nyc diaries | finding inspiration again, celebrating my birthday in nyc

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

foreign I figured I would just film a week or two in my life about to head out to event and then I'm heading Upstate just for a few days with some friends to celebrate my birthday a little early which I'm so excited about but as usual I'm running late so I'm gonna get changed see y'all on the other side I think we go got a little fit on and my Uber's here because I'm about to head out to a exciting lunch with outset which is really amazing Beauty brand and Scarlett Johansson let's go check it out I'm excited awesome it's a dry oil I was terrified of trying any oil because like I said my skin is acne prone the Sun is just a candid Hogs thank you so much thank you I just wanna hello your girl is 26.

I'm so excited to have another year of life one thing that I am really proud of and shocked by is I ran 11 miles today that is not something I do I'm like our bodies are so amazing and we are capable of so much more than we let ourselves believe I have not run more than five miles in about 10 years in like high school cross country literally 10 years ago and I just ran 11 and I'm like fine like what our bodies are so cool started running I was like I'm gonna run three miles it was a beautiful day the Sun was shining there's a lot of people out and about the energy was good I was like you know what screw it I'm gonna try to go for five miles I don't run five miles in years got to five miles I was like let's keep going let's go to six let's go to seven I was going at like a 9 15 Pace I blew my own mind and not saying this to like took my little horn I'm saying like your brain is so powerful the whole mind over matter is so accurate obviously you know I work out so I have a level of Fitness but I'm not running 11 miles ever it was just such a testament of like we are capable of so much more than we let ourselves believe and it was just like a very cool way to be like ah a new year I made it to 26.

it is crazy I am so grateful for all of you guys out there that have been on this journey with me I'm making making videos consistently since I was 19. and this past year the Year of being 25 was without a doubt the craziest year of my life like just insane so much growth so many experiences so many challenges it was a journey to say the least I feel like everybody talks about the post-grad confusion of like what do I do we need to be talking more about mid kind of late-ish 20s that's when life gets really funky it's this weird season where it's like you're kind of expected to know what we want to do but there's so many big questions of like do I want to stick in this career path like this is kind of the time to change it up like where do I want to be geographically now normal for people to be getting married it's still a bit young but I have friends with husbands and babies and mortgages definitely an interesting age and I'm really excited for this year I have a lot of hopes and goals and dreams I really want to create content that's more just like out of the box you know maybe challenges in the sense of like I love that I like hiked alone at the start of the year and like challenged myself to see if I could like be alone with myself for that long kind of a silent Retreat and you know camp and the whole deal so I feel like this year is definitely going to be a year of self-exploration trying to figure out what this next chapter of Life of my late 20s might look like I'd love to find love maybe potentially the thought of like being in a committed relationship kind of freaks me out like I love being a lone agent and getting to like meet a bunch of different people but that would be really not out there it's a universe a little manifestation if you will I'm excited to keep learning and growing and hopefully traveling and meeting cool people meeting you guys so I'm really excited for 26.

