't even do anymore but you know there has been0.96
00:20:48.360times on social media over the time i've been on it where i've been like oh damn like maybe if i
00:20:52.840was a little more cleaned up and like didn't talk or like, I don't know, you know, just wasn't
00:20:57.000myself. Like maybe this brand would work with me or maybe this kind of audience would resonate with
00:21:01.000me. But I like, you know, that my audience resonates with me for me because that's that's
00:21:05.460who I'm talking to. Totally. Totally. And, you know, this is me. OK, this is just me. This is
00:21:10.300fucking me. I think that I've gotten more raw and honest, even in the past like nine months.0.99
00:21:15.960After after publishing Sicilian Inheritance, I think I have this big Sicilian confidence,
00:21:20.980this big sicilian energy where i'm like oh yeah oh no i don't give an f i don't uh and sometimes i0.96
00:21:27.040look at my reels and i'm like oh god like you look like shit but who cares like whatever like0.84
00:21:32.040this is how this is this is how real human beings look uh and so yeah i just i really appreciate i0.96
00:21:42.980really appreciate what you're putting out there what which which of your posts resonate the most
00:21:47.680with your audience? People definitely love my Instagram stories in the morning. I definitely
00:21:54.660like share a lot about just like how I'm doing with my depression. My depression has been terrible
00:21:59.080the past two years. I've had like quite a few deaths in my family and like surrounding us and
00:22:04.520things have been really rough. And I just have to be honest about that because like, what else am I
00:22:08.540going to say besides what's really going on? And I know every time I post something like that about
00:22:13.500my depression about my endometriosis journey it's always met with like so many messages especially
00:22:18.980when i started opening up about um cutting off my narcissistic father that was something i felt
00:22:23.940so isolated in my entire life was like that i have this bad dad and this kind of relationship
00:22:29.040with him that i felt was so embarrassing and terrible when i was younger to then grow up and
00:22:33.280realize no that's like abuse and narcissism and that i was allowed to not like you know he didn't
00:22:39.340just like get permission to be in my life just because we're related. That was something that
00:22:43.940when I shared that online, I was really nervous because I think it was a video I made on TikTok
00:22:47.140where I talked about not going to his wedding that he just had recently like a year ago. And I was
00:22:53.580nervous about that to be met with, you know, all of the judgments. But instead, I was met with just
00:22:57.480like thousands of comments from girls who were literally going through the exact same thing and
00:23:01.980felt so embarrassed, isolated and ashamed of their own relationship with their dad or their choice or
00:23:07.300mom or whoever it is and choice to like cut them out of their life so that felt really amazing to
00:23:12.480me and like it's the things like that that matter so much more than the fashion to me but also i
00:23:16.620will say like people eat up my estate sale and thrift with me it's like it is they love to watch
00:23:20.720me like go get the fines and like narrate them in the way that i do and just like do my thing
00:23:26.540to the max being myself so they do love that too which i do too
00:23:31.640i do too i think i think we we do need more of that and do people reach out to you about your
00:23:39.140mental health content this happens to me every time i post about depression or anxiety things
00:23:45.240that i think our medical system does not take nearly enough care of uh people ask me for advice
00:23:52.420as if i'm a doctor uh because i've gone through it and i'm not a doctor and i don't have medical
00:23:57.020advice. And it always makes me very nervous. Does this happen to you? Yeah, especially when I talk
00:24:02.400about my eating disorder recovery, I get, you know, some people that definitely are like
00:24:06.880crossing some boundaries. But then again, like I think you run those risks when just like being
00:24:13.940authentic and like being yourself. And I think those, you know, people just at the end of the
00:24:18.240day want like, you know, are just really reaching out for like some kind of connection and help
00:24:22.460because they see something of themselves in you. And I think people can sometimes project then
00:24:26.300like their own things onto you when they see a part of themselves in you and your story.
00:24:30.080So I do get that. But I try to, you know, always be like like people be like, what kind of
00:24:34.200anxiety meds are you on? And I'm like, same thing doesn't work for both of us. Like,
00:24:37.440please go to your doctor. I say the same thing. I'm like, oh, no, you know, I this worked for
00:24:42.160me, but I have no idea what's going to work for you, girl. But it does scare me that people are
00:24:47.780so hungry for help that that they'll reach out to anyone, anyone that they think that they think
00:24:53.480can possibly possibly help them. We're going to take one more quick break. And when we get back,
00:24:58.200I want to hear all of your top tips for thrifting. How can we be better thrifters? How can we all
00:25:04.700create a more circular economy? How can we save this planet from turning into a dumpster fire?
