• Photographer Daniel Celan uses Google Earth and photo editing software like Snapseed to create stunning images of destinations around the world.
• The images, which he posts on his Instagram page, have recently gone viral for the way they make places look "more dramatic or eerie."
• "Since I can't travel that much due to work, this is my 'escape' that turned into a hobby," Celan told Insider.
• He added that he hopes to promote lesser-known places to his audience: "Maybe it will bring them a tourist or two — so that thought makes me happy."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Daniel Celan has taken photos from all over the world — and he's never even had to leave home.

Celan takes screenshots from Google Earth, then is able to process and edit the images with apps such as Snapseed"to make it more dramatic or eerie.

"I'm a photographer and musician, always been interested in expressing myself through projects," he told Insider.

"Mostly I go exploring rural places, rarely big cities. Since I can't travel that much due to work, this is my 'escape' that turned into a hobby."

From the skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, the Antarctic coast, and even more obscure places like the African nation of Eritrea, Celan — who works at a marketing agency — publishes his work on his Instagram page, g.earth.photographer.

"My plan is to keep bringing interesting and quality uploads that will put a thought in your head: 'I really wanna travel there!'" he said.

"I also tag every place I visit on Google Earth, so you know where it's taken. I feel that's some kind of promotion to unknown places I try to find. Maybe it will bring them a tourist or two — so that thought makes me happy."

Scroll down to check out some of Celan's best images.

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris.

Sedanau Island, Indonesia.

Xigu Island, China.

Dyablya in Sakha County, Russia.

Arzanah Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Açude Castanhão, State of Ceará, Brazil.

Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

Orleans City Bridge in France.

Lake Bindegolly in Australia.

Hong Kong.

Russkiy, Primorskiy Kray, Russia.

The Northwestern Passages in Canada.

Apatity, Murmansk County, Russia.

Part of the Tiergarten in Berlin.

Fredericia Vold, City Fredericia, Denmark.

Kavir National Park, Iran.

Adarte in Eritrea.

Al Huwaydi in Saudi Arabia.

Al Rahman Mosque in Baghdad, Iraq.

Irtysh River, Kazakhstan.

Boeng, Chon Buri, Thailand.

Hamilton Island, Australia.

Fields in Middenmeer, Netherlands.

Antarctica.

Yantai, Shandong, China.

Sydney, Australia.

S'Espalmador, Balearic Islands, Spain.

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• Erin Hatzikostas is a former corporate CEO turned career coach, speaker, and podcast host. She is the founder and CEO of b Authentic inc. You can listen to her offbeat career podcast, "b CAUSE with Erin & Nicole," or you can start pumping up your career with her free guide,"10 Simple Steps to a Rich Career."
• In her previous job as a CEO, she helped her company's culture score among employees go up by 15% — and triple their earnings within three years.
• She created a culture board of directors, had them helm leadership trainings, and allocated time in every meeting to talk about inspirations.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

My eight-year-old son and I were talking about work the other day. We do this often; he loves to create new business ideas and talk shop with his mom.

The term "culture" came up, and so I asked him, "What does 'culture' mean?"

He quickly responded, "Other people's realities." 

Incredible. I couldn't have defined it more succinctly that that.

Then I asked a follow-up question, "Do you think there's a 'culture' in companies?"

His response: "No clue."

My son is no different than most adults. We all know company culture is important, but it's much harder to actually define — let alone change — it.

We all know that a strong company culture can make or break a company. 

There also seem to be endless news reports about successful companies that suffer near to full collapse due to their horrible work cultures. For example, growing travel company Away recently made headlines after they replaced their CEO when it was discovered that she was cultivating a toxic, "cutthroat" company culture. 

And Away's news came on the heels of WeWork's $47 billion "culture" mistake. After evidence of a highly nefarious culture came to light, the company went from a potential mega IPO to struggling to survive.

So what are companies supposed to do? Is shaping a positive culture really as elusive as it seems?

The good news is that it isn't elusive at all. In fact, there are simple steps you can take to create an incredible culture. 

In this complex world, we often think we have to solve big problems with big solutions. That's not the case with culture; small changes can make a huge impact.

When I was CEO at my previous company, we had a lot of  opportunity to create a healthier, happier place.

One day, I had an epiphany. I was standing on stage in front of about 200 employees. I was talking about some of the progress our business was making. The pride on their faces were palpable. I thought, "We got here mostly by luck. What could our culture look like if we actually focused on creating a superior culture?" 

One year later, our culture score on our employee engagement survey went up 15%. 

While the things we did weren't rocket science, it did take a lot of trial and error to get to that point. 

Here are the three things that made the most impact for us, and can help you transform your culture as well:

SEE ALSO: 5 big problems I see with women's conferences, and how we can fix them to actually fight gender inequality

1. Create a culture 'board of directors' ... and then get out of their way

Don't form another "committee." Instead, signal that improving your company's culture is of utmost importance by forming a team that's given a significant title and role. 

For us, diversity on this team was critical. I asked each of my direct staff members to nominate three to four people from all levels within their organization. I then reviewed the nominations and selected the final "board," ensuring it included people from all office locations, all functional areas, all backgrounds, and from all levels within the organization.

Now, here's the hard part: You have to give them control. 

As the leader, you certainly set the vision and framework. But that's where it should end. To begin transforming your culture, it's critical to fully enable this team. 

We achieved this by doing things such as sending them on a "look-see" (an adult field trip) to observe how another company's culture operated. We asked the team to define the words that described our aspirational culture. We also put the BODs in charge of putting together and leading a leadership summit.

And here is why "getting out of the way" is so hard. The reason we've made it into this leadership position is largely because we've had good ideas and worked hard implementing them. This is also the same quality that prevents good leaders from becoming great leaders.

