Why I choose to live out loud
I know the internet is a weird place. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t on it, but it has done more good for me than bad, and I’ll forever be grateful for it.
Growing up in a small town in an African country, your life is basically set out: go to school, go to university if you can get in or your parents can afford it, get a job, get married, have kids, live a conservative life, and die.
I knew early on that I didn’t like that path. I spent most of my time growing up reading books, obsessing over magazines, and watching TV shows about people living alternative lives. I wanted that for myself.
When I decided that art was what I wanted to study, it felt natural because I could reference it from the media I consumed. I actually fell in love with Graphic Design because I saw it on Generations, the South African soapie.
I could make that decision because I had been exposed to it. The media I consumed made me aware of it—I had a reference.
But it wasn’t until Instagram came out that I truly began to see what was possible. Different ways to live, opportunities to pursue, and lifestyles beyond what I saw around me. I wasn’t confined to the options immediately available in my environment.
Not only that, but during a particularly difficult decade, the internet taught me things my parents might have taught me if they were here. Things like how to decorate my home, how to manage it, create routines, and so much more.
Instagram, and now TikTok, taught me that I didn’t have to live the life I saw in my everyday surroundings. If I wanted more, I could do more. I found people who think like I do, who share my values, and who live authentically without conforming to societal standards.
I saw other women who didn’t believe marriage had to be the end goal, who, like me, don’t see themselves having children—and that being okay.
I saw creatives who started their own businesses and flourished. So, when I decided to do the same, I knew it was possible because I had references.
The internet’s greatest lesson for me has been to follow my dreams and be my authentic self. Seeing people—wherever they are in the world—living their best, most authentic lives inspired me to do the same.
Without the internet, I probably wouldn’t be living my best authentic life.
Since 2017, I’ve shown up online to pay it forward. I want other little Mafwe girls to see that there are other ways to live. They don’t have to follow the same path they see around them.
Documenting my life is an ode to my younger self—showing her that what she wants is possible. Teaching her things she wouldn’t otherwise know, like self-expression, finding her style, decorating her room to be a safe space, and following her dreams.
It’s an ode to anyone else who needs to see it.
This TikTok video inspired this post and if you’re looking for a reason to show up as your authentic self online, I suggest watching it, you never know who you are inspiring out there:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMh96pC2E/
So, for 2025, my intention is to live loudly. I don’t mean sharing every personal detail or the intimate ins and outs—because that’s not me.
Instead, I’ll simply document my journey through life in the hope that it inspires someone else to live theirs as authentically as they can.