To college students and those who ardently follow fashion, Mumba-based Santoshi Shetty is considered a hero. The YouTuber, who studied archiecture, has over 8,000 followers who take her cues and tips on how to dress well. These one-minute videos have over 1,00,000 people watching, which means the 20-year-old has been doing something right.
Recently, Humans of Bombay caught up with Shety, who shared her life story, which included insecurities, successes and failures. This heartwarming tale has gone viral since it was shared on Tuesday night. It also teaches us a valuable lesson: success will come as long as we love ourselves.
“Growing up, I was always the student who wanted to participate in everything. From playing football to participating in fashion shows I was always very out there — I loved fashion; I used to enjoy being unique and standing out of the crowd — it was just a part of my personality, which often led me to being misunderstood.
"Even after joining my architecture course, I would always be known on campus as the ‘fashionable one’ — but I never dreamed of ever doing anything in that space. I was always on a tight budget, so most of my shopping would be on the streets…I would buy things for 200 Rupees and still bargain — but I enjoyed putting different things together and making a statement. In fact, I randomly heard about Instagram from someone at college and realised that I couldn’t even download it on my Nokia phone— it was only available on Android and IOS! So whenever I wanted to post about something, I would borrow my dad’s phone and quickly upload to my account.
"I also always loved architecture — so whenever I would travel for my course I would post my experiences…and I don’t even know how my followers started to build. It was in my 3rd year of architecture that I got a KT and couldn’t stand for General Secretary in my 4th year and I was devastated! But as it turns out…it all worked out for the best because people started recognising my work and I got my own YouTube Channel!
"From there things just fell into my lap — I began to combine my love for architecture and fashion to create my content, I built my own website from scratch and what started off as my passion became a full fledged career. I’ve even faced my fair share of criticism…so many times people have commented on my photos saying, ‘she’s so dark, how is she a blogger?’, or ‘I’ve met her, she’s much darker than this photo’ As a 20 year old, I was so sensitive to simple things like a ‘dislike’ on my video. For the longest time, I was conscious about a scar I had on my leg from playing football — I stopped travelling by train because I felt so conscious of myself. For the longest time, I led a dual life — I would go to college, work hard on my assignments and not care about what I wore and then reach home and transform. It was through this journey that I began to become comfortable with myself as is — scars, skin colour and criticism alike. I loved myself so fiercely that the world had no option but to accept and love me as well.
"From that young architecture student who would excitedly binge shop and hustle through the street stores — I’m here. I’ve been on the cover of magazines, I’ve won awards, I travel solo for work internationally and most importantly I’m financially independent. All of this because, I decided to love myself as is and didn’t wait for acceptance — I demanded it.”
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