EXCLUSIVE: ‘I was never an A-student in school,’ says SoSueMe
With her monthly readership figures sitting comfortably around the seven-digit mark, Suzanne Jackson’s status as Ireland’s top blogger is certainly secure. But, as she exclusively reveals to SHEmazing!, the 30-year-old “wasn’t an A-student in school, not by a long shot,” but she adds that she never did anything half-heartedly either.
Indeed, she attributes her sky-high profile to one thing: passion: “Blogging is one of those things that you have to love and enjoy,” she says. “Otherwise you just won’t commit to it and give it the attention it deserves.”
And aside from heaps of passion, the young businesswoman has had to really master the art of multi-tasking: after all, there’s a steady stream of blog posts to be penned, and hosting gigs to front, not to mention emails to be answered, and meetings to attend.
She smiles as she recalls recently frantically typing up her column for The Sun in the passenger seat of her car while her boyfriend, Dylan, drove her to a job. “Readers don’t see that side of the business,” she laughs.
“Some think being a fashion and beauty blogger is all about shopping for clothes and trying out new makeup. If only! My day involves a lot of long hours in front of a computer.”
Incredibly, this July marks the five-year anniversary since Suzanne uploaded her first post on SoSueMe.ie.
“It feels like a lifetime ago,” she says. “I had been thinking about starting a blog for a while at that point. I had been following a few international ones, but there didn’t seem to be any Irish ones so I thought, ‘well why don’t I set one up?’”
These days, the SoSueMe brand is a power-force to be reckoned with: she has just launched her own line of gel polishes, SOSU By Suzanne Jackson – a product which has already all-but sold out.
“I’m overwhelmed, because I never thought the gel polish collection would take off as fast as it did,” she smiles in response. “I wanted to create something that every girl needed, but yet was fun and affordable.
“I always think a nail polish finishes off a look so it seemed like the ideal product to start with.”
Still, Suzanne’s unique selling point has always been her ability to connect with her readers – a talent she retains to this day. Astonishingly, a simple post about a recent trip to Penneys, where she bought a couple of candles and some plain t-shirts, was shared on Facebook alone almost 44,000 times.
Another post about bikinis yielded almost 38,000 shares on Facebook. The numbers are staggering, but while they are now a common sight on her stats page, Suzanne takes nothing for granted.
“The one thing that always stood to me was that I kept a positive outlook on things,” she says candidly. “Bad days don’t last forever.
“That and I always knew I would find my way in life.”
Next week, SHEmazing! will be giving away an amazing hamper packed full of SoSuMe gel polishes. Worth an incredible €100, make sure to check back in for details of how you can enter and win this great prize.