00:25:09.460okay so we are back and i want i want you to just turn me into the greatest thrifter of all time
00:25:24.380okay what like what are your top tips for for getting out there and and essentially finding
00:25:32.000your entire wardrobe your family's entire wardrobe with without clicking by now on amazon
00:25:36.840oh my god I mean yeah it's definitely daunting and in the book I think I poured out every tip
00:25:41.900I've ever had in my entire mind but I think a good place to start is to first of all just like
00:25:46.900look at thrifting like you would any other hobby or like skill you're trying to hone in on
00:25:50.820you need to like make your inspo board kind of like go through your closet and see the pieces
00:25:55.460that you don't have and that you needed to add into your wardrobe make an inspo board that's
00:26:00.120like where I start I call it thrift manifesting and I think it is so helpful like do I think
00:26:05.680that you know the thrift I do actually believe in the thrift gods but I do also believe in the
00:26:10.040fact that if you put you know just like how you would write down your hopes and your dreams when
00:26:13.800you're manifesting those in like your gratitude journal like if you do the same kind of with your
00:26:17.360clothing using Pinterest or like screenshotting stuff that you love on Instagram or that an
00:26:21.260influencer is wearing or even a piece you see on Amazon that you want or a fast fashion site
00:26:25.220and kind of build out like an inspo board around that it's going to really help you when you go
00:26:29.260into the thrift store it's that wish list that like visual wish list I feel like works so much
00:26:34.600better than just writing down like blue pants like creating that visual visual wish list of
00:26:39.580what you want from the thrift gods from the thrift universe and carrying that with you when you go in
00:26:43.860it will like keep those styles fresh in your mind and you will literally start to be able to like
00:26:48.380see those pieces from your board or from like your inspo photos in the thrift store on the racks
00:26:53.440i think that if you go in yeah with that kind of note in mind because if you don't like you're just
00:26:58.020going to get so overwhelmed i also think that if you're a beginner thrifter the virtual thrift
00:27:03.200universe you know you might be someone who's really used to shopping online as most people
00:27:07.000are these days a lot of people aren't going into the mall to buy stuff anyway firsthand
00:27:10.880utilizing the virtual thrift world which i have a huge part in my book about is so key because you
00:27:16.900can take the brands that you already love that are in your closet go through your favorite pieces
00:27:20.940that you own the pieces that fit you the best the brands that you love and take those brands and
00:27:25.500like literally plug them into like a poshmark a thread up a depop and find them that way but
00:27:30.640second hand so like you're not contributing to you know mass things being made more but you can
00:27:35.460still like wear the brands you're used to and then the more you do that I just know that every single
00:27:40.500person doing it will start to fall in love with thrifting and want to find those more fun like
00:27:44.240vintage pieces and stuff you'll really start to see the trends that you want so badly in the
00:27:49.840second hand world the more you look for them it definitely does take time it definitely like I
00:27:54.200said is like any other skill or hobby it takes time but I think you really fall in love with it
00:27:59.480in the process. Even my book editor, who was someone who had never thrifted before, like
00:28:03.920the second we started working on the book together, she was like, all I want to do is thrift. All I
00:28:07.560want to do is shop secondhand. I have been bit by the bug after just finding a couple of things.
00:28:12.400So usually that does it. But I think that visual representation helps more than anything. It helps.
00:28:17.040It really helps you to like block out the noise of all the other pieces and kind of hone in on
00:28:22.120the stuff that you are looking for. I love that. I really do. Because again, when we're scrolling
00:28:28.460social media and we see a lot of this fast fashion or we see these fashion influencers
00:28:33.120instead of clicking buy now why don't we click and make a screenshot and and you know keep it
00:28:39.540and be like oh okay i'd love to find something like this because you will you and i had even
00:28:44.640forgotten to mention uh all of the secondhand sites that exist exist now i love some thread
00:28:51.580up. I love their bags where you can very easily donate your gently used things. And this isn't
00:29:00.100just about walking into your local secondhand shop. You can do a lot of this literally while
00:29:06.120you're camera off in a really boring fucking Zoom meeting. You can be like perusing your thread0.98
00:29:11.420up site and get all of your clothes in the secondhand market. The virtual thrift world,
00:29:17.360I like to call it is amazing and like I wasn't someone who used it as much up until 2020 when
00:29:22.920I had to and the thrift stores were closed and I just became a master of it and now I'm just
00:29:27.180obsessed and I will literally like my late night Poshmark scroll where I'll just like this is a big
00:29:32.140tip I have as well for shopping these kind of sites a lot of them are very offer based like
00:29:35.920a Poshmark and Depop and stuff so I will literally like put in like if I'm looking for like a designer
00:29:40.620shoe or like something fun like that I'll like put that into the search bar and then I'll switch
00:29:45.080the toggle from to be cheapest to most expensive and then I'll go through that way and I'll just
00:29:50.060send random offers to people like really low offers and like then you wake up the next morning
00:29:54.820and like people will bite you might not even think people will bite but people will bite people want
00:29:58.300to clean out their closets and Poshmark is an amazing place to do that and it becomes so much
00:30:03.420more thrilling than shopping on any fast fashion site or Amazon ever was it is so fun to hunt down
00:30:09.200the items and then to have it come in the mail and then it like comes in the mail from like a
00:30:13.320beautiful small business or seller who like will write you this card about how much effort they
00:30:17.880put into sourcing this item and cleaning it and doing all this stuff for you. And it's incredible
00:30:21.620to even support like the economy in that way. And like these people, I know there's like kind
00:30:26.260of like this overarching rhetoric on social media of like resellers are like terrible people that
00:30:32.180are, you know, like marking up clothes and all this stuff. But in reality, like most of the
00:30:36.320resellers I know are low income people, disabled people, people that are just trying to make a
00:30:42.060living off of, you know, being able to do something that they can do, which is like resell clothes.
