Washougal woman makes mark on social media

Taylor Aube had an epiphany as she walked through the meatpacking district of Manhattan in New York City one night several years ago on her way to take photographs at a fashion show featuring the work of Jeremy Scott, one of the world’s most well-known designers.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is a dream come true,'” Aube said. “It’s crazy to be living your dream and watching it unfold in front of you.”

The Washougal woman has indeed achieved her goals in the emerging industries of digital marketing and “influencing.” She works with some of the world’s biggest beauty and fashion brands to promote their products through her highly followed social media profiles and popular blog (Stop, Drop & Vogue), on which she writes and posts photos about fashion, style, travel, health and wellness and makeup.

“Honestly, there are so many words that I could use, and I feel that none of them are very accurate,” she said. “I guess you could use ‘influencer’ or ‘blogger,’ but I’ve kind of taken a step back in that I want it to be focused on just me living my life and my experiences. I’m in a weird category, I think. There’s a lot of variables to it. It’s not just taking a pretty picture for Instagram. I’m also managing a WordPress website and signing contracts with brands. It is a business for me. My business is my brand, and my brand is me.”

Tonya Wright, the owner of Nest & Love Photography in Camas, said Aube is “a smart businesswoman” who is “amazing at building her brand.”

“She’s down to earth, really humble, professional and hardworking, and she understands her business,” said Wright, who semi-regularly collaborates with Aube on photography projects. “She knows what’s trendy and cool and what people enjoy seeing. She’s motivated to do a good job. She doesn’t just want to build a following — she wants a community, That’s where her passion is. People want to follow her because she’s relatable and fun and cool and kind.”

Aube’s rise to social media fame began in 2011, when she was a freshman at Boston University. Inspired by her roommate, Aube created a blog on the social media site Tumblr, where she shared images from prominent high-fashion magazines such as Vogue.

Tumblr officials took notice of her the blog’s increasing popularity, hired Aube as a makeup and fashion “tag” editor and sent her to photograph New York Fashion Week, one of the biggest fashion events in the world.

“There’s a huge community of people out there that really love that kind of stuff — haute couture, high-fashion, Valentino, Gucci,” said Aube, who returned to photograph New York Fashion Week five more times after her first assignment. “I was curating all of these images in a really nice, aesthetic way, and (my following) started growing and growing and growing, and Tumblr noticed that I had an eye for it. And from there, that’s when I realized that I had this platform. ‘(I thought), ‘People are starting to monetize theirs. I have a lot of followers. Maybe I should try to explore this.'”

As her following grew, Aube continued to develop her brand by creating her blog and expanding to other social media sites, including her Instagram site, which boasts almost 40,000 followers.