Sara Emmerson: Well, welcome back to That Sounds Risky, the podcast where we explore the moments that stretch us, shape us, and remind us that the most meaningful growth usually starts just outside of our comfort zone. Today, I'm joined by the incredible women behind the Wanderlust Girls, stylists, bloggers, fashion enthusiasts, and lifestyle creators who believe that what you wear isn't just about clothing. It's about confidence, identity, and showing up as the version of yourself that you're becoming. Their work goes far beyond helping individuals get dressed. They help people discover confidence, embrace their individuality, and realize that investing in themselves isn't superficial. It's actually transformational. Today we're talking about all the things, everything from beauty to entrepreneurship, confidence, and the risks that come with building a brand and putting yourself out there and helping others see themselves differently. and embrace that. So ladies, thank you so much for being here. I'm so honored to have you on the show.

The WanderLust Girls: Thanks for having us.

The WanderLust Girls: Thank you.

The WanderLust Girls: We're excited.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah. Well, why don't you tell everyone just a little bit about yourselves and what, um, brought you, you guys are in Nashville now, but I know it's been a journey to get there. So tell us a little bit about the Wanderlust Girls and about yourselves individually, Abigail and Emily, and, um, we'll go from there.

The WanderLust Girls: Okay. Yeah. Um, so I'm Emily and I'm Abigail, but most people know us as the Wanderlust Girls. Um, I'll start by saying our, a brief history of how we kind of got to where we are. Um, we've been best friends for 26 years. We met in middle school, um, just outside of Boston.

Sara Emmerson: That's amazing.

The WanderLust Girls: It, it was such a, a fun time to meet. So, you know, we've seen each other through all phases of life, all, you know, All different hairstyles, all different clothing, the worst of the clothing, the best of the clothing. And so we met in middle school and we grew up across the street from each other and we are the same shoe and clothing size. So we decided to start sharing our clothes because what are the odds?

The WanderLust Girls: What are the chances?

Sara Emmerson: Well, because you get to double your wardrobe then.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly. I love it. So we started sharing our clothes. And so I'd buy a top, she'd buy the pants and we'd own everything together. We'd split items. And we did that for years, all the way through high school. And then we went to college. And then when we— I think we assumed we would apply to the same schools, but we didn't. Um, and so I was in New York and she was in Florida. And so we decided to start a blog.

Sara Emmerson: And then how did that work with you owning the tops and her owning the bottoms?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh my gosh, we didn't realize until the first week of college. I'm like, oh my gosh, why do I only have pants? What's happening?

Sara Emmerson: I know.

The WanderLust Girls: I had to go shopping.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, it was such a panic. And so we started this blog to say, hey, I bought this, you'll own it when we reunite. So it was kind of like little postcards back and forth to each other, um, because I knew that she was going to move in with me when we graduated school. And so this was, oh my gosh, 2009, '10?

The WanderLust Girls: 2009, I think we started it.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes. So this is before like Instagram or Twitter, you know, even existed. And so, um, we were going back and forth and then someone else who was much more tech savvy than us was like, you know, other people are reading this, right? And I was like, what do you mean? And he was like, other people can see this. And I thought I was just writing to her. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, what have I said? You know, I think I'm just writing.

Sara Emmerson: That's so great.

The WanderLust Girls: And he was like, you guys actually have a following. You might want to do something with it. And so we're like, okay. And so she, you know, we graduated school and she moved in with me and we were like, well, I don't know, maybe we should go to Fashion Week. You know, other bloggers are going to Fashion Week. So We looked up every designer showing at Fashion Week. We looked up their PR. We emailed all of them. Um, we ended up covering about 65 shows our first Fashion Week, and it was just simply us saying, you know, this is how many followers we have. This is what we'd like to shoot. This is our style. And so we kind of just threw ourselves into the industry, I guess, you know.

Sara Emmerson: So you emailed everyone you could and 65 people responded with, sure, why not?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Yeah. And so—

Sara Emmerson: I love that.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, it was great. We made these business cards that we thought were going to be so cool and like emo and rockery. They were supposed to be black and like purple drippy, but they were like cardboard and pink. They were so not our vibe, but we handed them to everybody.

Sara Emmerson: Everyone.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Um, but at that time we were actually, um, our, our site was lovelywanderlust.blogspot.com. Yes. And Lovely Wanderlust just didn't really seem to fit. Um, and so at Fashion Week, there's always photographers outside of the tents. And when we would walk out, someone, one of the photographers just goes, there's those Wanderlust Girls. And we're like, oh, that's it. That's way better. And so thank you.

Sara Emmerson: Thank you for, for giving us our title.

The WanderLust Girls: I appreciate it.

The WanderLust Girls: Stranger.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: From then we just became Wanderlust Girls, changed everything. And that really got us started in the industry, but it was mostly we were just writing about fashion, you know. And then, um, do you, um, we— there's a site, I think it's still in existence.

The WanderLust Girls: Groupon?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Um, so there's a site called Groupon.

Sara Emmerson: Oh yeah, yeah, back in the day we used to get some Groupons. Yeah, I think it does still. Yeah, I, I think it's still out there. I just haven't been on it recently. Maybe I should.

The WanderLust Girls: But yeah, discounting like massages and classes. And so I was like, well, maybe they need more advertising if they're willing to discount their items. So like, maybe we could write about some of these places. So we emailed a bunch of them. And there was this burlesque bikini boot camp class that was on there.

Sara Emmerson: Of course there was.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: And I was like, oh my gosh, we get to learn a burlesque dance and dress up in cool costumes.

The WanderLust Girls: That sounds amazing.

Sara Emmerson: You're like, this is definitely my style.

The WanderLust Girls: I love it. So I emailed them and they were like, we'd love for you to come. We'll give you the class for free. You just post about it. And so her and I show up to this class in thigh-high boots, fishnets, corsets, boas. Like, we teased our hair.

The WanderLust Girls: We went all out.

Sara Emmerson: All out. Of course. I would expect nothing less.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Nobody else was dressed up. I completely got the class wrong. It was like a— it was a regular workout class. It was hardcore. Yeah. And it wasn't— I think they played music from the movie Burlesque. I don't— there was no like learning a dance. It was like push-ups and sit-ups and we—

Sara Emmerson: But now you guys are the entertainment of the class. Everyone's feeling special because you guys are there.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly. So yeah, we, we have absolutely no shame. So we're like, whatever, there's 2 of us. How could we be embarrassed?

The WanderLust Girls: You know?

The WanderLust Girls: Right, exactly. So we stayed and we did the whole class and a woman in the class went up to the teachers and she said, who are those girls? And She was like, oh, there are these bloggers. And she got our contact information and she reached out to us and was like, you know, um, I'd love to take you guys to lunch. And we were just graduating college. We're like, free lunch?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, absolutely. Say no more. Right.

Sara Emmerson: Um, and then you're like, see, the outfit paid off. Exactly.

The WanderLust Girls: We made a friend.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: And a free lunch.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly. And so we were on our way to go meet up with her about a week later, and we were like, who is this woman? I guess we should check and see. And her email was rebecca@playboy.com. And we were like, oh my gosh, okay. And so we're pulling up and we're like, we need to be on the same page. We either both say yes, we'll pose for Playboy, or both say no. Like, we can't be off.

Sara Emmerson: And we already wore an outfit that says that we're going to lean one way. And so we need to, we need to be clear here.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And so we got in there and, um, our answer was yes, by the way. We would definitely have done that. But she did not want that. She was She was, um, you know, she was like, I don't love our stylist. If he ever quits or gets fired, I'd love to hire you guys. And we were like, oh, we're not stylists. And she was like, well, I looked at your blog and I like the way you guys put outfits together and I think that you could do this. And so she was like, I'd love to hire you guys if he ever quits or gets fired. I'm like, okay, I'm sure that, you know, if you remember us in 10 years, we'll say, yeah.

Sara Emmerson: And yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: She called us. She was like, we're flying you.

Sara Emmerson: How long was it before she called you?

The WanderLust Girls: 2 weeks.

Sara Emmerson: 2 weeks. So she already knew something was going down.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. She was ready.

Sara Emmerson: And she was ready.

The WanderLust Girls: We were— they flew us to Chicago and we styled the next ad campaign for them. So it was— it's anything with the rabbit head. Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: It's not as sexy as it sounds.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. It's like men's suits. But yeah, it's men's suits, dresses, denim, you know.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Shirts, stuff like that.

Sara Emmerson: And, um, but so you, you didn't even see yourself as a stylist. It took her saying, do, do you guys see, do you see that both times, like your title of who you are came from somebody random and somebody telling you who you were was possibly random? Yeah, exactly. That's so cool.

The WanderLust Girls: Like we're being authentically ourselves, but other people are noticing and telling us, you should do this.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Huh?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Never thought of it. It might've been because we grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. There's not a lot of fashion and styling. We didn't even know what a wardrobe stylist was. No. It just wasn't something we were aware of.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Well, and you're being so authentically you.

The WanderLust Girls: Mm-hmm.

Sara Emmerson: In, in these spaces that people, and you're confident as you're authentically you, that people just assume that that's what you do. I love it.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly. Yeah. It, it's so helpful that there's 2 of us because I feel like we just feed off of it. We've always loved dressing crazy or eccentric or over the top, and that's our thing. And so when we do that, especially if we're together, there's no shame in it. I'm like, she's dressed just as cool, you know? Or she's dressed just as wild.

Sara Emmerson: And so, yeah, it gives you that confidence that maybe you wouldn't have if you were just by yourself.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly.

Sara Emmerson: Absolutely. That's great. So you say yes to this, you get to Chicago, which I'm in Chicago, so I love Chicago.

The WanderLust Girls: Amazing.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Um, great. And, um, when we got home, she was like, you know, you'll be paid better if you become a company. And we were like, okay. And so we hung up the phone and walked across the street to a bank and we were like, how do you form a company? And we, that's how it all started. And so that's, June of 2011 was when we formed our company so that it offered wardrobe styling and blogging.

The WanderLust Girls: Again, something we weren't planning on doing. No, we didn't know a blog would become a business necessarily.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: And now you've turned both of them, the, the styling and the blog, into both of your full-time things and your life.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Incredible. Incredible. And so over the last So that, um, how many years now? Uh, we don't have to count, but—

The WanderLust Girls: 15 years. 15.

Sara Emmerson: So over the last 15 years, you guys have seen, um, a lot, not just in fashion, but it, you've learned from literally just walking into a bank and saying, how do I become a, a business owner? To, um, styling now tons of different people over the years. Um, I think I remember Emily, which this is a funny little Uh, tidbit. Emily and I met so randomly. I was taking a flight. Um, actually, Emily, I don't even remember where I was going or if I was coming home.

The WanderLust Girls: I think that too. It might've been Arizona.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah, it could have been Arizona because I, um, our family's out there. So, um, my daughter and I were getting on a flight a few years ago and, you know, it was in, uh, Southwest days where you just get on and choose your, choose your, uh, oh yes, seat partner. And I remember walking through with my daughter and Emily was sitting down and I was like, well, that girl looks interesting and I like interesting people. So I'm just gonna sit by her. So I was like, excuse me, can we sit here? And she's like, yeah, absolutely. So Emily and I met, um, through that and have had, um, some conversations since then. Um, but it's been so great to just see the evolution of your careers, of your individual lives, um, the exciting things that you guys get to be a part of. And so share with everyone a little bit, like we, this is called That Sounds Risky because taking those risks, flying to Chicago, to style for Playboy for the very first time, even as a non-stylist, is a risk. What do you think, um, or, or let's back up. What has been one of the greatest risks that's turned out well for both of you, um, in being the Wanderlust Girls?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh gosh. I'd, I'd say almost everything, especially in the beginning. I mean, yeah, getting our first few clients were total risks. In fact, one of them— so it was a music video, and at the time I think we had only styled Playboy, which was its own beast, but then like maybe a few lookbooks. And then there was this music video. We'd never worked with musicians before. There were dancers, there were background actors. It just seemed like, oh my gosh, there's like 30 people. We don't know how to do that. And so at first—

Sara Emmerson: Yet you didn't know how to do it yet.

The WanderLust Girls: So true. So This was our big mistake, but we jumped the hurdle. We said no initially. We're like, oh, I don't know, we're not there yet, or something like that. But the guy who referred us says, no, I think you should go to the casting and meet the director. I think you should do this. And we're like, okay, well, there's no harm in that. So we show up to the casting and we meet the director. And back then, we were a little more goth. We were in New York City, we were all black, we had black eyeliner, we had messy hair. Yeah. It was just the vibe. And The director looks up and goes, you're hired. And we said, what? We didn't show a portfolio. And we're like, that was weird. Come to find out, this music video was going to be shot for 24 straight hours in a funeral home. And he just— he looked up and he saw these women look like they belong in a funeral home.

The WanderLust Girls: You're like, thank you? Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: So we were like, OK, well, we just got the job. And we're not even sure if we want the job.

Sara Emmerson: Right.

The WanderLust Girls: So we're like, okay, let's do this. Let's figure it out. Well, like, in styling and in plenty of business, there's no set rules.

The WanderLust Girls: You do what works for you.

The WanderLust Girls: So we're like, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna dress the 4 band members. Everyone else, we're gonna give a guideline. We're gonna give examples of what to bring. We'll meet with them right before and we'll pick what they brought. So that took off the pressure.

The WanderLust Girls: Perfect.

The WanderLust Girls: Right? It took off the pressure and I think we made like $100. Like, this was not like, oh my gosh, this is going to change our lives.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: But we did it. It was a blast. The band became best friends of ours. And the funny thing was, there was a guy who worked in the crew. He was friends with the director. We had kept in contact with him, didn't work with him again for probably 8 years or something, maybe 7 or 8 years. But it was all about let's keep in contact with these people.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Absolutely. 7 years later, that crew member hired us for our biggest commercial job, and it was a job we almost said no to. So that was kind of like a risk that we're like, well, wait a minute, why were we so hesitant? Let's just figure out how it works for us. And, you know, we reaped the benefits.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Even though it only paid $100, but connected us to a way—

Sara Emmerson: But it paid, it actually paid off. along, uh, the way many, many times in relationships and even monetarily later when it's your biggest job. So I see that so many times over with, um, in my own business and with entrepreneurs and business owners and creatives that I'm working with is that hesitation or that imposter syndrome that comes in of like, oh, I can't do this, or I'm not there yet. I'll do that one day. And I would say 99.9% of the time. The people that, um, succeed are the ones that are willing to step into something that they're not ready for.

The WanderLust Girls: Absolutely.

Sara Emmerson: And so you, this is another example of that where you're like, okay. Um, and I remember even starting my own company, I was talking to my dad who's a, a, um, business owner and has been a producer for music and many things over the years. And one of the things he's always taught me is he's like, be very careful what you say no to. And at the, at the beginning, be very careful what you say no to at the beginning. Mm-hmm. Because you never know who's gonna connect you to what. Next. Then as you grow, you can get more picky and you can say, yeah, this isn't what we're gonna be about, or this isn't the budget that I need, or things like that. But at the beginning, you're really trying to, the, the strategy is to throw spaghetti at the wall, right? Right.

The WanderLust Girls: Absolutely.

Sara Emmerson: We're gonna throw the spaghetti and see if it sticks. So I love it. That's so exciting. So tell me about, um, one of the times that you took the risk and it didn't go so well.

The WanderLust Girls: Oh my gosh, there's probably a lot of those too.

The WanderLust Girls: Um, I don't know. Risk that didn't go so well?

The WanderLust Girls: I'm only thinking—

The WanderLust Girls: I gotta think outside the box. I'm just thinking of our styling jobs. Yeah, I mean, there was, there was a time where we thought, you know, because everybody was kind of, you should try this, you should try this, and we're like, okay, yeah, this makes sense. We actually Saw something that there was a need for a prop stylist, which, you know, on a shoot, they're doing the furniture, they're doing the decoration. And we're like, you know what? Like, we, we might be able to do that. That might be interesting for us. It was so difficult.

Sara Emmerson: The worst.

The WanderLust Girls: It was so outside of our zone. We did it, and I think it turned out well, but it was a quick thing. It was quickly like, okay, we can't do everything. We shouldn't say yes to all things.

Sara Emmerson: Everything. Yeah, we need to—

The WanderLust Girls: we— it's good to have a few different niches, but we definitely felt like, okay, yeah, let's not do this again because it didn't feel right.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, it wasn't.

Sara Emmerson: Well, and you had to say yes to it in order to recognize that, hey, that's not my lane. That's not what I have the most energy for or what I'm best at. That's great.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

Sara Emmerson: Very interesting. Emily, I remember, I think you telling me, and, uh, you can correct me if this is wrong, but I think, uh, We talked one time about maybe a story, um, where they were insistent that you wear jeans or something like that.

The WanderLust Girls: Like they, when we had a representative, like when we had a rep. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: And, and you were like, this is not, uh, tell, tell me about that. 'Cause that's really about understanding who we, who you are and owning that.

The WanderLust Girls: Mm-hmm.

Sara Emmerson: And taking risks, um, based on other people's opinions.

The WanderLust Girls: That was a big learning lesson for us.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. It was such a huge mistake looking back and, you know, I mean, even during, it was awful. We, Um, at that time of blogging, we had been doing it for a few years, but it was just us. And so it started to really ramp up, and a lot of people were getting agents for blogging and stuff like that. And so this woman had reached out to us, and we knew her for years, and she had, you know, had worked for a lot of different companies. And so she was like, yeah, I can— I would love to represent you. We signed all these contracts, and she said, you need to be more mainstream.

The WanderLust Girls: You need to be more middle, middle America.

The WanderLust Girls: And she was like, you gotta wear jeans. You gotta wear color. And at the time, we don't even own blue jeans. Just to paint a picture, I don't even know the last time I did own blue jeans. Probably middle school or maybe high school. But it's just— We have plenty of black jeans.

The WanderLust Girls: Black. No. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: I wore my black jeans for you guys today.

