Friends in Totes: Belinda Love Lee
For those of you who are viewing this series for the first time, welcome! In this blog series we bribe some talented friends who do interesting things with a tote bag, follow them around with a camera and ask them a bunch of questions. And for those who have been here before, welcome back!
This time, we wanted to introduce to you our friend Belinda of Belinda Love Lee. First off, Belinda’s Instagram (@belindalovelee) is really pretty. Go follow her now.
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Done? Okay let’s keep going.
Secondly, Belinda is super down to earth and really fun to talk with, and especially open to sharing about her thoughts, which we are extremely thankful for. Plus she’s a pro at posing, which made our lives a lot easier. In her recent trip to Hong Kong, we met up with her at Tai Kwun in Central, a former police headquarters-prison compound turn centre for heritage and arts, including shops, restaurants, museum and other exhibition and event spaces.
Q: What is your name and what do you do?
A: Hi my name is Belinda of Belinda Love Lee, and I'm a bit of a Jill of all trades! I run my own graphic design and letterpress printing studio, whilst being a content creator and blogging on Instagram!
Q: Coffee or tea? What is your go-to order?
A: Tea! A grande green tea matcha almond latte please!
Q: What are the items that follow you on a daily basis, or things you love to bring on your day off?
A: My phone sadly enough, is always glued to my side, like the most of us! And then a good old lip balm to keep my lips hydrated and a big water bottle to keep my thirst at bay!
Q: Can you share about something you've learnt to accept/love about yourself, that you initially did not?
A: I'm a bit of a scattered brain and have a hard time staying concentrated with one thing. I tend to start a lot of projects and have a hard time seeing them through and finishing them off. I'm still working at loving myself in this area, as I see it as more of a weakness than a strength, but I guess the good thing about having a scattered brain is that I never get bored with what I do, and I tend to be pretty spontaneous because I'll go with where the wind takes me!
Q: What do you love most about the city you live in?
A: I live in Toronto, and it's the perfect balance of being a slower paced city. It has all the likings of Hong Kong just one and a half times slower in speed! You can hit the great outdoors in the morning and then head on in to the city for a coffee and city wander- all in one day.
Q: Introduce us to a cause/belief you care about, and why others should too.
A: I'm really passionate about people finding and doing work that they love. I think one of the hardest realities I've realized as an adult is that many (if not most) people don't enjoy the work they do, and it honestly breaks my heart! Work is so encompassing and takes up so much time in our lives, so when I hear that people are just ‘getting by’, all I want to do is to help them find something more suited for them! I think that's why I partially love what I do as a branding designer- I help design brands and logos from the ground up and I love being able to help turn people's passions into a money making life long career!
Q: If there’s a young person who wants to enter your field of work, what advice would you give them?
A: I would say come intern with me, to find the ins-and-outs of the businesses! No but really, if you're ever looking to get into any field, I would highly suggest getting an internship to see if that career path is fitting for you. It's single handedly the quickest way to find out.
Q: Share with us one way you express yourself creatively? Can you share about the process and what it means to you, or why doing so is important to you?
A: Actually Instagram, surprisingly enough, is a huge way I express my creativity. Through creating beautiful squares and content every other day it keeps me on my toes to look out for beautiful corners, and to keep my mind brainstorming for new and exciting ideas. This constant process of filtering the world through my eyes and capturing these snap shots and moments in time is important to me because it forces me to find beauty amongst the every-day mundane!
Q: If you had a free day all to yourself, and could just pick up your bag and leave, where would you go?
A: To the beach in Bahamas, nothing speaks more to my soul than the great open turquoise ocean.
Q: Share with us an important lesson you learnt over the past few years, or a motto that you hold dear to?
A: One thing I've learnt is to never lean on your own understanding of why or why not things panned out the way they did. You may never know why that exact thing happened at that exact time, but I always know it's for a good reason and is in God's timing.
Q: What is the most attractive quality of a person, and why?
A: How deep and real their heart is, if you and I can't talk heart to heart with vulnerability, our relationship be it friendship or either wise is pretty much non existent. I think people's honesty and being able to own up to your weakness and faults is what really makes a person shine.
Q: What does the world need more of?
A: Self love, everyone's so focused on the lack of what they don't have- be it money, self esteem, a full booty 🍑? And I know I'm guilty of falling into that self judgemental trap as well. If more people loved themselves for who they are, I think it'd change the world for good.
Q: What is something you've achieved that you're really proud of?
A: One thing I've managed to achieve and that I'm really proud of is having almost 8 years strong in a business I am still passionate about!
Q: In an alternate universe, if you didn’t work in your field, what would you want to do?
A: Oh I have so many other fields I'd like to be in, like a ceramist, or a poet, or a leather worker!
Q: Can you set a challenge for yourself to achieve in the next year? If so, what is it and why is it a challenge?
A: Finding a passion project, stick to it and finish it off. Like I mentioned early, I have a hard time finishing projects for myself so it'd be great to finally see something through!
AFTERWORD
We’re very thankful for Belinda’s open and candid responses, and we hope that getting to hear from fellow creatives helps you with your own creative journey. Sometimes it can be a lonely process, and there are many struggles that you may feel that you’re the only one experiencing them, but in reality we all share the same difficulties. The takeaway, we hope, is that no matter what capacity you’re expressing your creativity in, and wherever you are on your journey, you are not alone.
Thank you for spending your time with us, please follow Belinda’s work and encourage her journey, we’ll put the links below again:
Web: Belinda Love Lee
Instagram: (@belindalovelee)