a week in nyc | catching up, life updates, hanging with my favorite youtubers

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

foreign how's it going hi hello welcome to a vlog with Elena it's been a minute I think I put my last Vlog out in like mid December and now it's almost March December January ended up being very difficult months like mental health wise and emotional wise I definitely get like the whole seasonal affective disorder to a certain degree and like a little taste of like the seasonal I guess depression which I don't want to use that term lightly it makes it difficult to be creative but even more so it makes it very difficult to like to talk very genuinely to a camera like it's the last thing you feel like you can do but I'm doing better um a big thing that helped was I went to Brazil and oh my gosh I fell in love with Brazil in the Brazilians in the warmth and the sunshine I'm such a summer beach baby at heart which you know gets me questioning what why am I out here in New York what am I doing to myself I don't know I love New York it's a toxic relationship well into four and a half years in New York which is crazy if you've been following my journey we've been on this for a long time y'all feel like moving into the new year I've done a ton of journaling and brainstorming and scheming and I didn't really necessarily come up with anything super concrete other than like certain small goals I wanted to work on but I feel like if anything I was like I feel like this is the year where like something's gonna really be shaken up and I don't know exactly what it is I have some ideas but I feel like I've been in a similar space for a while I've talked a lot about doing longer stays in other places I think I don't know what like my forever home is yet which is a kind of a tricky thing I miss having access to Nature in the ocean and a slower life took me a very long time to be able to accept that for a while I was like earlier hustle culture girl passed my way to the Sun and I'm like you know what a little cottage core aesthetic life sounds kind of nice I don't need to be on Forbes already under 30 like just give me a little just a little Beach Shack lots of good books you know this is my soft girl era I think no more that girl okay still a little bit Andre Taipei but feeling a little untethered and detached but I'm feeling good about that I don't know that's where I've been how have you guys been I want to know if you feel similar to that at all but with that aside um I'm excited for this Vlog definitely is not gonna be like fully chronological like day by day just a mixture of fun moments Daniel Drew is staying with me this week which is fun he's visiting from Paris if you know him so you'll see him later in this Vlog but yeah time to get back to editing let's go ahead at Brazil oh my gosh I am speaking at the Saran bookstore with Damon the one the only Damon Dominique the man we know and love and I'm super excited I'm so nervous like this wasn't a book list item but now it is to say I spoke with The Strand so I can write that on the list that crops it off we're talking about Damon's book you're a global citizen which is really really well done it's almost like Journal style but like guided prompts and I really love it it's kind of like therapy in a way so I get to get ready because I want to go speak at the Strand just out here facing our fears of public speaking and I'm David so let's go to the Stream like I'm just it's just like I've been doing that for two years that I don't even know what to say it though I don't know who wrote this it's like a script too much words start using them and start talking and like see my friends in the audience I think it's gonna be great I'm more ready to shine friends are here I'm excited the countdown she's about to go out I'm telling myself she knows she's taking deep breaths no slabs breaths like let's talk about an iconic bookstore real quick like come on so thank you strand I'm excited to be here with Elena hello hello um another Global citizen where do we meet VidCon VidCon we have been in Tunisia together which wasn't planned Paris together Mexico City together in New York together so it's really cool I'm very excited for you guys it's like a kind of like a self-exploration experience it's Grandma our Sweet Lord oh it's the camera off I've been keeping this little silly photo of me as a kid by my mirror so that if I'm being a little mean to myself in the mirror which I really struggle with be like hey you're talking to her too and I would never be mean to her look how precious she is she's still in there dude I can't forget that hello another day working from home Nathaniel though gets here in a little bit which is fun he's visiting from Paris and traveling around on the East Coast a little bit crashing with me for a few so because I have a friend in the home especially someone who does the same creative job as me I just love this favorite New York activities you too the music first okay food for me beats even music thank you oh yeah it's kind of beautiful what the heck damn that looks good he's vibing for your first New York sauce thoughts I gotta say I mean New York definitely is my favorite city in the U.S agreed right answer a lot of character and there's also a lot of attitude and that's good and bad it adds layers to your daily experience yeah this really is like morning routine with Elena and Nathan more like you're on my morning routine yeah I went to the gym we got some coffee turn on some breakfast yeah yeah oh my God breakfast time I know I've got some fun Goods to share today's sponsors the red up if you're somehow unfamiliar throw it up is basically one of the world's largest online thrift stores and you can find incredible secondhand pieces there so I love getting some fun pieces to spice at my wardrobe or look for some Basics that I've been missing like using their mobile website or their app a lot of times to do my shopping I find it helpful to look for specific items or brands that I'm excited about and there's a new feature which is really exciting is that there has made it as easy as ever where you will be able to click and see the items I ordered and then be able to shop similar items for a little outfit inspiration let's see what we got so for contacts I don't feel comfortable shopping at Sarah because it's fast fashion but I gotta be honest they make some good pieces I like too long to shop them second hand so I got this sweater for only 22.

