Social media has always played a big role in bringing people together and allowing them to enjoy varying forms of entertainment including music, poetry, art and even fashion. This week a Guyanese teen had everyone in awe as she created two complete outfits made entirely from old newspapers.

What started out as a social media challenge saw hundreds of persons flocking to the social media pages of Julia Williams. Speaking with The Buzz,  Julia said that she never expected the images would have gotten that much attention or even love.

“I saw a post that had a girl with newspaper around her and she captioned the picture new challenge so I usually post funny content to YouTube and Facebook so I thought it would have been another hilarious bit of content I would be posting,” Julia said.  “So I posted asking my followers if I should do the challenge and it got to 250 comments quite fast and so I decided to go for it. So the next day I started and I got the newspaper, the night before I got the idea of how I would do it.”

The young content creator stated that she get the idea for the designs from some sketches that she had made several years ago while she was perusing design and fashion, adding that she wanted her designs to be different than the one she had seen and from any other person’s designs because she likes standing out and wanted her audience and viewers to be in awe of her creation. She said that her background in designing as well as her ‘wild and creative’ imagination helped her throughout the process.

Further, Julia stated that getting the designs she wanted to use was the easy part as actually putting together the newspaper and trying to get them to fall in the perfect positions as she would have wanted proved to be a little tougher than she would have anticipated. She stated that at one point, she was confused on how to actually put the pieces together and so she made her way to YouTube to seek guidance on a way forward.

“The first design that came to mind was to do a pleated skirt, so the next day I got my newspaper and decided to start. I thought I had it all planned out but I then realised that I didn’t know what I was doing so I went to YouTube for help,”she said.  “When I finished the skirt, I started the top. It took me more than an hour. It took me so long that I almost cried and my back was aching but finally after another two hours the entire outfit was completed and I was satisfied.”

She stated that although she was satisfied she wanted to make the outfit a bit more extravagant and so the next afternoon after work she decided to redo the pleated skirt which took another three hours. She said she then did the photoshoot to display her creations in her bedroom. Julia noted that the outfits were made in its entirety with newspapers and glue and that she used staples and paperclips to secure the outfit on her body.

Julia stated that she would advise other creatives, especially in this time where social media is the main means of information transfer, to be their selves and try not to copy others, make it as authentic as possible, and let your idea speak your name. She further said “You should not think outside the box, rather act like there is no box- just let your imagination run free. You’ll surprise yourself and others with the endless abilities you possess.”