Fiona Tran: The SF Blogger and UC Berkeley Alum Making a Brand of a Name

Meet Fiona, a blogger and content creator from San Francisco, California. Outside of her blogger life, she’s a Senior at the University of California, Berkeley, studying Political Science.

Fiona shared her story with us below.

Growing up, I always loved fashion. I loved shopping, I was obsessed with the whole industry. I started doing #OOTD’s back in high school and was made fun of for taking outfit pictures in the hallway which was pretty discouraging. I was cyberbullied to the max, and I figured maybe I shouldn’t do fashion anymore so I would be taken seriously. I was always told to follow my passions and build my dream into a reality, but it was difficult when people saw me as a joke.

As a first-gen, I was pushed towards different careers like a lawyer, doctor, you know- the traditional routes. I was always fascinated by the idea of being a businesswoman, but I never thought that I would be able to integrate blogging into that. I was a jock in high school, so at that point, I was like, “why not be an olympian?”. If you can’t tell, I can be a bit ambitious with my goals and spoiler alert- my parents were not on board (not to say I wasn’t a good swimmer, fun fact- I swam for 13 years!).

Fast forward to college, I felt like the world was suddenly my oyster because I wasn’t going to be around the same group of people anymore. I was going to be around a world of opportunity, so that’s when I chose to create Official Fiona Tran. I’m terrible with coming up with clever names and titles, but given my experiences, I figured, “what better brand to put out there, than my own?”. So in May of 2018, I launched my blog.

I was excited to bring my website to life, even though I had no clue what I was doing or how to promote it and have it grow. A few months after I launched my blog, I landed my first huge partnership with my dream brand, Abercrombie & Fitch. Yes I know, Abercrombie? I have no shame in saying that to this day since I was 13, I absolutely love Abercrombie’s clothes. It was such an exciting time from wearing the brand as a kid, to working my first job at the retail store, to being sponsored by them. This was such an eye-opening moment for me because I was like, “HOLY SH*IT. I really am sponsored by Abercrombie & Fitch. A brand everyone knows and either loves or thinks is too old school, BUT STILL.”. This was such a monumental moment in my career because I began to take my blog and Instagram more seriously. I was able to spy the opportunity. I was able to overcome judgment and pursue my passions while establishing my own community. Whoever wanted to be there could, and who didn’t could just unfollow.

Fast forward to today, I’ve been able to continue working with numerous well-known brands such as Under Armour, Stitch Fix, Hint Water, YogaWorks, Daniel Wellington, and more. It has been a whirlwind, and I’m really excited to see where my blog and passion for content creation takes me. My goal, in the long run, is to establish a community for content creators to support each other and motivate individuals to pursue their dreams, even if other people keep saying “NO” because ultimately, the only thing that matters is you saying “YES”.

If you’re interested in following my journey, you can follow me on @fionafkntran on Instagram or check out my blog on officialfionatran.com