00:30:47.000And it's amazing to be able to support them versus, yeah, like Amazon fashion. I can't even
00:30:52.480hear the term Amazon fashion without just like wanting to scream and cover my ears because the
00:30:56.580two should just not go together. No, it makes they want to die. OK, it just does. It just does. And
00:31:01.680and that's true. You are. Yes, there are some big tech companies involved in in the secondhand
00:31:08.180world you're still keeping things out of landfills okay but you are and that really
00:31:14.880really matters it really matters and people like really try to keep the like I mean I have these
00:31:21.660conversations a lot especially because I'm in a weird position where like I like technically
00:31:26.160sometimes you know referred to as like a fashion influencer which can get you know put in a bucket
00:31:31.400of people that make much different content than I do and I have a lot of friends that do that stuff
00:31:36.140you know i have friends in my in this space who push their amazon storefront and i'm like oh my
00:31:41.640god because it honestly like kills me a little bit inside um the influence that a lot of people
00:31:47.240hold and what they do with it and so i'm just trying to combat that every day being like but
00:31:53.040you can thrift it you can thrift it you can thrift it and it doesn't have to just be getting down like
00:31:57.020you said in your local goodwill like you can just do it by like simply scrolling the way you would
00:32:01.420on any other fast fashion site um and you can just find the most amazing things and like i said you're
00:32:06.140instead of you know supporting this like random site these billionaires which like of course you
00:32:12.540said there is you know tech involved in these secondhand sites there's like a human being
00:32:16.780that's sending it to you and packaging up to you with love and i think there's just something so
00:32:20.280beautiful about supporting human beings in that way and like seeing the clothing as the human
00:32:26.020beings behind it that's what did it for me you know i've been thrifting forever but i was still
00:32:30.240shopping fast fashion when i was in high school like i worked at forever 21 like that was like
00:32:34.780what job at the mall that I could get in my town. And it really, for me, switched when I started
00:32:40.220seeing the clothing as the human beings behind it. You know, the planet sadly doesn't do it for
00:32:44.820everyone. I've seen that time and time again when trying to discuss like climate activism and the
00:32:49.560planet and fashion's contribution to that with other people in fashion. So if the planet doesn't
00:32:54.940do it for you, I would hope people do because, you know, we wouldn't want anyone in our family,
00:32:59.160anyone close to us to work in those conditions or work for below a minimum wage or below a living
00:33:03.300wage so why are we so comfortable letting it be these women that we don't know personally it it
00:33:09.340really throws me um especially for people that claim to love fashion so much so yeah i don't
00:33:15.820know if i do you think well you do you think that that we're talking about the low wage labor that
00:33:20.640goes into this fast fashion yeah do you think that you've been able to educate your audience
00:33:24.760about that uh through your platform because you are throwing in some really fun stuff right you're
00:33:31.540growing in your thrift hauls. Are you able to talk to people about the dark side of fast fashion?