so I'm having some friends over ordering some Persian food which is my favorite that's what I grew up on and just having a bunch of people over for drinks we'll probably go out dancing which is my favorite I just want to see all the people I care about a little sweeter than expected um I will turn it down hey y'all how are we doing I wanted to take a second to thank today's sponsors nay why currently wearing their set and it is so comfortable there's a good chance you created them from their Berry zero collection that went pretty viral because it is so insanely soft and can fit a bunch of different body types it's quite thin while also providing support they specialize in making comfortable loungewear underwear athleisure and they focus too on quality over quantity with a more sustainable approach using Fabrics like tinsel which I love to create some other pieces so what is incredible about this for one is that it stretches to adapt to a bunch of different body types my body fluctuates so much and it's really nice to have that go-to set that is just always going to be so comfortable fits so well feel very lightweight and honestly like buttery soft on my body well yeah give me a little bit of support I wear this a lot as just like a loungewear set around the house but this bra is super cute and I love how long it goes so I sometimes wear as a crop top underneath like a little blazer moment or a little Jack kit especially in the summertime with like little cropped shorts as long as you're within those listed sizes on their website they will fit you so well and so comfortably and it comes in a wide range of colors I actually have another color let me show you guys a little haul moment here A bunch of different offerings as well on their website like boxes and briefs like this little comfy pair here I'm obsessed with this colorway as well like so I of course link this all down below thanks again to Nay for sponsoring this video and uh let's go let's work out Jasmine she is a Creator she does a lot of other really cool things but I have known Jasmine for so many years we took classes together in San Diego we went to the same tiny little school and she was my bud back in the day and she moved here which is so fun because no one else from my University moved to New York it's crazy it's literally just like the two of us I think so I'm really excited to see her so anytime get changed and head out so cute here oh what do we do we got this we got this little stuff here she has a scar it kind of reminds me of the girly from Nightmare Before Christmas with all her stitches dad I think it's too short we just went shopping oh I feel so good I know Jasmine longer than I know anybody in New York oh you know we go way back actually you've seen right we got it elbow padding yeah are they so fun I want to get like some like kids gems with like a gold piece and like some diamonds don't look at my nails and then these are fun how could I forget look at yeah he's so cute it's a little clown where you put the egg in his head and then in his little hat you put salt and you then you just oh how's it going it's such a lovely little day with Jasmine we hit up the Dumbo flea market got some great Goods as you saw here I'm actually about to head out to a concert I've been trying to like get back to the things in my life that have like continuously brought me for the most joy throughout different seasons and one of those is live music if you follow me on Instagram you probably see I feel like I'm over posting songs that I'm excited about or new artists on my story and I love making Spotify playlists I have a lot of themed Spotify playlists here in need I've been like getting back to going to a lot of different shows um Kevin morby fidlar godspeed You black Emperor just like a cool story rock band and I'm going to sclcd sound system tonight which is just like a New York classic so I'm very excited about that it's just one of those things that will always bring me so much joy I want to keep sharing about what's going on in Iran just to keep it top of mind so if you're not exactly sure what's going on there are a bunch of protests that broke out after this 22 year old Masa Amani was taken by the morality police in Iran for essentially not having proper head coverings which is enforced there by law essentially instead of dying in the hands of the morality police for just showing her hair as a woman it is baffling and so just infuriating the officers are known for being extremely rough with women or deemed to violate the theocracy's you know religious dress code essentially just like the hijab the hair covering there was news that the Morelli piece are like being closed down in Iran but it seems like it's potentially still a publicity stunt I'm getting back into my feminist texts these days um a few recommendations would be invisible women of the beauty myth and I just read the seven necessary sins for girls and women there's a bunch of really helpful stats which I think are important to keep top of mind so important to know what's going on globally but also here in the states there's a lot of room for improvement so women in the US are still earning about 30 less than men and the pay Gap increases with age while 100 54.3 of the US Workforce they only hold 35 of senior positions in companies here in the US there's a lot of room for improvement I think it's really globally as well as paying attention in your own country for bills that are being passed and laws that is kind of one of the main ways to hopefully enact change on that note my brain is a little all over the place I'm drinking a Celsius this is like my crack these days I'm gonna go head out to LCD Soundsystem thank you journaling a ton going through these different question cards let me bring you guys a little closer I think I've been feeling very creatively uninspired for a very long time true creativity that you've been able to like take time and roommate on and so I woke up this morning and I was like let's combat that I'm a sucker for question marks this one is the and self Edition by the cut I can like what's an impression I make which I know is false am I envious of and why when do I feel most alive and what about it makes me feel that way if I'm the average of the people I spend the most time with describe who I am so that card which I've heard this statement before definitely caught my attention I was like beyond the people I'm spending my time with what else am I spending my time on some of my like biggest Inspirations are creators there's a lot of people that I really look up to and I want to derive inspiration from them moving forward as I kind of figure out what I'm doing one thing with working social media which I say only because I think it's relevant for those of course who are working on social media as well as with other jobs the approach that is expected is often rewarded is the one where you're just like pumping out content on like three to four different platforms as much as humanly possible in the hopes of virality and it's just kind of this like endless machine that needs to be fed and the quicker you feed it the more it will like reward you back which strips away creativity and depth and the ability to like take time to really like research and pour time into a project I think the people I admire most are the ones who take a step back and do that with that in mind I just made this long ass journal page of creators I admire I'm going to read off their names um so shout out to all these people I have a zoo back and Sorella more they're just like the most empowered badass women they know challenging themselves they're what they're capable of exploring really unique parts of the world of celebrating aging being a woman but in a very like empowered and strong way which I'm here for the soft girl era and I also just really admire the people who are like strong and push themselves while being both I also wrote down Moya and Leah field notes shout out my gals my one of more like soft content content very beautiful and aesthetic and they feel very raw and genuine and comforting and I'm enjoying their explorations of life in their 20s so yes Theory I've loved them for a while I finally met a lot of them now and they're really great in person vanelli Nelly is an Instagram gal she's the only one I added that's an Instagram person primarily just has the most incredible style and aesthetic and she puts so much effort and thought into like what she creates okay also I wrote down Nathaniel Drew Casey neistat Jack Edwards so like if I was the average of the five people that I maybe watched the most or spend the most time with on social media these are some of those people that I would want to be within that it's like 40 degrees Fahrenheit I am headed to a workout class Bailey Brown who does YouTube videos is having a pilates class and I've never really done Pilates so I'm very excited to try it out and if you do YouTube workout videos I feel like those people become your your besties and they just don't know it I've done this gal to five minute but routine like every day for like two years so I'm like big fan um I'm like she's been in my living room many a morning my favorite person to wake up hi everyone excited to be good everyone it's 11 11 make a wish we just finished our workout Club workouts whenever we travel together for like so many years I'm about to head out to Soho to meet Josh my friend who's an amazing photographer that's helping me shoot some content and I have to come back and edit it's just classic work you do have a lot to do so let's go I'm wool frazzled I don't mind growing