Meet our Creator of the month: Sam and Liz from The Pretty Life Girls
If you have a sister, you already know it’s like having a built-in best friend for life. Sam and Liz are three years apart, and that’s probably because three years without each other was long enough. The sisters are inseparable and have the sweetest relationship.
Both sisters live in Utah and are just a short drive away from each other. Liz is the oldest and a mother of two; Sam is the younger sister and a mother of three. While many creators struggle to balance family and work, these sisters say that at some point it all meshes together and the business becomes a family business.
Since starting their blog The Pretty Life Girls, Sam and Liz have done television interviews, written books, and developed several brand partnerships. I had the pleasure of meeting them over a zoom call. Here is a little what they had to say about their sisterhood and their blog.
Who came up with the idea to start a blog?
Liz: We started getting into blogs in the early 2000s when the blogger boom first happened. We started our own blog originally as a style blog, where we showed outfits from our necks down because we didn’t want to be models.
Sam: We followed a lot of fashion bloggers who would do posts on “affordable fashion,” except they were showing outfits from Nordstrom which weren't very affordable.
What made y’all decide to do the blog together instead of each having your own? Liz: I was living across the country, so this gave us something to do together. In a way, doing it together allowed us more freedom because we each had someone to help carry the load
Sam: Either of us alone by ourselves would have been too insecure and terrified to do stuff alone. We have friends who are bloggers and we see how hard they work and it really helps that we get to carry the load together.
Who was the more creative sister growing up?
Sam: I would say Liz! In school, if you needed help with campaign posters, Liz was the person to ask because she was so good at spitting out catchy slogans. Also, Liz is the big sister so she’s always known what is cool.
How do you balance work and being a mom? Sam: Balance is non-existent. I fit in work during nap time. I try to have my computer with me all day so that I can open it whenever I get some free time.
Liz: Our kids are used to it. The blog predates them so they don’t know anything else. They’re used to being put in photos and being on set. The blog is a part of our family’s DNA. And our girls love the blog! They are so creative and have a real eye for things. They tell us all the time they want to be Pretty Life Girls.
What advice would you give creators who are considering partnering with someone like this?
Sam: We have different personalities which works well for us sometimes, but also sometimes makes us clash. It’s important to agree that your relationship always comes first. Your relationship is so much more important than the money and success. The blog is just an embellishment to our relationship, it's not what makes it.
How has the blog grown since first starting? Liz: The content in general. When we first started in DIY there were people we really admired and for a while, it felt like we were looking at what they were doing to see what we should do next. I don’t know when it stopped, but we started doing what we wanted instead. We stopped trying to parrot people and gave up the rat race of doing whatever was trending. That’s when we got our big breaks from our own ideas and started becoming more selective about what we do.
Sam: Some of being more selective had to do with our families growing. For the longest time we ran the blog as a hobby rather than a business, but once it started competing with our family time, we had to become more thoughtful about what we were doing.
What was your biggest milestone in your blogger career that made you feel like you really made it?
Sam: I’m answering this for Liz. Have you seen ‘Making It’ the TV show on NBC? This was a moment where everything Liz had done in her life came together. Liz got her Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and her Master's Degree in Technical Communication and had been doing this blog. She had just moved to NYC and was working at Abrahms, a Big 10 publisher. She got placed in the craft department editing craft books when NBC came to Abrahms looking for an author for a book based on their new popular craft show, and they picked Liz to be the ghost writer! So Liz wrote The Making It Guide To Crafting for NBC and a huge publishing company. It felt like destiny because everything she had done prepared her for that and the blog was all part of it.
Liz: I could not have done it without Sam. We had to develop and make all the projects. Then we had to spend a week shooting and writing. Then when the book came out the publishing company let us take ownership. And our experience writing that book opened the door for us to write our own book, DIY Guide to Tie Dye Style the basics & WAY beyond.
How has Upstyle helped your blog?
Sam: Whenever we’re in the newsletter we get hundreds of page views.
Liz: One time we were featured and the funniest thing happened. One of the projects you shared was some shoes we made with iron on transfer paper. The project had been on our site forever and no one commented on it. Then when you shared it, people kept commenting on our post saying the shoes were fake, that we bought them like that, and that there’s no way we could’ve made them. There were alot of comments and our post got so many views because of it. So we decided to remake them to show everyone that it really was DIY and not fake.
Sam: You need to go look at this. We called it Shoe Gate. We incorporated comments and pictures to really get people interested.
Liz: It ended up being great for engagement on our blog, Instagram and Upstyle. We usually don’t get a ton of comments on our blog but we get alot of comments on Upstyle.
What other social platforms help grow your presence?
Sam: Pinterest is our biggest one in terms of which helps us.
Liz: We also use Instagram a lot, but we’re always looking for something to talk about on there. Of course we’re also on TikTok. You kind of have to be good at everything.
How often do you post?
Liz: Pinterest refreshes weekly. Instagram we try to post everyday and anything we post there we try to also post on TikTok. But our Facebook and Twitter are rarely used.
Sam: We used to post a lot more blogs, but we had to become more selective once our families started growing. We just don’t have as much free time as before, so if we post something it’s because someone reached out to us with a partnership.
What is next for The Pretty Life Girls?
Sam & Liz: HOLIDAYS! Sam: The fourth quarter is always the biggest for us and we’re trying to already plan ahead.
Liz: We just got one e-book out and we’re trying to get our second e-book out in time for the holidays. We’re working hard on that too.
The blog started as a family business… Do you think you’ll be passing The Pretty Life torch down to the kids?
Liz: I’ve actually been thinking that my son could do our socials in a couple of years. My 8-year-old has an eye for things and is so creative I would love to ask her for project ideas. When they’re older I would love to hire my kids to help.
I loved getting the chance to learn more about The Pretty Life sisters. I hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed writing it. Keep up with Liz & Sam by following their blog, Upstyle page, Instagram, Tik Tok and Pinterest.
Is there a creator on Hometalk, Foodtalk, or Upstyle who you think should highlight next?
Let us know at christina@hometalk.com!