Daily Inspiration: Meet Taylor Gulizio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Gulizio.

Hi Taylor, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I had always been a creative person but in 2020, I discovered that I wasn’t half bad at doing makeup and my sister suggested I start posting my makeup looks on TikTok. It was so intimidating to put myself out there on social media because I had been bullied throughout all of the school for my red hair, being heavy set, having freckles, braces, and never following the trends.

Unfortunately, I had developed some serious self-hatred and body dysmorphia in response to that trauma. Some of those same bullies, even though we have been out of high school for eight years now, made fun of my makeup at first. It didn’t end up discouraging me because once I started seeing other people like my content and start to follow me, I started to realize that all of the things these bullies made fun of me for were in fact my best attributes. The things I was bullied for ended up being my best attributes, loved finally by me and everyone in my comments. Social media has truly allowed me to be authentically and unapollagetically me. It has also showed me that bullies see the light inside of you and they try everything in their power to dim it. This road has not been easy. I have my good days and then some bad ones too, but I have my support system and my followers who are always cheering me on. One day I will make my dreams a reality. I’m doing it not just in spite of the bullies telling me I can’t but because I know I can. I want to express to the world through my social media that you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to, to do what you love regardless of the risks you have to take and don’t ever listen to the bullies.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, nothing worthwhile is easy! Trying to become an influencer is hard and I still haven’t come close to getting there yet. You get turned down left and right, you don’t know how much your work is worth, you never know what’s next in your journey and you learn everything by yourself as you go. It’s very hard to gain a following and all you can hope is your content reaches the right people! You have to build the confidence to put yourself out there and believe in the content you bring to people. Still, sometimes all it takes is making the right video and posting it at the right time. You just have to keep consistent, continue to love what you do and hopefully one day you will take off!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Well, I’m a makeup artist! I’m known for my creative looks on TikTok. I specialize in easy to recreate looks, so anyone can feel confident and recreate my looks easily. I am most proud of my latest project, Makeup for the States. I’m creating a look for each State based on research and suggestions from my followers. On each posted video they comment their state and tell me something interesting about it and I do some research about what makes that state special so I can come up with a theme/colors for the look. It has been so much fun and everyone seems to be truly enjoying the series. I have just finished the 21st look in the series so I still have quite a few looks to go!

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorite childhood memories was doing all of the youth police academies in my town for kids who one day wanted to become law enforcement! I wanted all the way up until 21 years old, to become a police officer. That is, until one day, I woke up and decided that I wanted to take a chance with my creative side instead. Becoming a police officer would have been a stable job, pay guaranteed and a decent retirement age. I also always had the goal of helping as many people as I could. Throwing myself into making content has been and continues to be a huge risk because nothing is guaranteed including success and a paycheck. You never know how it’s going to go. It is still my goal to help as many people as possible, now I just get to do that in a different and creative way! As much as I loved the academies as a kid and did them all the way from 5th – sophomore year of high school, I know I made the right choice. I will always cherish the friends I made and the memories too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/artistrybytay
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistrybytay/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Artistrybytay
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@artistrybytayy