Usually, the pictures from my past make me wonder: “What the hell was I trying to do?”, ” Who is this girl in that picture?” “What where you thinking woman, while posting this?

But today I did an exercise of image analysis. I tried to do what they taught me at my Image & Communication classes & Rhetorics in University. I even had time to read my comments. I wanted to see what have I actually done to get here today as SWEET PAPRIKA, as Gabriela Atanasov, the fashion blogger & wannabe’ personal brand creator.

And here it is, the paprika truth about me in 29 pictures from my Social Media past. The pictures that actually helped me to create an individuality in online. All of them have been accompanied by a small dose of irony in descriptions. I have concluded that all the ugly truths I’ve said & posted during the last 7 years on Facebook, have actually become my thing …my sweet paprika taste. Plus, it is always a good thing to make fun of your faults & be sarcastic about your problems, people will laugh “with you”, not “of you”!

1. One of my first profile pictures has the following description: “Dirty tequila, dirty bastard”. It was Samantha Jones to say this line in SATC, but what you didn’t know is that my boyfriend at that time, Patrick Popa had the following yahoo messenger id : Tequillap9800:))
It was the summer of 2009, my romanian friends were still somewhere between Hi5 & Facebook.

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2. Summer of 2009 in Vancouver, Canada – shooting on the streets like real models with my nowadays husband & his sister. I was 17 going on 18 and if I had any idea about what blogging could become I would have started doing it from that very moment.
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3. I was in highschool , the last year and I discovered the beauty of second hand shops. The fur, the shirt & the hat…all vintage. It was 2010 and I had just started my blog.
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4. Early blogging on www.sweetaspaprika.blogspot.com
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5. The dress is from a second hand & I just adjusted it a little bit to be shorter & show off my legs in random pictures dancing in the club :)) My nowadays husband was jealous at that time for this picture.
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6. Me & my friends decided to have a photoshooting together near a railway in Navodari. We thought we were breathing fashion. 2010 baby…Still love them & still have them around me!
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7. I had a very long hair in 2010 and I was quite…into glamorous cheap poses in front of my high school, during winter:))

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8. A lot of things changed after I have had a baby, here’s a picture from 2015…also in THE SNOW!
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9. In 2009, I wanted to be a model & my husband wanted to be a photographer, we did this kind of photoshootings in the improvised studio in the basement of his house in Vancouver. I’ve created the outfit. Designer skills …bitch please!
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10. The first picture on my Instagram in 2012, hasn’t been properly uploaded. I was going to Bucharest for my Lady Gaga concert..I’ve cried the entire concert because i was destroyed by my breakup with my nowadays husband. I haven’t used instagram on a daily basis…too bad!

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11. The first days of fashion glory in online are marked by this picture. It was shared and liked… a lot!
Photographed by Patrick in a very old building. That old suitcase was found in that house & it became later the SWEET PAPRIKA suitcase i used for my clothing branding.
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12. I was the prom queen.
Miss FCRP 2010. That dress was my first ever designed dress & it was created by Cristina David according to my sketches. Later it became one of my best selling dresses as the POMPON DRESS 3 in 1.
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13. The first dress ever to be sewn by Sweet Paprika, I had to be the host at my College Prom Ball, because I had to pass the CROWN for the Miss & Mister Contest.
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14. In 2010 I was part of the jury for Shopping-ul Pasiunea mea (Shopping-my passion) , a Romanian TV show for the fashion & shopping addicts. That happened because I won the previous competition.
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15. In 2011 used to have this kind of sun-BURNED pictures of me on Facebook. God knows why.
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16. The day when people of Social Media discovered that I also have a brother, not only a sister!
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17. The time I had fun climbing statues in Jardin de Tuilleries during the Paris Fashion Week, while wearing my designs.
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18. The day I started a new life after breaking up with Patrick. BRING ME ALL THE COLOURS OF THE WORLD I MUST WEAR THEM!

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19. One of my earliest pictures with Alina Ceusan, one of my favourite souls on this Planet!
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20. This guy was my boyfriend for one year and a half , and yes Social Media was aware of this relationship.
This is how my personality affected his style:
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And this is how his personality “affected” my style:
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I believe that people always meet for a reason. We’ve learned our lessons from each other & after that we’ve started new lives separately.

21. I smoked & I continued my fashion:
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22. That’s the picture where I told you that I got engaged & you haven’t noticed anything but my flat chest:))
I got engaged with the person that broke up with me…after 4 years of relationship & now he is my husband for 2 years.
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23. That’s from our visit to Strasbourg. The first show of Sweet Paprika clothes to be presented abroad.
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24. The first time I was included on the DIGITAL DIVAS blogging awards list. One of the most liked pictures of me in online, photographed by Dinu Atanasov my very talented cousin.
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25. That day I found out I was pregnant, but I still acted in style at this photoshooting.
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26. That day i was very pregnant and more than 1000 people liked that:))
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27. This picture has brought me an award for my article written on a social matter. Basically I’ve shared my experience as a woman who gave birth naturally and that post had more than 32.000 visitors in one day. After 2 years I’m still getting private messages from my readers to ask me the number of my doctor. For me it represents the moment when I’ve become literally an online influencer.

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28. And that’s when Erik went to his first Summer Well festival & he was wearing his father’s bracelet.
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29. And that’s just a throwback to the summer of 2009…when i was in Vancouver visiting my love.
That was probably the first time i’ve created that Audrey Hepburn inspired hairdo & my first cat-eyed sunglasses, also it was the first time Patrick agreed to add some make-up to his face, in order to have this perfect picture:)) It was my 18th birthday.
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To sum-up, I’ve built a personal brand by sharing with you real facts & ugly truths about myself & my life. Of course, when I’ve started I had no idea I will still be here after 7 years, but here I am…still sharing with you my life & creating a content that you will believe …because I stayed true to myself & my audience. There are 7 years since i’ve been building SWEET PAPRIKA. I didn’t had a smartphone when i’ve started to pose & take pictures nor a laptop. I was helped a lot by my boyfriend & his friend that have been investing in expensive DSLR cameras, because they wanted to become professional photographers. I had a hi5 account before Facebook & it  is still active by the way:)).  The truth is that i was doing the job of a blogger, before knowing that this can become a job. I was trying to influence the world i was living in by sharing my way of living, my style & my fashion. Also we were doing selfies with a prehistorical 2 mega-pixel NOKIA  front-camera, during the boring high school classes, before knowing that this is going to be called like that. For us that picture represented a profile picture or the avatar on Yahoo Messenger. It is said that the problem with the millenials  is that they are not creating content & sometimes if they do, it is a false content, that has nothing to do with their life experiences. Well, it is easier to lie nowadays with all those fancy smartphones & face-tune apps. Just think that the nowadays 18 year olds used to watch us & learn & get inspired. Maybe in some ways we haven’t been a good influence or  “au contraire” they will be much better influencers than we are. The kids of the 90’s have been the kids of all the changes. In 2002 i entered for the first time on internet, it was Shakira’s official site…i was a fan, it was INCREDIBLE! In the same time i had at home music tapes, a walkman, cd’s in the car and my parents vinyls. The millenials were born with internet in their veins, they will always do it better!

Love,
Gabriela