really cute little like baby mock neck moment super comfy cozy fit I picked up this very cute verapel leather jacket this one was also super on sale for 77 I like this little Buckle moment here I also got this very cute Sarah Matt that's long sleeve because I've been looking for an off the shoulder top like so and this was only 18 dollars are you kidding me this for under 20 incredible cute and then I got this incredible Sienna Studio red leather jacket for 58 dollars when I saw this I was like I cannot leave it behind it fits incredibly and it kind of reminds me of Toy Story in the best way and last but certainly not least the Tahari turtleneck sweater 30.62 I loved the rib stitching in houses with this cool cross in the middle and I just love a turtleneck sleeveless sweater thanks again to threata for sponsoring today's video of a discount code for you guys for 35 off so be sure to use that and save yourself some more money all information will be linked down below as usual I think it's gonna thread up for sponsoring this video she's here lit up by the computer light yeah oh this is so fun the first event we've been to before yeah I've never been to an event and we kind of dressed somewhat similar Easter's taking on New York let's go to Vogue oh my goodness okay what I'm saying party inside really cool but quite the view hey this was actually I'm on my protein games reflecting a little bit earlier that I've never had so many friends in my life especially American Prince too are they cool to meet a lot of other people that have that same sort of uh curiosity and desire to explore the world so anyway very grateful yeah are you excited what oh my God hello good morning how are we doing Saturday which means it's time for my little coffee shop team let's go Journal reads I never knew enough got my little tulips I'm on my way home from going to Sunday to Sunday which is really incredible red spot on the Lower East Side you know Nathaniel Drew and Dion who's incredible photographer such a life-giving conversation I feel like I haven't had that kind of like depth and inspiration in a conversation just really naturally in a while they both have such unique like creative brains and ways of thinking and seeing the world and like interacting with their own work it's made me feel really inspired and grounded and I feel like those types of moments can be rare to come by so headed home got myself some flowers are my favorite flowers to get for myself because they blew so beautifully slowly as well so just enjoy them first I know this is like a common theme in my video so I'm sounding like a broken record but the way music brings me so much joy I don't really like going out in New York anymore just for the sake of like going out but to go out to a good DJ set I recently saw another and I saw piggy goo and perel they were so much fun anyways I wanted to talk about that me Nathaniel and Dion talked about we talked for a while I talked for like three hours it's a really beautiful conversation Leon was talking about the power of no which really hit home for me I'm such like a yes man yes woman and I think that trait has gotten me far in life it's gotten me to where I am by saying yes to experiences Adventures projects you know meeting new people but as I'm kind of Shifting in the way that I'm like viewing my life and balance and the things that are important I feel like the power of no is so so crucial saying no to you know giving your time to people or things and it's really hard to say no but you have that feeling deep inside that you're like I don't need to go out tonight or I don't need to go to the vet or or I don't need to say yes to that project it's really easy to just say yes yes yes and like fill up your time and schedule and play so much of our culture is just like the Merry-Go-Round that's Non-Stop and so I think getting off for a little bit and letting that go on without you is so powerful and it can be very hard to do because it can feel like you're missing out on opportunities or experiences or whatever it may be but trusting the process that by like saying no and taking that time you're growing in yourself and you're strengthening yourself in the areas that are important to you so I really like that and I hope that hits home with some of you guys also it's International women's month shout out to all my women and female identifying people in the states abroad wherever you are I'm thinking of you this is a cool month to reflect back on our history as well as you know think about the ways that we can keep persevering forward and keep making more progress also worked with this organization called better internet Initiative for a little while now and I really love what they're doing they basically help Empower different creators and Educators with different information essentially that's fact checked on what's going on at the moment and kind of supplying ways to encourage you know your audience to maybe go out there and try to make the difference themselves so I was talking to them about women's history month and they brought something crazy to my attention which I kind of loosely knew but not to this extent that women were excluded from all clinical trials so if a medicine wasn't used specifically for Reproductive purposes like headaches heart medicine insulin women were included in clinical trials until 1993.

that's not that long ago I also side note read this incredible book which I highly recommend called invisible women it's about exposing a data bias and a world design for men obviously it has improved in the last few decades but there's still a lot of catching up to do in regards of gender equality within research so it's just a reminder that we need to get active and stay active within our local communities these City councils and more and milk for female Representatives that are pushing for more Women Within medical research women still only make up 28.6 of the toll representatives in Congress which is mind-blowing so we got a lot of work to do y'all I don't share this as a bad thing I share this hopefully something to get you riled up and inspired to get involved and push for greater gender equality so happy International women's month text somebody send somebody a letter that you love and are proud of and who you find inspiring hello about to head out to the Saks Fifth Avenue event which I'm very excited about and you stop at Colt Gaia H yeah I'm frazzled so let's just just go I know I need you to say hey thanks again to thredup for sponsoring this video and use my kodalena for 35 off your first order