January 8, 2020

Meet Trailblazer Bow Peralta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bow Peralta.

Bow, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Hey! I’m Bow, a twenty-something, half Thai and half British lifestyle and beauty blogger. I grew up in England where I went to school, college, traveled the world from and ran a family business before moving to Dallas for love. Now married to my American husband Alex, we settled in Texas where I’m spending my time freelance writing, running my blog, and exploring this whole new country.

After exhausting my time and effort into college and graduating, I realized that food and culinary arts was no longer my calling. A dream that I’d had since I was a young child was no more. Knowing that I was young enough to start all over again though, gave me some comfort and here began this new chapter where my blog was created.

I was lucky enough that there was an opening to work at my father’s business in footwear manufacturing when I decided to leave my once dream behind. I quickly became the managing director and soon enough, the family business was passed down to me. My father came from a working-class family, escaping the life he knew at sixteen to join the air force he traveled the world and realized there was so much more to life than the small town he was born and raised in. He soon left the air force and started to build a life in the last town he was stationed in. Buying a house and starting a business, he built his footwear business from nothing but an idea into one of the biggest small manufacturing businesses in England. I grew up watching the struggle, seeing him fail, and win. The business was (and still is) my father’s life, so naturally, it was mine too.

Finally, being able to take the pressure off of his hands, I stepped in and modernized the business to adapt to today’s market before realizing that this wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life either. I had so much pride in what I did and how my father trusted me to take over his succession and business but I needed something that was more ‘me’. I was young enough, but also wise enough to know that I could do more to satisfy my ambitions by just taking a step outside of my comfort zone. That I only got one shot at this life, and I didn’t want to do it by staying somewhere that didn’t make me 100% happy.

My blog was born in November of 2015, where I felt a sense of relief being able to take things back into my own hands, and have a sense of control over what happened from here on out with my new blog. It started as a hobby, like most blogs do. A hobby to free my mind of the work that consumed me each and every day and to finally let some of my passions spill out into the world. As much as I know everything and can do a lot in footwear manufacturing; I also loved makeup, beauty, skincare and writing. My college tutor told me during our last meeting before graduating that she believed one day that she’d see my name in books with the quality of work I produced in my assignments. That always stuck to me, because before it was something I had never realized I enjoyed so much.

I started writing about beauty on my blog first, but soon I started to introduce more lifestyle posts. Talking about my battle with grief following the loss of some of the closest people to me, sharing my mental health journey and so much more. I’ve published posts that have almost touched every category you could think of. Beginning this new journey lead me to collaborations and sponsorships with some of the biggest names in the beauty industry, and had me working with brands that I’d been using my whole life. Everything happened at such a fast pace, and as I continued to work at the family business, it started to get too difficult to juggle.

Fast forward to now, I moved to America in April to be with my American husband Alex. We had an online relationship, before finally going back and forth between England and America. We always knew that a long-distance relationship wasn’t something we wanted to do for too long, we felt destined to be together at all times. I knew I needed a fresh start, and so I packed up the life behind as I knew it. Leaving my friends and family, the business and my social media job I did in-between. It wasn’t a difficult decision, in fact it was the easiest one I ever made.

I was afraid that starting all over would hit my blog like a ton of bricks, but it did the exact opposite. Once I started to get my name out there in the local DFW area, my blog finally took off again. It was like creating a blog and having no idea how things work all over again. I spent the last eight-months establishing brand relationships again, meeting other local bloggers and working extremely hard on what I love. It now has my full-time attention, takes me to places I could’ve never imagined visiting and seeing, discovering new brands and products and still working with some of those big names that the little girl I once was, would’ve been jumping for joy at and never believing I’d be doing what I am now. Being a creator is an extremely difficult job to do at times, but even more rewarding.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Writing a blog is not a smooth journey. It looks like one of the easiest things to do from people on the outside, but running a blog and having it become a business is usually a one-woman job until you’re in a position to hire somebody else. You’re the creative mind, the writer, the web-developer, the photographer, the negotiator, the marketer and so much more. It is a very bumpy road to travel down, but the results can be extremely rewarding to anybody that truly believes they can do it.

You will face rejections, bad feedback and competition but remembering who you are, why you started and where you want to be in as little as the next six months is something really important to remember throughout the whole journey. Accepting that things won’t always go to plan is something that you have to be able to mentally accept and move on from. Some brands that you reach out to might not want to work with you, and other brands will reach out to you and before you know it you’re screaming the house down and calling every close family member to let them know who just proposed a collaboration with little old me.

Don’t let numbers affect the work and dreams you have. Stay true to yourself, and always find the good in every rejection. Producing creative content for me was the reason why I started when I’m experiencing any kind of struggle I remember the reason why I started. For ME.

Tell us about your Blog: bowperalta.com – what should we know?
My first role is my blog. I manage every aspect behind running my blog, as well as writing all of the content and photographing. Sometimes I’ll have help from friends or my husband for some projects, unless stated otherwise it’s all me.

I’ve always specialized in beauty. I love makeup and skincare. It’s my first love when it comes to what I do. My blog has moved more towards the lifestyle side of my lifestyle and beauty blog, but my aim for 2020 is to move it back towards the beauty side, because that’s why I started. I really enjoy writing about real life, and being completely honest about some of the things I’ve gone through in life.

Following the launch of my blog, my grandad passed away a month later. He was one of my biggest inspirations and somebody I looked up to so dearly. It hit me extremely hard, and I found myself in a very dark place. I decided to be real and share what I was going through on my blog. I soon had people reaching out to me telling me how they’d gone, or were going through something really similar and needed to hear my words. I realized how much I could help others by sharing what I know because at the time, I had felt so alone.

I began to share how I’d suffered with crippling anxiety for some time, restricting me from what I felt like living life. I talked about how the internet saved me, how I failed at friendships, how throughout everything it was ok to be alone and put myself first before others. I touched a lot of my readers from what I spoke about.

Lifestyle, and real life topics aside. The beauty side of my blog is one of my biggest passions. I’ve collaborated with brands such as YesTo, Urban Decay, KISS, Pixi Beauty, Liz Earle and so much more. Thanks to my blog, I was featured in a Maybelline Commercial super early into launching my blog, which I still get excited to show people. I’ve been nominated for awards, travelled to other countries and worked with some amazing excursion businesses and get to review local restaurants and events regularly. One of the most exciting things throughout all of this is the support I have from my husband. In return, I get to take him along to some of these incredible things to experience them all with me.

Finding a mentor and building a network are often cited in studies as a major factor impacting one’s success. Do you have any advice or lessons to share regarding finding a mentor or networking in general?
In this industry, one of the best mentoring/networking pieces of advice I can give to you is to get to know other people doing the same thing. I do enjoy keeping myself to myself, but knowing other bloggers in the same field means we get to talk about what we’re doing, get advice from somebody who might’ve already done something similar to what you’re about to work on and just receive spiritual support. Blogging can become a very lonely job to have unless you do these things.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Professional pictures: Gwendolyn Meador Photography

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