00:33:37.760When I started thrifting, like it was out of necessity. It was out of like, this is cheap
00:33:42.460and I can afford it. It wasn't like for some grander meaning of like, I want to be a sustainability
00:33:46.480advocate and like really help the planet and people that kind of came in waves and in steps
00:33:51.700as I learned more and more. So I think that whenever I get to talk about that stuff with
00:33:56.340my audience, it's more like in lives and stuff where I'll talk about it with them and they love
00:34:00.320it i think people love to hear someone in fashion in that space talking about what's really going on
00:34:06.700behind the curtain especially because there's so many other fashion creators like working with
00:34:12.560these brands that are doing these things brands that will you know post about international0.96
00:34:17.100woman's day and like all this shit but then they're like literally paying women below a0.96
00:34:21.360living wage to make these the clothing like it's crazy and consumers like i said out of sight out0.96
00:34:26.440of mind like people try to put the blinders on but like we can't really do that anymore when this
00:34:31.540information videos everything is like so readily available to us exactly but it's still easy it is
00:34:38.380still easy frankly it's way too easy it's way too easy especially when you kind of have people
00:34:42.560online consumers and creators telling you like it's okay like one person can't really make a
00:34:47.700difference when it's like no like one person changing like a huge way that they live which
00:34:53.240is shopping, consuming, it can make a difference. It really can. It really can. I see how easy it
00:35:01.280is to get discouraged with sustainability. You know, Nick works in this business and
00:35:06.480it usually feels impossible. And I think that's why my little thing is that I do dedicate the
00:35:13.280time to creating this little circular economy because I'm like, this is my thing. This is my
00:35:17.380thing that I can do. And it's not huge. And it's just like one little thing that I'm doing
00:35:22.360as a mom, but it feels like something that's possible, right?
00:35:28.180There's a trickle-down effect in that, you know, like showing other people that that's like
00:35:31.840a normal thing to do, not just normal, but like can be much more fun because it connects people
00:35:37.860and community and, you know, creates empathy and conversation with people, which is something we
00:35:43.620lose completely when we're just pressing buy now on the internet. Oh, absolutely. And, you know,
00:35:49.100my kids see it too and yeah so so you know one thing that i think is interesting is that we have
00:35:55.420this cultural trope too that secondhand clothes are less than so in books and in movies we're
00:36:01.900seeing you know people that feel bad about the secondhand clothes that they get my kids get so
00:36:07.000excited every time a new bag shows up and then they go over to their friend's house and you know
00:36:13.700Louisa and Hazel are like oh my god that was my favorite dress and you're wearing it uh and I do
00:36:19.180think it fosters community where now the clothes that my daughter has gone through and my second
00:36:25.240daughter my baby has gone through they're now going to baby June who is our our neighbor in
00:36:31.760the Catskills and my kids take the bags up up to baby June so we yeah yeah yeah and they like take
00:36:38.260a secret path through the woods and deliver little I know I know and makes me so happy
00:36:44.800I can't even like I did not this was not like the way when I was growing up like like I said
00:36:50.260girls at my school like told me I was gross and smelly because my clothes were from the thrift
00:36:54.580store and like even watching like hearing that about your kids and like seeing the like young
00:36:59.440people that follow me that are like teenagers and younger that think it's so cool to share and reuse
00:37:04.780clothing like it it lights me up it lights me up in a sometimes too dark world in a too dark world
00:37:11.140yeah and they just they get so excited about seeing baby june in their in their old stuff
00:37:15.320and now these clothes a lot of them have gone through six kids like that's incredible right
00:37:23.200it is being in the landfill instead of just being in the landfill is sadly it does not work as well
00:37:30.020for boys clothes because boys are real tough on stuff uh real tough yeah um but i will i will say
00:37:38.620that every time i do a goodwill drop off i go in and check for school uniforms because there's so
00:37:43.920much turn every every kid in philadelphia wears the same school uniform so there's so much turnover
00:37:48.180with them and our school has a great school uniform swap program too uh where we can go in
00:37:54.400and be like oh okay yeah great now i'm ready for for seven-year-old pants this the saddest part is
00:37:58.620these pants with boys are going to have like busted open knees all of them in like five months
00:38:03.800oh for a while for a while we were patching them i will tell you that and my my my son really did0.91
00:38:11.000look like a street urchin uh but in a cute no the cutest street urchin in philadelphia i'm sure it
00:38:15.820was giving upcycle and like iconic it gave it gave kind of upcycle and iconic oh yeah yeah now we
00:38:21.400just like cut them off into shorts um i do that too yeah same uh i loved our conversation tell
00:38:27.460everyone where they can get your book and where they can find you on the internet.
00:38:31.660Yeah, Macy Eleni on Instagram and Blazing Glazed on TikTok and YouTube. And the link to buy my book
00:38:37.500literally like everywhere is in the link in my bio, in my link tree.
00:38:41.580Wonderful. I loved this conversation. Thank you so much for being here, Macy.
00:38:44.960Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun.