When I left corporate America, I shocked everyone — myself included. After all, I was in my dream role, at my dream beauty company, and I had worked hard to climb the corporate ladder as fast as humanly possible. Increased responsibilities, early promotions, presentations to important people who I admired: society told me I was a success. In an informational interview, a student from my alma mater even asked me if I “ever felt unhappy” and when she heard me stumble added, “How could you when you work in such a glamorous industry?”
Despite having my dream job, and despite many societal symbols of success – a wonderful soon-to-be husband, family, group of friends, etc. – I was miserable. Somewhere in the fast-paced post-grad years, I had turned into a robot who sat in front a screen, worked, went to bed, and repeated it all the next morning. I had stopped creating entirely. I had stopped dreaming entirely. I had stopped using my imagination.
In the midst of this numbing routine, I picked up a camera and devoted every waking second to learning photography. After years of modeling and a lifetime of casually snapping photos of friends and family, it was my 2020 New Years resolution to “shoot professionally” and reintroduce a creative element into my life. And like all good manifested goals, on January 1, 2021 I founded Lane Creatore Photography. A month after launch, I left corporate and decided to give my hobby a full-time shot. Over the months that followed, I captured the most sacred moments in the lives of strangers and friend: weddings, proposals, new births, celebrations big and small. I finally felt like myself again. It was freeing and exciting.
But it was only when I started shooting content for brands that I truly felt a stirring in my soul – I had discovered the purpose I’d been seeking. It was exhilarating to play a role in a brand’s end to end creative process. So I started thinking – how could I incorporate my newfound passion and my past experience as a businesswoman, model, and my love for writing into one? And in trying to answer that question, this blog was born.
Outside of my passion for beauty, I have a deep love for family, fashion, health and wellness. Community is at the core of my belief system, and I feel most alive when championing female-founded businesses. I believe in honesty and integrity in a world of false gratification. I believe in creating first, influencing second. I believe that with enough dedication, humility and intentionality, an ordinary person is capable of inspiring other. So that’s what I hope to do here – inspire you in some small way. Make you think differently, see differently, or feel a little differently — the same gift my camera gave me just a few years ago, and a gift that forever changed my perspective.
Thank you for supporting me — for engaging with and contributing to what I hope will eventually become a community worth celebrating. I like to think I’m just getting started, and it’s an honor to have you along for the ride.
