Fashion GorJess Blog

Life is much easier as a 4 year old

My four year old daughter asked me something very intriguing a few weeks ago, "Mummy, what are you going to be when you grow up?" I sort of stuttered at the answer and said, "I am grown up," to which she responded, "Yesssss... SO what are you going to be? I am going to be a real princess!" Although a very innocent question from a very inquisitive little girl, it really got me thinking.

An article on me in the Daily Mail YOU Magazine in 2012

When I was younger I always dreamed by the age of 27 I would be a famous television presenter or just really well known for something. Now I feel like the phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none" was specifically coined for me!

Although I studied for five years and received a Masters in Journalism, I graduated smack-bang in the middle of the recession and watched my journalism career deteriorate before it began! I finished in the Galway Advertiser and as a means to an end, I started working in Brown Thomas as a make-up artist for Laura Mercier. Although I had no makeup experience, I am a quick learner and before I knew it I had landed a dream job working for MAC. I worked here for two and a half years, and as much as I loved the makeup and the girls I worked with, there was always a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that said this just wasn't my dream. At the time I was also teaching dance classes in-between shifts and writing freelance articles for a newspaper which shortly closed down and again, left me feeling completely lost in my career path.


It was then I started applying for PR jobs, having worked in promotions since a teenager and being quite a 'people person' I felt like it might be a good direction for me. I left my full time job in MAC and started as an intern for H+A Marketing and PR, which wasn't easy considering I have student loans to pay and a child to support but I realised that this was the only way I was going to gain experience. So I worked unpaid Monday to Friday and kept my MAC job on a Saturday. After four months I was hired as a PR Consultant and two years later, I am still there. However, I haven't gone all '9 to 5' and still work as a freelance make-up artist at weekends. I guess I have just become used to a life of working two or three jobs to make ends meet, and a part of me thinks I will always be a person who needs to be kept busy 24/7,

Don't even get me started on trying to keep up appearances on top of everything else! As well as worrying about job juggling and family time - there is the added pressure of clean eating and working out. So, just when the week isn't jam-packed enough, I try to fit in 3-4 classes of either TRX, kettlebells or spinning. And even at this, I was told I need to be introducing more cardio into my routine... isn't running around the place seven days a week enough cardio for one person? Obviously not...


Of course, someday I dream of having one job so that I get to spend all my free time with my family. My head is like a never ending rolling schedule that never seems to rest, if anything it gets worse at night when I finally try to wind down. Also, there is the complication of not really knowing who or what I am. My passion for writing and fashion combined with my experience and skills in make-up and Public Relations will have to create a perfect job for me someday, right?

To be completely honest, fashion and writing are what drive me and are the two things combined that take me to my happy place. 


It pretty much summed it up last weekend, I was in Edinburgh with my girlfriends for a well needed break away. Some guy was asking us what we did for a living, one of the girls replied, 'scientist,' the next, 'accountant', 'hairdresser'.... When he asked me, the girls all blurted out a different profession and I wasn't sure whether that should make me feel really special and blessed to have been able to say I can do so many things... or just appear to be the most indecisive person in the world.

Until I figure this out, I am just going to carry on being me...

Enjoying time with the girls in Edinburgh