The WanderLust Girls: Don't worry.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: It's just not our style. And, like, color doesn't really make sense for us or anything like that. You know, we wear red sometimes or, like, animal print. But—

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: And, But it was so not us. Looking back at all those photos and videos that we did, it was not us. We lost followers from it because people didn't come for that. They came for the style that we had. And it, on top of it, she ended up, what happened was that she took all the people that she felt competition with, signed them all, then changed the name of her company to her own personal name on her, on the Instagram. And so she took all the jobs. And so we were locked into a contract and we couldn't take anything. So for almost a full year, we couldn't blog or do anything because of it.

Sara Emmerson: Outside of what she was doing. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. So it was just this horrible year of blue jeans, like green sweaters and no blogging. And so it was lucky that we also did styling so that we were able to like supplement, you know, but it was just the worst.

Sara Emmerson: What did you learn from that? Personally and professionally?

The WanderLust Girls: Definitely to just be ourselves always. I think that's super important is that, like, I, to this day, I'm like, I don't wear blue jeans. You know, I, like, tell people when they're like, oh, you should do this. No, that's not who I am. You know, it's funny. Sometimes, like, people will come up to us and they're like, oh, you know, I always do my black eyeliner. They're like, you should do, like, brown. No. In no world am I gonna do brown eyeliner. It doesn't make sense for my personality. You know?

Sara Emmerson: It's—

The WanderLust Girls: yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: what I think looks good with certain tones or anything. It's just not who I am.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: It was more so about saying, you know, no, this is— I think something the Olsen twins said that always sticks with me is no is a full sentence. Yes. So it's— you don't need to explain. Nope. I'm not gonna do that. You know?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: So it's more about just staying true to who we are.

Sara Emmerson: How did you both— because you both come across so clear and confidently in that knowing of who you are. And for many of the listeners, Um, they're still on that journey of exploring like, who am I? What is it that is my style? Or what is it that I can confidently say no to? Um, how did you individually and as a brand define that so that you can do that today?

The WanderLust Girls: I think because we went through, I mean, we've known each other for 26 years, so we had our weird early 2000s fashion and, you know, it was what it was at the time. We had weird outfits. Robbie jeans. And, you know, we've been— we have been through plenty of different styles, plenty of different lifestyles and personality tests. But when we landed on who we really felt most comfortable as, I'd say it was probably early— our early 20s. And I'm sure New York City had something to do with that because we could be—

Sara Emmerson: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Unapologetically us. We could wear crazy outfits. It was not a whole lot of judgment coming from any which way. And I think that helped us a lot. And really going through all the different styles and landing on something that we thought looked good. And everyone's like, oh, I saw, I saw this black and white dress and I thought of you. Someone puts on a zebra outfit and tags us. This reminded me of the Wanderlust Girls.

The WanderLust Girls: It gives us such a rush.

The WanderLust Girls: Like, man, people see something and think of us and that feels great and we feel great in it. So it's when those 2 things align.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, absolutely.

Sara Emmerson: Definitely. That's, that's exciting. And so it took that courage to take the risk to even start to explore that, right? I'm going to go out in public in things that look different. I'm gonna show up at this workout class in a burlesque outfit no matter what. Um, but it takes that individual courage. Um, obviously you're borrowing courage from each other going out and doing that, uh, that together. But, um, being unapologetically you has actually led to more business than when you were trying to be someone else, has it not?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, absolutely. And I think also, like, for us, we've always looked to, like, Like, I think music was a big part of like our style and what we wanted. And obviously the fashion world, going to Fashion Week and stuff, but really musicians, like when we would see them wear these cool rocker outfits, we were like, I want— it was more about being bigger than what we were. It's like, I want more. I want to be more wild. I want to be more over the top so that it's, you know, it can lead to bigger things. I feel like the bigger you go, the more you can do. And so that became us going so over the top that people were like, That reminds me of you. That reminds me of you because it's that so specific and so big.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah. How do you keep showing up year after year, day after day online in that bigness? I mean, that takes energy. It also takes a lot of confidence because I'm sure with all of the tagging and encouragement also comes a lot of the criticism too. So how do you silence that criticism in your head? And continue to show up with that energy and excitement.

The WanderLust Girls: I think for us, we always try to add humor into our videos. And so that, you know, keeps it very light for us because we're mostly laughing the whole time we make these videos.

The WanderLust Girls: Nothing is serious.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Well, we can tell that you're having fun, so that makes us have fun too while we're watching them.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And obviously, like, it's not lost on us how lucky we are that we get to do this together, you know, like To be able to be like, I'm laughing all day dressing up in fun outfits with my best friend. I could never complain. I could never be cranky about it. So I think that it's never lost on us that we get to do that.

The WanderLust Girls: And also, like, the confidence to be out in a crazy outfit or be posting content, it ebbs and flows. Like, there will be a month where we post once, and we do feel weird about it, but it's If you don't have the oomph, if you don't have the idea, you don't have to force it. Like, we might lose a couple followers, but you'll see, like, you'll see right now we're posting a ton. We're having fun. But sometimes I'm like, oh, I don't like my outfits or something. So it's not every single day. You just have to, you have to do it in the moments when it feels good.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And also, I think, you know, we're really lucky that I think our, our followers or the comments are never negative. You know, we don't get that negative, you know, we don't have trolls or anything like that.

Sara Emmerson: That's so great.

The WanderLust Girls: It can be disappointing sometimes when you work hard on something and it doesn't, you know, whether the algorithm pushes it down or whether it sees it or something like that. But then there's other times where you do something just for fun really quickly and it just explodes. And so it's, you know, it, it really does ebb and flow.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: What would you tell people who are trying to build that brand online? What are some of your tips and tricks? secrets of the behind the scenes that you could share?

The WanderLust Girls: I mean, finding a style— what, not necessarily just fashion, it could be a shooting style, or like you're only using one genre of music— or that's really important. Yeah, I'd say.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, there's never a post of one of us individually, so in every video it's both.

The WanderLust Girls: But there used to be. There used to be. And then we realized, oh, they're doing better when there's— when we're both in it. It used to be your outfit, my outfit. But, I mean, like, everything changed, you know, every few years, things change on social media. But, yeah, people come for our friendship. People come for the coordinating styles. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: A lot of it is, you know, people will message us and they say, I feel like I'm already friends with you guys.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. You remind me of my best friend from college.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Or they'll, like, ask us questions like they're friends with us, you know, like they're asking their friend for advice. And so I think it's more of like, What we want our, our Instagram and our social media to be is for people to feel like they're friends with us and they can ask us these questions. You know, people who are like, I'm uncomfortable, I'm really tall. What kind of shoes would you wear? You know, it's things like that.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: That are the most rewarding, I think.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

Sara Emmerson: What would you— what words would you use to describe your fashion style in this stage?

