Actress and influencer Claudia Sulewski joined Fashion@Brown for a virtual conversation Wednesday evening. The event, which was free and amassed hundreds of viewers, was moderated by Alexandra Vitkin ’24. Sulewski joined the Zoom event from her home in Los Angeles.
“With nearly 5 million followers on Instagram and YouTube combined, Claudia Sulewski has captured the zeitgeist of fashion and beauty today,” said Reeno Hashimoto ’22, one of Fashion@Brown’s directors of industry programming, as she introduced Sulewski.
Sulewski started off by discussing her eleven years of experience on Youtube. When she was 13, she sought out the platform as an “escape” from the chaos of her family in order to “find a thing (she) could call (her) own.”
“Sometimes it can be difficult to feel like you are understood and heard and seen for all that you are at the time,” she said. When she was exposed to YouTube, she had a “visceral” reaction where she thought “I want to do this.” She noted iJustine, Michelle Phan and Blaire Fowler as early YouTuber inspirations who pioneered entertainment on the platform.
