Instagram sees influencers deliver daily inside glimpses into their life – from what they’re wearing, to what they ate, to their current surroundings. But what happens on those days when they just want to stay home, slump around the house, and take a break from it all? Add in a pregnancy to the mix, and we can imagine posting an #ootd is the last thing on their mind.
Someone who makes it all look easy though is Rozalia Russian. Despite expecting her second child in January next year, Rozalia continues to deliver regular aspirational posts to her 194K Instagram followers – including a recent outing for the launch of the CYBEX by Jeremy Scott pram collection.
Here, Husskie chats to Rozalia about juggling pregnancy with her influencer duties, shifting opportunities, and being the face of the CYBEX PRIAM pram collaboration.
What does a normal day in your life look like?
As I don’t have a 9-5 desk job, every week and every day is different. They all consist of either meetings, photo shoots, buying for my store, emails, gym, or me being a stay home mum for the day playing with Willow [Rozalia’s first child] and catching up on housework. Every morning though is the same. Willow comes running into our room for a cuddle in bed.
We all hang out in bed for a little bit having breakfast and a cup of tea. It’s such a nice and relaxing way to start the morning without having to rush out of bed and in the shower straight away.
Instagram can take up a lot of time engaging with followers, posting etc. Do you find being a mum and pregnant affects your ability to “work” on your Instagram account?
Yes, things are definitely a lot busier at the moment! I always say that it’s a full-time job being mum, and then also a full-time job running an online store via Instagram; add in the last trimester pregnancy tiredness, and it has definitely affected my work schedule. I have cut down and unfortunately knocked back a lot of amazing work opportunities, but I would rather do a smaller amount of jobs and give it 100 per cent than taking on too much and then struggling. I’ll take a few weeks off after the babies are born, but already have my first job booked six weeks post-baby – which I think will help me get motivated to get my act together and venture back out into the world after delivery.
Do you consider your posts on Instagram as “work”?
Having an online store, I do consider Instagram a great marketing tool to promote my store. When it comes to my store, everything digital and social is of course work and I really have to schedule in posts. The rest of my Instagram is just my daily outfits and me sharing things that I love.
Is there pressure to post daily?
For my online store, yes there is a lot of work and pressure to post daily to help promote the store and get it to where I want it to be. For my personal Instagram, I don’t feel pressure at all.
It all depends what’s happening in my life at that time; For example, I might have a really busy week of events and post a bunch of outfit, makeup, hair photos – so I have posted several times throughout the day. Then there are other times where I won’t post for a few days because I am catching up on work and housework and haven’t left the house for a couple of days. It’s not that exciting to post a photo of me in my trackies with my vacuum cleaner!
Have you found being pregnant has had an impact on your Instagram account – either positively or negatively?
As I am pregnant, my Instagram has changed. It currently reflects where I am in my life at the moment, and that’s Saturday nights at home with a cup of tea in my trackies. When I am not pregnant, I go out more, dress differently, and definitely work more. It’s hard to say whether it has impacted my account positivity or negativity, it’s just changed.
I have missed out on some amazing opportunities and work because I am pregnant as understandably, all brands have a target audience – many of which a pregnant lady isn’t in their vision, and that’s fine. Having said this, the mummy market is a huge one and has become so much more stylish and accessible to many mothers. I am incredibly excited to be the Australian face of the CYBEX by Jeremy Scott PRIAM collaboration, which came about after the announcement of baby Russian. Whilst I might be missing out on some campaigns and opportunities while pregnant, my pregnancy has also reopened many exciting doors for me to explore the big baby market.
Can you tell me more about the CYBEX by Jeremy Scott collaboration? Why did you feel this was the right fit for you?
CYBEX have been creating stylish but practical prams for years and years and their latest collaboration has been with the very cool Jeremy Scott, head designer of Italian fashion house Moschino. When I first heard Jeremy Scott was designing a pram for CYBEX, I knew it would be nothing short of amazing! I first got a little sneak peak a couple of months ago and I instantly fell in love.
[With the new bub] being the second baby – I wasn’t too excited about going pram shopping as I thought it would be more practical to just re-use Willow’s pram. However, when I got the call to team up with CYBEX to help them launch the new Jeremy Scott pram – I jumped at the chance! Not only was it the most stylish pram I had ever seen, I also got excited to be pushing a pram again. Like all mums, I went crazy shopping for my first child, and this second child hasn’t got as much love in the retail therapy department. This collaboration was a great opportunity for me to spoil myself and the new baby with one seriously impressive pram.
