Developing your personal style takes years of practice and not caring about what other people think. It shouldn’t be hard, but for whatever reason it is. It can be hard to wear what you love when it’s out of style or even when it becomes trendy because then everyone else is wearing the same thing. I struggled with finding my personal style for fourteen years, up until freshman year of high school when I was active on Tumblr and starting becoming more interested in the ‘90s.

Your personal style should be about what you love and what you feel comfortable in. It doesn’t matter if it’s trendy or out of style; if you love it then it’s perfect! Just do what you did when you were little and didn’t care about what other people thought of your mix-matched socks and three bows in your hair.

For many of us, we lost our sense of personal style in middle and high school. We wanted to blend in by wearing tight Abercrombie shirts, Juicy tracksuits, designer jeans, and Converse. We put away our favorite Barbie shirt because Barbie was no longer cool and we pretended to be someone we’re not.

Your personal style should be an extension and reflection of yourself. It should show off your personality, likes and dislikes, and make you feel amazing. In order to do this, you need to think about a few things:

• What types of clothes do I like to wear? Do I like wearing skirts, pants, dresses, etc?
• What clothes make you feel happy?
• What clothing items can’t you live without?
• What decade speaks to you?
• What does your favorite character wear?
• Do I feel confident in this?

When I started cultivating my personal style, these are the questions I asked myself. I don’t really like wearing pants, so I bought mostly dresses. I thought about what I felt the most comfortable in, what my favorite items in my closet were, and how I felt in them. I then thought about my favorite decade, the ‘90s, and what trends I wanted to wear (high waisted everything please and thank you). I’m also very inspired by what fictional characters wear, so I turned to my favorites Kat Stratford, Annie Wilson, Serena Van Der Woodson, and Rachel Greene for inspiration. Tumblr, Pinterest and candid pictures of celebrities also helped me decide what kinds of things I liked. I made mood boards and a list of the styles I wanted when I went thrifting.

As you get more confident in your personal style, you can take more risks. I started wearing vintage dresses I’d never seen anyone wear before which was a big step in building my wardrobe. No one cared, and if they did, they complemented the dress. I started thrifting more and feeling more confident.

Today I buy what I like. If I like it on the rack, I try it on. I still look to my favorite characters for inspiration (like Kat Stratford’s classic leather jacket) but I don’t buy anything just because it’s trendy.

It can be hard to not focus on trends, but if you only buy fast fashion, you’ll never like anything in your closet. Buy what you like and if it happens to be trendy, that’s great.

What are your favorite pieces in your closet? Has it been hard to be confident in your personal style?