Sonal Agrawal
Sonal Agrawal has a Post Graduate in Luxury Brand Management from Polimoda Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing, Florence (Italy). With over 9 years of experience as a Brand Strategist working in the advertising industry, and been a Consumer Insights Miner specializing in fashion and luxury brands, it was a natural transition into the world of blogging and which then led to her being a lifestyle influencer who’s content is true to her personality.
–Awarded as “Best upcoming blog of 2017” by IndiBlogger
She is an explorer, a curator, and a creator! A fashion enthusiast with an eternally curious mind! For her, both travel and fashion lend to each other… creating the most interesting and unique stories and experiences. Traveling helps her explore new cultures that inspire and grow my own fashion repertoire.
Her blog, PinkPepperCorn is about her idea of fashion that is inspired by the different places that she visits, the different cultures she interacts with and the different stories that come across.
View this post on InstagramHappy ☀️day! . . 📸 #WolfLens #sunday #sundaymorning #Goa #sogoa #gogoagone #beachlife
In her latest interview with us, Sonal shared her content creation process, her experiences with brands and as a social media influencers.
Why the name PinkPepperCorn? How did you come up with this?
Pink PepperCorn is actually a fruit.. like a small berry which looks all pink and pretty, often mistaken by people as being sweet and harmless. But once you bite into it it’s, spicy.. which is why it’s actually used as pepper in cooking.
I’d like to think of it as my own personality and the personality of my brand… Where the ‘pink’ stands for fashion, positivity and all things happy and pretty… Whereas ‘peppercorn’ stands for the intellect, intensity, and causes I believe in, which inspire all my work at PinkPepperCorn. Causes like sustainability, art and culture, body positivity and bringing back learnings from ancient mythology.
At PinkPepperCorn I try to bring alive stories inspired by beliefs and sociocultural insights, but through the medium of fashion, so that they are easier and entertaining to consume and digest by my followers
Fashion blogging is a highly competitive space. How do you stay different from others?
As I mentioned above, I work with a certain purpose in mind. I make sure that for every paid/sponsored piece of content that I put out there, I also create some really thoughtful, indigenous content pieces that I work very hard on, so as to maintain my originality and individuality.
Creating high-quality original content, according to me, is the only way to stay different in this highly competitive space.
Can you share some good, bad and ugly sides of being a social media influencer?
Being an influencer, as the word suggests, means that you have the power to influence the decisions and mindsets of a select set of individuals. It’s a great feeling to be looked up to and it’s an even better feeling when your work / the content that you create is loved, respected and appreciated by others.
But apart from the fame (in whatever small way) that it gets, it also brings with it a lot of responsibility. If you have the power to influence people, you have to be able to respect it and make sure you use that well… For the right causes. It puts immense pressure on you to be a good example… and since our lives are pretty much spent on social media, the only way to be is to be yourself and be genuine in what you portray.
The bad for me is that being a social media influencer, is thought of by a lot of people as … “Someone who just uploads pretty pictures” – “their work is so easy”..!
I’ve heard this from friends, family, agencies and even clients… And it hurts because no one recognizes the amount of hard work that goes into it. So while there is adoration, most people don’t seem to think of it as a serious career choice.
Ugly… With all that popularity, also comes a lot of criticism, cyberbullying and negative comments. I’ve seen a lot of cases of social media influencers not being able to handle it right and go into depression. It takes a lot of mental maturity and stability to not let the negativity affect you.
Please share some interesting/funny encounters with brands you worked with.
There was this one time when a brand of fairness products approached me for a collaboration with a fabulous offer. But I immediately refused because I just had to stay true to my own beliefs.
Please take through your content creation process, from where do you draw motivation.
Like I mentioned in the first answer, I take inspiration from the stories around me. From the various sociocultural phenomenon affecting our society at the moment… From my travels… from different cultures… From art and from mythological characters and symbolism.
I love to interpret these in my own way and express my opinions on them through the medium of fashion.
Which was the last movie/web show you watched and really enjoyed?
The last web series I watched was The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. I absolutely loved it for being so dreamy, funny, entertaining and yet being so relevant to today’s times!
