I first met this adorable sister duo, Charlotte and Sophie Bickley of Yin2MyYang. last fall, at a Net-a-Porter influencer event at Instagram’s NYC headquarters.
Of course, I started following them immediately. I appreciate their fun sense of style, their natural beauty, and I always stay engaged because of their ability to transform themselves – fashion chameleons if you will. Without sounding like a complete stalker, my appreciation goes beyond their style. Since day one, they have always stayed engaged with their followers. They’re responsive and down to earth, and that is something you don’t always see with other influencers. I also have a sister who I love and adore, so seeing these two sisters kill it is heartwarming…relatable…
I had the pleasure of posing a Q & A with to this dynamic duo and am excited to share their thoughtful and valuable responses with you.
How did you begin as bloggers?
Sophie and Charlotte: When we started our blog we thought it would just be a passion project. At the time we didn’t really have any specific career paths that we definitely wanted to follow. We had both done fashion PR internships over the summers during college and during our time at these internships, we saw the birth of blogging and started learning more and more about what blogging, and fashion blogging, in particular, was. We loved the idea of being able to express our style through a platform like this and help people with their own style choices. We thought we had a decent chance of being successful as bloggers, as we have always considered ourselves to both have an innate fashion sense. When some people seemed to struggle with putting together outfits, we found that it came naturally to us and so we figured we would do something about it.
In addition, we always wanted to do something together as sisters, and while we are very different, our passion for fashion/ style is one thing that we do have in common. We decided a blog would be a great way to showcase this and showcase our differences in style too. When we initially launched in 2016, this was just for fun & to inspire others. We never realized it would be our full-time job three years down the line!
When it comes to blogging, how do you manage the division of labor – who does what?
S & C: The roles that we each play when it comes to the blog have definitely evolved since our launch in 2016. Sophie used to focus more on the “business” side of our blog, i.e. responding to emails and dealing with collaborations with brands, etc. At this time, Charlotte was handling more of the creative aspects of the blog, making sure our blog and Instagram were both aesthetically pleasing.
SThree years later, we definitely both share an equal amount of the work and have figured out who needs to handle what duty and when. It’s definitely a balancing act, but we have learned to figure it out. We have learned to work together better as a team, as we do have to make most of these decisions together. In addition, we now have our beloved assistant, Kenny, who helps us with a variety of duties, especially since there has been such a growth in the options of reaching our audience on Instagram. We really make it a priority to stay engaged with our followers, making sure we answer all of their comments and DMs, to maintain that ever so important relationship. At the end of the day, being successful as influencers is all about how engaged our followers are with us and we love our relationship with them so much.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment to date?
S & C: Our greatest accomplishment to date is definitely being able to step out of the box of just being fashion influencers who share content on our Instagram and do collaborations with brands. It’s been so amazing to see how many people believe in us, past just being influencers posting on our website and Instagram. We are so proud to say that we now serve as editors-at-large for The Daily Front Row and do event planning for Bumble. These two additional opportunities have provided us with other skills we would not have learned if we were solely working as influencers and we are so grateful that we were approached by both Bumble and The Daily Front Row to fulfill these roles.4
To what do you attribute your success? If you had to give advice to an up and coming blogger, what would it be?
S & C: In terms of success, we attribute a lot of it, surprisingly, to the luck and timing of becoming influencers during an era where the influencer industry was taking a turn in the sense that brands were focused more on “micro-influencers” who may have a smaller following than other followers, but a very engaged audience. At the end of the day, as we mentioned above, making sure our audience feels engaged is one of the most important parts of our jobs. This is also, at the time when we started something that brands really wanted to see. Since our launch of the blog, we have found that our following has always remained so loyal to us. We would be nothing without them and we love them so much and they definitely play a huge role in our success.
In addition, we think our concept of the blog has helped us with our success. We saw a niche in the influencer world in the sense that we are sisters, who have completely different looks and styles. Yes, we had seen several twin bloggers, sister bloggers who look alike, and best friend bloggers, but we had not seen two stylish sisters on Instagram who truly were so yin and yang, but also offered two different styles. This is essentially how we ended up creating the name of our blog, based quite literally off the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang, opposite/contrasting forces in the universe that come together and make something beautiful/complement each other.
We felt like this concept opened the door for three potential audiences, instead of just one, 1) the girl who identifies with Charlotte 2) the girl who identifies with Sophie 3) the girl who identifies with both of us with different styles and looks, or maybe one day can identify more with Sophie and the next identify more with Charlotte. It’s been interesting to see how this concept has played out but we definitely attribute it to our success.
