It’s been a while since I’ve done a get to know me post and I know there are a lot of new faces here so I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello/welcome. 🙂 If you’ve subscribed to this blog, thank you SO much for the support. It means the absolute world to me! If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can enter in your e-mail at the bottom of this site and get updated when a new post goes live! Don’t worry, I’ll never spam you.

REWIND

My name is Jenna (if you couldn’t tell), and I’m a CT blogger in my late twenties just trying to figure life out. Rewinding it back to my childhood – I am the youngest of 4 (two older brothers and an older sister) which means I have gotten my fair share of princess moments and I have also had to be my brothers test dummy for his wrestling moves. My siblings were all closer in age whereas I was 4 years younger so I was always finding ways to make my own fun. Seriously, I used to take any shipping boxes I could find to make my own ‘house’ to live in. My best friend and I used to put on fashion shows for my Mom and Dad, styling boas of course. Back in the day,picking out my Polly Pockets’ outfits was my favorite thing to do! These are all memories that show how much I’ve always thrived off of being creative. I was never the person to just sit there and do things by the book. For example, I absolutely hated school and was convinced I was not meant to be there. I used to skip class just to pick up an extra shift at work so I could earn money to open my first online boutique. High school was rough… and that’s where I learned more than anything what kind of people I want in my life for adulthood. My biggest advice for those of you who are younger, trust your gut. Once I got to college is when I really found myself and who I wanted to be.

HOW I GOT STARTED ONLINE

That brings me to how I got started in this crazy online world. In 2012 I opened an online boutique which was then www.jennaleeann.com. Needless to say it didn’t work out, which I’m not too surprised because I didn’t yet have any experience in the fashion world or business world! The year I opened my store, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and less than a year later he passed away. It definitely wasn’t the right time to start a business, but we were told he would have at least 5 more years so how was I supposed to know!? Him and I were SO close. I used to sit on his lap on his recliner while we watched the western shows. We used to go out to eat together all of the time. My family were the only people who ALWAYS had my back no matter what my decisions are, but my Dad more than anything was always by my side. He’s the one who told me to open my store and just go for it because he knew what a hard worker I was. My blog started at the same time originally as a place to style the clothes from my store. A few months after my Dad passed away I decided to close down my store and focus on my blog. It was less work at the time and I needed to focus on finishing school. I then got my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management. 7 years worth of OOTD’s later, here we are. www.jennaleeann.com became the blog and I now own a better and much more successful online boutique which is www.shopjennaleeann.com . My blog has transformed into not only fashion, but just anything I want to share with you guys. You can find food recipes, beauty tips, and motivational help on here.

THE STRUGGLE WAS REAL

My junior year of college I did an internship at Michael Kors HQ in New York, NY. At the time, almost all fashion internships were unpaid. I pretty much lived off of $1 pizza. After college, I worked retail management at Nordstrom and I was so focused on climbing the ladder, but it made me put my blog on hold. I was struggling trying to do photoshoots on my very little off time on top of trying to get sleep. In Fall 2017 I decided to leave that job and pursue a less stressful and more work/life balance job so that I could focus on my blog and opening up my online boutique on my off time (which I didn’t have much of working in retail management). A lot of people were worried and questioned my choice because I was giving up a good salary and future career to chase something that could fail. Here we are almost two years later and my blog and boutique are both growing steadily!

ONLINE BOUTIQUE

As far as my online boutique goes, Jenna LeeAnn Boutique offers women’s clothing with great quality at a great price. We opened in November 2018 online and we participate in pop up shops around Connecticut. This store has always been my absolute dream. If I did this for a living, I would be the happiest girl in the world! All styles are hand-picked by me as I walk through thousands of vendors at the largest trade show in America. I make sure the clothing is good quality before I buy it for the store, mostly because I hate having to wear camis under clothes just because they’re too see through. You won’t experience cheap quality with my store! I never want a customer to receive a product that is not what they expected. If you are interested in opening your own online boutique, I put together a video series and a blog post to help you –> How To: Open An Online Store [ VIDEO SERIES ] . As always, you’re welcome to ask me questions because I know how hard and scary it is to open up your own store! Here are some photos of me styling our product:

OUTSIDE OF THE ONLINE WORLD

Let’s be real, the online world takes up a LOT of my time. Besides the online world, you will find me cuddling my mini long-haired dachshund Oscar, trying out new breweries with my boyfriend Chris and probably eating some sort of pasta. If I’m not doing a pop up shop on the weekend or doing a photoshoot with fellow CT blogger Lauren (check out her blog www.itsluluprice.com), I’m with Chris doing random stuff! Him and I are literally best friends so even if we’re just laying down watching TV all day, we enjoy it. If you were to follow us around, you would see we are both huge jokesters so we are probably trying to make each other laugh most hours of the day. We also both run businesses aside from our day jobs so we both understand the hustle and are there for each other when needed. I also love hanging out with my friends. We’re usually also going to breweries,  having game night, or just long late night chats! Sunday mornings are always set aside for family time. My family and I make it a point to meet for breakfast every Sunday morning and we’ve kept this tradition for over 10 years! I LOVE seeing my nephew because he’s seriously just so cute and lovable. My family and I are extremely close and I consider them all my best friends as well. I literally call my Mom every single day and talk to her for almost an hour and it’s mostly her listening to me vent about my day (THANKS MOM LOVE YOU). We are a traditional Italian family who will always put each other first.

SOME THINGS I LOVE

OSCAR, Pasta, Matcha lattes, Blog & Boutique, Shopping, Boyfriend, Family, Friends, Driving, Beach, Breweries, Traveling, Doing nothing, Podcasts, Law of Attraction, The Bachelor, Home Décor, Nice people

SOME THINGS I HATE

Negativity, Passiveness, People who don’t use their blinkers, Most food (but really, I’m the pickiest eater I know), Insects, Snakes, Scary movies, Inconsistency, Being patient, Being cold

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. I love meeting you all online and love when you come up to me in person! If you ever see me, please come say hi because it’s nice knowing there are really people on the other side of this computer screen, hahaha. If you want to see a closer look at my life, you’ll want to follow my Instagram and check out my stories. I try to post on there as much as I can! I do work a full-time job during the day, on top of running my blog and store, so as you can imagine, busy is an understatement for my life. Even though I’m so busy, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

xox

conencticut blogger CT Blogger Fashion Blogger Get to know me Jenna LeeAnn