The WanderLust Girls: Well, black and white has become one of our staples. So we really love high contrast.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Like something that pops. And we're not, like she said, we're not really pattern girls or color girls. So if you noticed.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Something about black and white. I don't know. We've always loved Tim Burton.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

Sara Emmerson: Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: All those movies. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Anything spooky except not horror.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Not actual scary. Just like, no, but it sounds scary.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Bold, I would say.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: At the moment.

The WanderLust Girls: Okay. Bold, high contrast.

Sara Emmerson: Bold, high contrast. Now, do you gravitate towards certain brands because of that, or is it any brand? But we're mostly—

The WanderLust Girls: I think like there's certain designers that we look towards, you know, like McQueen, Balmain. Those have always been— yeah, that we've always stayed in tune to what they're doing, um, and they generally do a lot of high contrast. Um, but yeah, I think for like someone wanting to do this Uh, you know, or who's just starting out, when we just started out, it wasn't always about like, we're doing this because we're going to get paid for it. You know, we would always be creating because we wanted to create. And so it took out that expectation that someone should be paying us right now for this, especially at the beginning. I think that, you know, we speak to a lot of like fashion students or people who are interested in social media and they, they're so already in the thought process of like, if I post, I'm going to get paid.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: You know, or I should be paid. And it's kind of like, no, you have to create this world online that someone would say, oh, I want to be a part of that world, or a brand would want to be a part of that world. And so when we started out, we, you know, we were just creating content because we wanted to. And so that ended up leading to so many other things as well. There was this, um, at the beginning we put an ad out, I think on Craigslist.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Oh yeah. We always used Craigslist back in the day.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And we said, we're looking for photographers.

The WanderLust Girls: Talk about a risk. Talk about risk.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Talk about risk, use Craigslist.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Craig's Risk.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah, that's, that's true too.

The WanderLust Girls: Craig's Risk. I like that. Um, but yeah, we just posted that we were looking for a photographer and like, if someone was in, that we wanted to be mutually beneficial. So like, if you're a food photographer or nature photographer and want to get into fashion, like, let's collaborate. We can like get stuff from designers or we can, you know, have cool items and we'll put together a concept. You shoot it. And so there was this one, um, that we did that was, um, oh my God, we did so many fun ones. But, um, there was one that we did where we went up to the roof of our apartment and we had pulled these dresses. So there's showrooms in New York and they represent either like one designer or multiple designers. And so we were at one of the ones that had multiple designers and we made those contacts by going to fashion weeks. So, you know, keeping up those relationships over the years. And so we went to one that had multiple and we pulled certain dresses and we went up to our rooftop, had this photographer come, and we shot this very, very dramatic, like Romeo and Juliet style video. We love Shakespeare type, like medieval things.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: We love a theme.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes. And like, it started off as just beautiful dresses flowing in the breeze on the rooftop, which is what the videographer wanted. And we were like, we went inside to warm up. It was super cold. And yeah, and I go, You know what would be cool? Like, what if, what if like it's more like Romeo and Juliet and like, what if I die and then she kills herself? And he's like, what? And he's like, okay. And so the next thing we know, we're on the roof shooting this super dramatic video of us like dying in these beautiful dresses. And we posted it. We tagged the designers of the dresses. We tagged all the brands that were in it.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: And we were out one night at this bar in New York and this This man, beautiful man from across the room, looks at us and he goes, are you guys the Wanderlust girls? And we're like, yeah. And he was like, I'm Logan Knightsell. I designed your dress that you wore in that video. And he was like, I loved that video. He was like, that was so cool. He's like, we should hang out. And so we ended up just like grabbing coffee with him every so often or going to his showroom. And so we, we, you know, we nurtured this relationship with him and we, we realized we recognized him because he was on Project Runway. And that's where I was like, oh, that's where it's from.

Sara Emmerson: That's where it's from. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: And so we kept up this relationship. And then years later, he called us and it was a Thursday, like, evening. And he was like, hey, he does all of Macklemore. He's a singer. He does all this stuff custom made. And so he was like, hey, do you guys want to style Macklemore for Saturday Night Live? And we were like, oh my gosh, yes, we'd love to. Yes, please. Yeah. We're like, when? He's like, Saturday. We're like, yeah, which Saturday? He's like, this Saturday.

The WanderLust Girls: So a day away.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And so it's Thursday evening. We obviously said yes. And so we're like, well, we're gonna just figure it out because we already said yes.

The WanderLust Girls: And we can't pass that. You don't say no to that. You can't pass that.

The WanderLust Girls: And so we— so actually on Fridays in New York, they have Summer Fridays. So all of the showrooms close at like noon. So we were doing something for like some news channel. On the morning of Friday. So we couldn't go to any showrooms or pull anything.

The WanderLust Girls: Time to get creative.

The WanderLust Girls: So we were like, we got to figure this out. And so there was very specific items that we needed, like metal bow ties, like embroidered house slippers, like lots of jewelry, lots of things. Not at Target.

The WanderLust Girls: Can't run to Target.

Sara Emmerson: No, you're not going to find that at HomeGoods or Target.

The WanderLust Girls: No. So we just kind of like— we Googled metal bow ties. And we found any designer that made them. And we emailed them all.

The WanderLust Girls: Subject line, urgent.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Saturday Night Live, Magnolia Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Tomorrow.

The WanderLust Girls: A guy in Boston was like, I have some, I'll ship them. And we're like, they're not going to get here in time. Like, we have to do the fitting on Saturday morning. So he drove out from Boston to New York, and we were like, thank you. Met him at like—

The WanderLust Girls: He's like, I've been meaning to come to New York.

Sara Emmerson: This is perfect.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Fashion guardian angels exist.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

Sara Emmerson: They do.

