Personality Over Perfection: Why I'm Rebuilding My Brand From Scratch

I didn't think a website makeover to turn into an identity crisis. But here we are! If you follow me on TikTok I talked about a topic that have been bothering me for a while now about how boring the internet is getting to be. Everything is looking the same. Everywhere I was scrolling I saw the same thumbnails, fonts, graphics, the same "cozy creator" aesthetics. the same AI-generated artwork, same advice, formula's and the same perfectly curated version of what a creator is supposed to look like. It all felt generic and I realized... I too am a part of this!

The Problem Wasn't Ai

The problem was me. I got too comfortable with AI. It made all my graphics for my blog post and Pinterest pins fast. Like it felt like I had a superpower for how fast it could make my vision that I thought was unique and different from everyone else. I got too dependent with convenience that I didn't realize it completely replaced creativity. And it took me a hot minute to realize this was happening.

My Brand Started Feeling Generic

I was scrolling on Pinterest like I always do because I live there lol. I noticed that Pinterest was pushing lots of AI content and what I was seeing looking so familiar. I had to stop my scroll a few times for some of the graphics looked exactly the ones I had AI make. That's when reality hit me that my own content was blending into the crowd.

I didn't Recognize My Own Website

This part is hard for me to admit. I had spent so much time building it. So much time thinking of graphics to make my place look different from everyone else. And gave AI what I thought was the perfect prompt. I spent so much time making things look polished and professional. It got to the point I didn't want to write blogs. And I love writing well in this case typing and connecting with all of you. It didn't feel like me and it made me not want to do anything with it. I thought it looked very organized, and professional. Till the more I looked at it the sloppier it looked. It was all generic and didn't look nor feel like me. I felt like I had hit a brick wall.

Then I Looked Around My Room

With tears in my eyes from being frustrated with myself that I let myself get so comfortable with convivence that I didn't know if I remembered how to even be original and create like I use to before AI came in my life. I looked around and if you have seen my room, you know exactly why. Nothing in my room matches! NOTHING!! I have anime, horse models, Sanrio, Pokémon, books, stuffed animals, gaming merch, and random little treasures I have collected over the years. It looks like several different personalities moved into the same room and decided to coexist peacefully. And it works! It works because it is mine. I asked myself why I am expecting my online presence to look like a perfectly curated magazine when my actual life is a mess.

Missing The Interent I Grew Up On

This realization brought me back to what I have been missing for a long time. The early days of the internet. The ear where nobody's MySpace profile looked the same. People decorating everything! Stickers, Glitter, Photos. Random quotes, Music players, Doodles, Backgrounds that made absolutely no sense. Nothing matched. Nothing was optimized. Nothing was designed to go viral. That ear felt more personal than what I have been seeing online today. You could land on someone's page and immediately know who they were. It wasn't because it was carefully crafted and had that brand strategy. It was because their personality was EVERYWHRE.

The Great AI Purge

This is where I started deleting stuff. Lots's of stuff. Pinterest pins, website graphics, headers, blog images. Pretty much anything that felt disconnected from who I am now. It was so painful too. Those images represented work. And you are probably thinking.. Umm Uni it was generated with AI it doesn't take a lot of work for it to make artwork. But the time I took and the effort trying to organize it all to make it not look like slop. All that time and energy gone. But the more I deleted, the more excited I felt. replacing those images and spending hours creating something to replace it felt more personal than it felt before.

Creating Became Fun Again

I thought I had to start completely over and I was setting up myself up with the reality of how much work I now have to do to replace everything. And how much work It will take me to make things more Uni. As I was creating my first image for my homepage the joy of creating came back. I was so excited to just throw something together that felt and looked like me. Going completely crazy with adding stickers, doodles, layering things that probably didn't need to be. And making something that doesn't follow the official brand rules. And I didn't care. For the first time in three years, creating became fun again. Not caring about strategy or optimizing. Just pure fun.

Welcome to Uni's World

I didn't want people to visit my website and social platforms and feel like they're visiting another creator website. I want them to feel like they are stepping into my world. A world filled with. Horses, gaming, anime, books, stickers, doodles. you know... all the things that make me who I am. It is far from perfect, but it is me and that makes it personal.

The Internet Is Craving Personality

I know I was tired, and I think others are tired too. Tired of perfection and polished. Tired of seeing everything look the same. Tired of being part of the generic niche. They want personality, and real. I got tired of seeing a template and wanted to see someone's real world. Not the Instagram homes and Pinterest board home. Real, Raw, and Original.

I'm still replacing graphics. And cleaning up old blog post. (there's a lot) I'm still slowly but surely removing Ai images from parts of my brand. It is going to take time. Even though it doesn't seem like a lot of changes that were made. The small changes I made my brand feel like home. I'm tired of trying to be perfect and trying to "fit in" the online standard of being aesthetically pleasing. I'm over here wanting everything to fit me. And fit my brands standards. I want you to land on website, Podcast, Pinterest and other socials and know where you are.

Welcome to my world.