In terms of the advice we have for any aspiring future bloggers, this is actually quite a hard question that we have been asked a lot lately and have been struggling to find the appropriate answer. As we mentioned above, some of the success of our blog we attribute to timing and the luck we had of landing into the industry during a time where influencers like us were becoming a popular trend for brand collaborations, etc. To future bloggers, we would say that because the market is already so saturated with bloggers/influencers, especially in fashion, it is very important to find a specific niche that makes you stand out from everyone else and that makes you unique to other bloggers.
We know that finding a niche led to our success and growth because it was something different that people had not seen before. Even though that advice might be a little discouraging and intimidating, we think that, no matter what, any aspiring blogger should pursue their dreams but make sure they have realistic expectations when it comes to how hard it can be nowadays, because of how many bloggers there are, to really grow. That’s 100 percent not to say that it cannot be done, it is just our honest advice.
Finally, our last piece of advice would be to make sure you are not comparing yourself to other bloggers. Stay as authentic and true to yourself. We always make sure to be very real with our audience and find that our followers really value that in us. It’s a fact that followers can see through non-authenticity. One of the most attractive traits for a blogger’s audience is that blogger, or bloggers in our case, are real, open, authentic, unique, and honest with their followers
You are the cutest sister duo and you both have such a unique sense of style. Who are your style icons?
S & C: Why thank you so much! Love hearing that ☺ We truly are so lucky that we get to work together in this & build this together. This may sound odd, but as for Sophie she finds style inspiration through a range of style icons, one day her style icon could be Miley Cyrus and then the next day it could be Kate Middleton. As for Charlotte, she knows what she wants…always. With a straight and simple answer, her style icon is model/influencer, Elsa Holsk.
Who are your go-to designers for day, night and denim?
Sophie’s answer:
Day – Zara
Night – (this depends on what night activity I am doing) House of Harlow 1960 by Nicole Richie because she has a range of pieces that are casual and fancy
Denim – GRLFRND Denim (this we both agree on)
Charlotte’s answer:
Day – Cotton Citizen
Night – Attico
Denim – GRLFRND Denim (this we both agree on)
What are your 5 must-have beauty products?
We have the same dermatologist so some of these might overlap ☺
Sophie’s answer:
Dr. Dennis Gross facial wash
Dr. Dennis Gross exfoliating moisturizer
Origin’s Gin Zing Energy-Boosting Moisturizer
Hoola Bronzer
City Lips Lip Plumper
Charlotte’s answer:
Dr. Dennis Gross facial wash
Dr. Dennis Gross exfoliating moisturizer
Caudalie Beauty Elixir
Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow Foundation
Burt’s Bees Lip Balm
What do you never leave home without?
Sophie’s answer:
City Lips Lip Plumper
Charlotte’s answer:
Kiehl’s Mint Lip Balm
Whose older? Does it matter?
S & C: This is a question that we ALWAYS get from people…except in the rare case where people think that we are fraternal twins. Sophie is older, by two years. She will be turning 27 on October 21st and Charlotte was just 25 on September 11th. It’s funny because people often guess the opposite. We definitely find that it doesn’t matter who is older as we both can speak to a large range of ages despite our own ages (mostly ages 18-35). Also, we are not that far apart in our ages which also makes it matter less.
What’s your number 1 beauty tip?
Sophie’s answer:
Less is more, I love to be natural in my beauty and usually leave the house with no makeup and only moisturizer on my face. Moisturizing is very important. However, when I do wear makeup, which I love to do sometimes, one major tip of mine would be to always make sure every inch of makeup is off. Also using a moisturizer with SPF/sunscreen at the beach even if you want to get tan! Skincare is so important.
Charlotte’s answer:
Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize.
Favorite restaurant? Shopping haunt? Day spa? Travel destination?
Sophie’s answer:
Favorite restaurant – Toloache (downtown location) – best spicy margs
Shopping haunt – mine is Topshop in Soho & online we will both agree on shopbop.com
Day spa – my gym, the Equinox, has all the spa things I need, I do love Heyday for facials though
Travel destination – London
Charlotte’s answer:
Favorite restaurant – Sadelle’s
Shopping haunt – mine is Forty Five Ten in the new Hudson Yards & online we will both agree shopbop.com
Day spa – Joanna Vargas
Travel destination – Capri
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