The WanderLust Girls: And so we walked into an old store that we knew the owner, and he used to make embroidered house slippers. And there was one pair on the mannequin in the window, and they were Macklemore's size. And we just took them right off and like, thank you. And he was like, who is this guy? And he's like a bit of a stuffy British guy. And he was just like, we played him Thrift Shop. And he was like, I don't think this is really my thing. And we're like, too late.

The WanderLust Girls: You know, this is why you nurture relationships so that you can get away with things.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly.

Sara Emmerson: Well, you do. And that's so true because it sounds to me like a lot of the things that you guys have done have, and the favor you've had in the industry has been because you've continued to nurture these things.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: I think that's the most important thing out of anything that we've done in this industry is the contacts and yes, nurture them. Yeah. We one time asked a friend, we were talking about when we moved here, how we would gain, you know, like get into the industry because here in New York, it's more of just like, you know, you apply or something like that. But here it's more very tight community.

Sara Emmerson: And you're in Nashville for anyone that might not Understand that they're in Nashville now.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. When we moved here, we didn't know anybody.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And so we had already, like, made a name for ourselves, I feel like, in New York enough where we had clients and we were working with people. And so when we moved here, we didn't have that. And so we were talking with a friend and he was like, well, trace back your jobs. Where did they come from? And all of them came from us being out. And he was like, well, it's your job to be out then. It's your job to be at events. It's your job to be talking to people because that's how you're going to Get those slippers.

The WanderLust Girls: It's not gonna be through a random email or an application. Yeah. It's gonna be someone you're not expecting to meet at the least expecting place.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: It could be someone at a grocery store. It could be someone up on a plane.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. You gotta—

The WanderLust Girls: on a plane.

Sara Emmerson: Exactly. It's gonna be on a plane, in the grocery store, and it's gonna be a call at Thursday, on a Thursday evening, on a random Thursday that's gonna change your world and give you an opportunity. So you get the slippers from the stuffy guy, the stuffy Yeah. English guy.

The WanderLust Girls: We walked into a shoe store and we said, we need these. And so we wrote, we asked for printer paper and we just wrote a contract and said, we'll return them handwritten.

The WanderLust Girls: They're handwrit— Because we couldn't access the showrooms. We're like, okay, well, let's just see what we can do.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. And they gave us a bunch of shoes and it—

The WanderLust Girls: Taped the bottom, taped the bottoms of the shoes. If anything gets damaged, we'll pay for them.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah. That's incredible. And so then you show up. And you style him.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: And the rest is history.

The WanderLust Girls: It looked awesome. It was so exciting.

Sara Emmerson: How do you feel sitting back? Because I'm guessing you guys— did you go to the taping?

The WanderLust Girls: We know we didn't. No, we've actually never been.

The WanderLust Girls: It's on our life bucket list. We actually just emailed for tickets a few days ago.

Sara Emmerson: Okay, well, we need to make sure anyone out there listening, if you've got connections, they want to get in. Lappers. Yes, exactly. They want to be on. But for each of you, when you're— you— I'm sure you saw the recording back and you watched, watched the recording. How does it feel to know that you, you had a hand in that and you got to do that?

The WanderLust Girls: That was really special because back then we did a lot of like print fashion. This was one of the first videos and this was a live video. So for us to see it on TV, that was a big moment. So cool.

The WanderLust Girls: And for something so iconic like Saturday Night Live, you know, it's There's a lot of jobs I feel like that are very generic. They're fun and like any— I mean, it's always fun, but it's more, you know, like there's a lot of bank commercials and there's a lot of, you know, like healthcare commercials. But when you get to do something like this where we love music, you have a connection to it. Yeah, it was definitely more personal.

Sara Emmerson: That's exciting. So talking about the personal, it's wonderful to get to work with your friend, but Friendships take work, right? Yeah. And there's days where one has more energy than the other or more creativity than the other, or somebody's having an up day and somebody's having a down day. Tell me a little bit about, give us a little bit about the behind the scenes of what it's like because, uh, your relationship is even closer than friends. My guess is that you feel like family and, um, even sisters that you're so close. Um, but what's that like to work together? And when one person's energy's off and how do you, how do you build each other up and give space for that?

The WanderLust Girls: And I think the beauty of knowing each other for 26 years and kind of falling upwards into this business was that it all happened organically and it wasn't something we were forcing. So knowing her for 26 years, we're very telepathic. And it's actually a wonderful thing. We don't always have to be on. If one of us is off, we telepathically can feel, okay, she's not going to be the one to do this right now. If we're on set, like, okay, I'm going to be the one to go. I'm going to go on set. She's going to stay in the wardrobe. Or if somebody's feeling like, if we're doing a blog post, like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm brain dead right now. And she's like, okay, I'm going to take care of the writing. It's very easy for us to pick up on it. And it does— we don't have to be always at our talk because that's what a partnership's all about. So it's picking up on who's, who's in the mood for what. And it's actually, it works really well.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's never been a time either where we're like, I'm low. I can't do this.

The WanderLust Girls: It's just like, you don't even have to say it. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah. So you guys just know and you just pick up the, pick up the slack when the other one's not, um, or encourage them in that way.

The WanderLust Girls: Um, when do you—

The WanderLust Girls: within your work? Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Oh, go ahead. What, what were you saying?

The WanderLust Girls: I was just gonna say, work— be intuitive with your work. Be intuitive with your business partners.

Sara Emmerson: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, wonderfully, you had to, um, or you've had the opportunity to build a career and to fall, like, I love what you said, fall upward into a career that, um, like you were just saying a little bit ago, Emily, that is really a dream, right? That you said there's nothing I could complain about, about this, but Every job has things about it that you don't like to do, right? Otherwise we have expensive hobbies, not businesses.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Right.

Sara Emmerson: I always like to ask my people, is this an expensive hobby or a business? You guys have worked, had to work hard, not just being a stylist, but learn to be business owners too. Tell me a little bit about that.

The WanderLust Girls: Uh, oh gosh. Well, literally the business aspect of it during tax season, it's like, oh, we are the least likely to know what we're doing.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: When it comes to that world.

Sara Emmerson: That's why we have tax professionals, right?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh my gosh. Our tax woman here.

