Meet Meghan McAllister!
Â
Hometown:Â I was born in Ontario, Canada, actually. But I’ve lived in Ohio and North Carolina, as well.
Major/Minor:Â PR & Advertising (minor in Communication and Media Studies)
Dream Job: I want to be the PR girls for some big fashion company, maybe Marc Jacobs. Or the Senior VP of Communications. I know that those are really ambitious, but, it’s what I want.
Campus Involvement: Panhellenic Sorority Life, Campus Ambassador for WhatRUWearing, College Fashionista (http://www.collegefashionista.com/author/meghanmcallister/)
Why do you feel you’re a Campus Celebrity here at DePaul?Â
Well, I run a blog named Lincoln Park Minute. (http://www.lincolnparkminute.com/)
Â
How did you come up with that title?
[Meghan McAllister] Actually, [redacted] (one of my sorority sisters) came up with it.
[Her Campus]Â But how did that process work?
[MM] I honestly am not sure. I was texting a bunch of people telling them that I wanted to start a fashion blog and had no idea what to call it. I’ve always had this fascination with New York City and “New York Minute” is a term that’s popular in our culture and it’s a movie, so I wanted to put a spin on it. So when I read Lincoln Park Minute, I thought New York Minute which is why I liked it.
I also liked that it wouldn’t limit me strictly to fashion. I wanted to talk about Chicago and Lincoln Park and what’s it’s like to live here and the restaurants I try. Naming it Lincoln Park Minute would give me that flexibility.
Â
If you had the chance to change the name of LPM, what would you choose?
I want to say Chic and In Charge, but I also don’t want to say chic because it’s such a clichĂ©. I do really like Lincoln Park Minute; it flows and it’s catchy.
Â
What got you into blogging in the first place?
I’ve always loved writing and I love photography. I’ve loved them since I was like 12 and for the past like seven years I’ve completely neglected them both. So when you neglect something like that for a few weeks, even, not as extreme as years like I did, you miss it. I felt like I had that something missing in my life. I had been thinking about it for a couple months and I just decided that I needed to do it, so I did it.
Â
Who takes all of these photos, anyway?
My boyfriend, Austin, agreed to take all of the photos for me when I told him that I wanted to do this. He’s been super great throughout it all.
Â
Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?
That’s a hard question. I don’t know. I think I like being between, I guess. I like editing my photos a lot, whether it’s on my phone or on my laptop; I love finding that final product and turning it into something unique and making photographs pieces of art.
A lot of fashion bloggers say that you shouldn’t edit your photos, but I’m not sure that I necessarily agree with that. I like putting filters on my photos, I think it’s fun. I like to at least change the temperature of my photos so that they don’t all look the same.
You have a few different types of entries on your blog: like your favorites of the month, showcasing your own style, your blogs. What kind is your favorite?
Definitely my features. I know a lot of cool people and I love sharing them with my readers. I have another one coming next month with Angelika Gale Designs; she has an Etsy shop, and that post will be coming next month. We went to high school together, but she was a grade above me. She’s studying fashion design at the Savannah School of Art and Design and she’s so sweet. One of the sweetest people I know. Her name being “Angel” is one of the most accurate things ever. I like also having collaborations with fellow bloggers. They’re really fun.
Â
Lincoln Park Minute is still really young (still under three months old!) How do you feel about how young it is and the future it holds?
[MM] It is really young. I only started on January 15, 2015.Â
[HC] You have a lot of content up here for it being less than 3 months.
[MM] I try to upload content twice a week. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten a lot of views for how young it is. Which I am so happy and so grateful about. Everyone seems to love it. I see it growing, and collaborations with bloggers and more features and style posts, of my own or observations, and more photos of my own outfits. My outfits seem to get a lot of views, so I want to give readers what they want to read. I see beauty posts in the future: some make-up and some hair stuff. I don’t know. I’ll see what happens.