My love of clothes is newly acquired.

I started truly caring about my fashion sense around sophomore year of high school. It was due to my spark of interest in Beauty Gurus and Fashion Vloggers on YouTube.

Before I was put on to the wonderful world of YouTube I was an avid magazine buyer. I have so many old issues of Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Nylon lying around at home. I loved reading them but the biggest problem that I had with the magazine I bought is I couldn't really relate to them.

They didn't exactly cater to my dark skin tone or my coarse hair. So, I often skipped over the beauty and hair sections of the magazine. I also didn't exactly understand the fashion. I didn't think that the way that they styled clothing was practical enough to wear it in real life. Also, they often picked out clothes that I couldn't afford at the time.

I didn't really think too much of it in middle school but once high school rolled around I lost interest quickly. So, I kicked them to the curb.

I began to look for inspiration elsewhere, so randomly I stumbled upon a different side of YouTube that I hadn't seen before.

I was actually trying to find a D.I.Y for high waisted shorts. They were a staple pair of my teenage wardrobe that was starting to make its way back into fashion when I was in high school. But they weren't too popular to the point that I could get them for the cheap at Forever 21 or H&M. So, I stumbled onto this tutorial.

This is the first fashion video that I watched on YouTube. And, it's quite informative at that. But, the most interesting part of the video to me was that she mentioned getting the old jeans from Goodwill.

Thrifting never really came up in my mind before. I just got all my clothes from the mall and that was that. But, it was this video that brought the idea up so I ran with it.

Nothing has been the same (concerning my clothes) since then.

I love the feeling I get when I find a gem at the thrift store. It's the perfect place to find whatever you want, literally. And (my favorite part) everything's extremely cheap. Once I began thrifting, getting a shirt worth fifteen dollars and ninety nine cents from a mall store seemed unnecessary.

Every clothing piece at the thrift store is a wash away from being a new fave.

Shopping at the thrift store helped me develop my own sense of style as well. I was no longer shopping at the same places everyone else was shopping and wearing the same clothes that everyone else was wearing. The thrift store is filled with unique pieces that can be mixed and matched any way that you see fit. And, you can bet that no one will own the same piece that you do.

I would recommend thrifting to anybody and everybody. It completely changed the way that I saw clothing and the way that I saw fashion in general. I may have a bit more clothes than I should have-

But I saved a ton of money in the four+ years that I've been thrifting. So, if you've been thinking about going thrifting consider this the sign you've been looking for.

I promise you won't regret it.