The WanderLust Girls: Keeley, we love you. Shout out Keeley. Yeah. For us, it's like the—

The WanderLust Girls: honestly, shopping, when we tell people we shop for a living, they're like, that must be a dream. It is a dream. And we walk around, we think, wow, how fortunate are we? We're still literally lugging heaps and heaps and bags and garment bags to the point where your body starts to shake. It's not all that glamorous.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: The idea that it is and it's fun until you physically, after even like a few hours, you're like, oh my gosh, because we're buying thousands of dollars worth of clothing.

Sara Emmerson: Absolutely.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. All different kinds of people and trying to remember what size this character is, who is this character, what color, and then remembering. And then we have to put it all into like a formula. Like, it's a— it is hard work. So it can be physically and mentally stressful.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: So it's Not all that glamorous, but yeah, it's still pretty cool.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. It's still fun to be able to just shop all the time and do, you know, do that regularly. And, you know, for us too, I think that I tell people that like, you know, they get so frustrated with emails. They're like, oh, emails all the time. I'm like, emails? That's like Christmas morning for us.

The WanderLust Girls: As a freelancer, emails are exciting.

The WanderLust Girls: I love waking up to see who emailed us, you know, and it's so fun. And I can't wait till I can message her and be like, did you see who said this? Did you see what? where do we start? You know, like, that's— it's exciting. And I think that it— there is those parts, it's like, it can be stressful, but then the things that people hate the most are the things that we tend to like the most.

Sara Emmerson: Well, and that's a choice too, right?

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Everyone has a choice as to what to focus— spotlight theory. I don't know if you've ever heard of spotlight theory, but that's a, um, a concept or, um, a psych— it's actually, uh, scientific that what you focus on flourishes and it's what you, um, see even brighter and bigger. So if I tell you to go and look for a blue VW Bug today, you might not have seen one, but then all of a sudden you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, they're everywhere. They must be creating a whole new line of 'em. No, that's not true. It's that spotlight theory. Now you're attuned to look for that. So what I see in both of you, Abigail and Emily, is your choice to look for the joy, your choice to see the good, the choice to look for the, um, Christmas morning email, as you explained there. Um, that's not something that everyone does. That's, that's choosing. It doesn't mean that you are without hardship or that you are without, um, difficult things in your lives or your relationships. How do you choose that each day? How do you go forward and, and make sure that that is, um, something you're choosing and focusing on?

The WanderLust Girls: Gosh, I mean, I think because we're so fortunate to have a sort of freelance lifestyle, it's exciting that we don't know what's happening in 3 weeks.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Mm-hmm. A lot of people, maybe there's certain people who would say, no way, I can't do that. I'm so excited for the job that's coming because I don't know what it is.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: And I think it's, it's thinking about it in that manner. It's like, what could come? What's coming? What's on its way? We know something's on its way.

The WanderLust Girls: It's nice not knowing.

The WanderLust Girls: It's exciting. Yeah. So it really is a reframing, like you said, of how you want to look at your business. Exactly.

The WanderLust Girls: And it's always different too. You know, we could be doing Blogging something one day and then we could be styling something the other day. You know, it's just, it's nice to have that variety of things.

The WanderLust Girls: Everything and everything has a pro and con. So no matter how you look at it, it's focus on the pros. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: So everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Okay.

The WanderLust Girls: All the time. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: So I think that—

The WanderLust Girls: What were you gonna say?

The WanderLust Girls: We laugh all the time. And I think that that's helpful too for us on set because those are long days. You know, sometimes we're there for 12, 13 hours sometimes. And it It can be exhausting. You know, it's out in the 95-degree heat and, you know, it's draining, but we're cracking jokes. I'm texting her jokes from the other side of the room. You know, it's, it's, you have to keep it lighthearted. There's no point in being upset or pissy about something.

Sara Emmerson: No, definitely. And, um, you're not going to get the repeat customers or, or the clients or the relationships if you're walking around pissy at everybody, right? Um, beyond fashion, what does living a beautiful life mean to each of you? Oh gosh.

The WanderLust Girls: Well, I'm just going to say laughing because it was top of mind, but that's our whole friendship. Our whole business has basically been based around it. Even our silly, our fashion videos usually have humor in it.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: And that's what keeps me going.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, we had, um, we made a scrapbook when we were in high school and it was, it's When Harry Met Lloyd is like the, the thing that we wrote on it. Cause our whole thing has just been this very—

The WanderLust Girls: For the female dog lover.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Very joyous.

Sara Emmerson: No, we, we love Dumb and Dumber in this house.

The WanderLust Girls: Even they have cool outfits, so.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah, they do. Are you kidding? Those orange and blue suits, those were amazing.

The WanderLust Girls: Right?

Sara Emmerson: Now, now maybe you guys need to do a remake of that. Maybe that's the one color, the one color thing you could do, right? Just a, a throwback to them at some point with the top hats and everything.

The WanderLust Girls: Oh yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Oh, we've done that.

The WanderLust Girls: Oh yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Oh yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Okay. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Actually, we won tickets to anywhere in the United States one time, and without even a hesitation, we both just go, Aspen, because we were like, we're gonna recreate the whole movie.

Sara Emmerson: I love it. Oh, I'll have to check that out if you guys still have that online. That's so great. Wonderful. Where do you find inspiration when you're feeling creatively stuck?

The WanderLust Girls: Ooh. As far as online, our— one of our favorites is Pinterest. I feel like people don't really talk about it as much because of Instagram and TikTok, but it's the most inspiring. It's It's less about following a specific person and more so the algorithm will learn your lifestyle and your fashion choices. And it shows you, you're not looking at somebody in particular. You're, you might be looking neck down so you can kind of envision yourself in that outfit or in a cool setting or planning a cool trip. And then otherwise, like we said earlier, music. If we put on a cool rock song and we're in a boring outfit, we immediately change. Right. Well, this is, what are we doing? Why are we dressed like this?

The WanderLust Girls: We gotta be cool.

Sara Emmerson: How many times a day do you change?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh my gosh.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: A lot.

The WanderLust Girls: The amount of times we change in our car is hilarious. We got, we got outfits in the car.

Sara Emmerson: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So your car, your car's like a closet often?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Oh yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: I have a clothing rack on my handlebars in the back so that I can hang my—

Sara Emmerson: Of course you do. Of course you do. How far away do you live from each other?

The WanderLust Girls: About 25 minutes.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: How often do you see each other each week?

The WanderLust Girls: At least 4 times a week.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: If not 5.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, probably 5. Yeah.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Okay. I'm gonna do some quickfire questions here and I'm gonna ask a question and you guys have to say it at the same time. We're gonna see if it's, if it's the same. Okay. So, um, and some of these I'm already like answering in my head, but you never know. Right. Okay. Sneakers or heels?

The WanderLust Girls: Heels.

Sara Emmerson: Coffee or champagne?

The WanderLust Girls: Champagne.

Sara Emmerson: Neutrals or bold colors?

The WanderLust Girls: Bold colors.

Sara Emmerson: Cold— sorry, gold or silver?

The WanderLust Girls: Silver.

Sara Emmerson: Favorite beauty product over $30?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh, oh gosh. I have a face oil that I like that's about $60, although right now it's showing a little too much, but I love it.

Sara Emmerson: Which, which is your favorite? Tell us. Share your, share your knowledge. Gosh, I remember what it's called.

The WanderLust Girls: I don't know what it's called. It's in a clear bottle.

The WanderLust Girls: It's a yellow oil. It's got a dropper.

Sara Emmerson: Yes.

The WanderLust Girls: The name of it. I've only bought it once, but it's running out and I'm going to buy it again.

Sara Emmerson: Okay, good. What about you, Emily?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh my gosh. I got one of those red light masks that I really love.

Sara Emmerson: So is it worth it? I've heard that they're great. Okay. Maybe, maybe that's what I need for my birthday.

The WanderLust Girls: I'll send you my oil, even though it's looking a little too shiny right now.

The WanderLust Girls: It's just because the sun's on me.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: No, it doesn't look too shiny. It looks nice. Okay, favorite designer?

The WanderLust Girls: McQueen.

The WanderLust Girls: McQueen. Yeah.

Sara Emmerson: Uh, most underrated fashion accessory?

The WanderLust Girls: Underrated? Underrated. They're all so good. I'm gonna go hats because I wear a lot of hats and I can wear an outfit and put on a hat and I love the outfit way more.

The WanderLust Girls: I think belts. I, I tend to make dresses in— I like will cinch it with a belt. So like this is A dress. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Blazer with a belt.

The WanderLust Girls: Dress and belts.

Sara Emmerson: Okay, great. Belts and hats. Everyone go out and get your belts and hats. What's one item you'll never get rid of?

The WanderLust Girls: Oh, gosh.

The WanderLust Girls: Clothing item?

The WanderLust Girls: My McQueen scarf with the skull heads.

The WanderLust Girls: Never. I mean, I have a snakeskin trench coat that I got for my first Fashion Week. I still love it. It's 15 years old. And I hope I never lose it. Mm-hmm.

Sara Emmerson: That's amazing. Okay, so one last question for each of you, and you each can, whoever wants to go first can answer, but I love asking this question to everyone who comes on. But what is one risk that you feel like everyone listening to this or everyone in the world should take one time in their life?

The WanderLust Girls: I'm gonna risk one time in their life.

The WanderLust Girls: Hmm.

Sara Emmerson: I don't know.

The WanderLust Girls: I'd say travel somewhere really far away.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah. I was thinking travel and I was gonna say, I don't wanna say solo because I think I was like thinking of traveling together, but we travel a lot together. So I think, you know, actually I think that is risky. Some people don't like to travel and I think, you know, going someplace that you wouldn't really think you would want to go is usually the place that's most exciting and inspirational. Good for—

The WanderLust Girls: yeah, good for ideas, good for outfits, good for music. It's good for all of it. It can boost your life and your business.

The WanderLust Girls: Exactly.

Sara Emmerson: I love it. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing right now, how everyone listening can find you, um, how you can help them. Share all the details.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, so I mean, well, right now we are actually writing a book. It's about all of our kind of like wild, crazy stories in New York. And, you know, being there, I mean, it's a little bit more beyond a typical, like, being there in your 20s. It's more just, you know, this kind of yes mentality where we said yes to a lot of things that kind of led us to a lot of crazy scenarios while being in the fashion industry and doing all of that. So it's kind of our journey together, which is— it's fun.

The WanderLust Girls: Yes. And then follow us on Wanderlust Girls Instagram. DM us fashion questions, DM us just to be friends. And then for our styling page, it's Wanderlust Girls Styling. You can see a lot of our commercial work and we're always up for hire.

Sara Emmerson: Yeah, I love it. Well, Abigail and Emily, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for what you're bringing into the world, not just in a fashion way, but as people. Just even sitting here with you today, the joy that you both bring. And I don't know how many of you are listening to this today might not not be feeling joyful. And here's what I would tell you. Joy is a choice. We talked about that a little bit. I always say joy is the choice to move forward with the happy and the hard. Every single person I meet that has joy, we know that there's been hard in our lives, right? Um, we didn't get into a lot of that for either of you or for, for me, but there's hard always.

The WanderLust Girls: Mm-hmm.

Sara Emmerson: But there's the choice to look for the happy and to step forward in that. And I see that in both of you, and I'm so grateful that you're putting not just incredible, incredible styling out into the world, but you're putting joy out into the world in that way too, with the fun and the excitement and the friendship that, um, you have together. So thank you for being here. I'm so, uh, so, so glad that you said yes.

The WanderLust Girls: Yeah, of course. Thank you so much.

Sara Emmerson: Absolutely. And if today's conversation, um, if you're listening and this encouraged you to take a step that you've been putting off, maybe starting a business, maybe becoming a stylist, maybe trying to wear an outfit that you have been hesitating to wear or putting that crazy hat on, um, I want to just encourage you to take the next step. Be bold, do what these women have done and silence the voice that's saying, don't do that and step out and try it. And if you need help doing that and you're hesitating to either get something done in your life or in your business, go to sarahemerson.com. That's what I love doing. I love helping people through the messy middle of their business and of their life so that they can live a full, joyful life without hesitation, truly being who they were created to be. So thanks so much for listening today, and I can't wait for you to tune in next time. Have a great day, everyone.