As you give up more and more control, there will be times where you may not agree with their ideas. Or you may feel nervous that they won't "do it right." 

Here's the reality: Changing culture isn't about what you do. It's about how you do it. By enabling this group first, you send a clear signal to others that this organization isn't yours; it's theirs.

2. Invest in leadership training

This one is a little less simple, and it's a critical step.

When I was leading my previous company, many of the managers had some previous leadership training. Unfortunately, many others had none.

We made the decision to invest in leadership training for every "people leader." We chose a partner company, and our goal was to create a common language and system of beliefs that was consistent among every single leader in our company.

We then sent each and every person through the same leadership training. After that, we capped the trainings off with a three-day leadership summit that the entire leadership team attended. 

Our partner company facilitated the leadership training; however, the leadership summit was fully led by our own culture BODs. 

Why? Because when the attendees saw their peers leading the summit, and not a company that would be gone the day after the event, it sent a signal that this was not a fleeting initiative; this was the start of something they would all carry on well after the summit was over.

This event produced some of the proudest moments in my career. There were so many positive outcomes from the event: Everyone came away with a clear understanding of our vision statement, we created a leadership manifesto, and people simply bonded with others that they worked with every day. 

In the end, the most valuable outcome was the team walked away knowing that they were allowed, and expected, to be the ambassadors of our company's culture.

3. Create an inspiration "platform"

Inspiring people is my jam. I'm a storyteller and people lover at heart. And I used to think that was enough to make me a great leader. All I needed to do was keep "running around" inspiring people.

Can you relate?

Then one day, I was reading through our employee engagement survey results. I noticed that the people working directly with me were pretty darn happy. But it was a different story with others in the organization. 

It hit me: My personal inspiration could only take us so far. If I wanted true cultural transformation, I had to find a way to make sure my employees continually inspired each other.

The leadership training and summit was a solid foundation. Now we just had to keep it going. 

The most mind-blowing thing is that I implemented one small thing that changed everything. I added a new agenda item to my weekly staff meeting … and our "inspiration platform" was born.

Instead of a standard agenda, diving right into the first problem at the top of the hour and never looking back, we instead reserved the first 10 minutes of every meeting for something we called, "Slow down and inspire." During this time, people were encouraged to share things such as leadership best practices, something inspiring they observed, or even personal accomplishments. 

For example, one team decided to put together a team video, and another created their own team vision board. We even had a team start a monthly "book club," where they read a new leadership book each month and then discussed it at a team meeting. 

As each of these ideas were shared in our meetings, new ideas were inspired. Soon, every team meeting in the entire company had their own version of "Slow down and inspire." Soon, everyone within the organization was inspiring each other.

Now, you might be wondering, 'Did any of this culture work pay off?'

It did. Literally. Not only did our employee engagement scores skyrocket, our earnings tripled in just three years.

That's a pretty strong business case that a strong culture yields strong business results.

In summary, if you want to cultivate a great culture, your job is not to "do it all," or even to inspire people. Your job is to create the system, or platform, to shape a culture and then make sure it keeps going.

Envision this: Your job is to pull the cord of one of those flying disc toys. Your need to get that disc flying. Then it's up to your team to make sure it keeps flying. And when it falls to the ground, that's ok. Your job is to pick it back up and inspire it to fly again.

• King Edward VIII rejected the crown so he could marry a divorced American woman.
• In 1995, Diana sat down for a tell-all solo interview and talked about Prince Charles' affair with Camilla, after which the Queen urged them to get divorced.
• Prince Harry was photographed wearing a Nazi costume in 2005.
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they're taking a step back from their royal duties in order to become financially independent and launch their own charity.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The British royal family is always making headlines — sometimes for rather unsavory reasons.

The past few generations of the House of Windsor have been dogged by scandals of nearly every variety, from tactless costume choices to explosive divorces and even an unprecedented abdication of the throne.

Thanks to gossip-hungry media outlets, much of their dirtiest laundry has been broadcast and published all across the world. 

Here are the stories behind 18 major scandals that captured the world's attention. 

King Edward VIII rejected the crown so he could marry a divorced American woman.

Directly after his father died in 1936, Edward VIII took the throne. Less than a year later, he renounced it. 

That's because he had fallen hard for Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who'd already been divorced once and was working through her second. His proposal of marriage caused social and political uproar, since the Church of England technically forbade Edward from marrying someone who'd been divorced. Eventually, Edward was forced to abdicate. 

"I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King [...] without the help and support of the woman I love," he said in a radio address to the nation in December 1936. Edward and Simpson married in 1937 and stayed together until Edward's death in 1972. (And she wasn't the only commoner who married into royalty.)

Source: BBC

Princess Margaret fell in love with a married man.

Captain Peter Townsend was a Royal Air Force officer who served as an equerry – essentially an attendant to the royal family. He spent a great deal of time with Margaret, and before long, the two fell in love. The only problem was that he was married. 

Things got even more scandalous in 1953 when Townsend divorced his wife and proposed to Margaret. But the rules of the Church of England forbade such a marriage. (After all, Margaret's uncle Edward VIII had to relinquish the throne in order to marry a divorcee.) 

The relationship came to a heartbreaking close in 1955 when they called off the engagement. There was simply no way for Captain Townsend and Princess Margaret to have a happy ending. 

Source: Vanity Fair

Her eventual marriage to different man ended in a high-profile divorce.

Not long after calling things off with Townsend, Margaret married photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones. (It was the first royal wedding to ever be televised!)

A few years later, their union became a source of "growing public ridicule," according to the New York Times. They fought in public, Margaret took long vacations without her husband, and rumors swirled around her close friendship with a man 17 years her junior. 

In 1976, the couple announced their separation, and two years later, they were officially divorced. Margaret became the first royal to divorce since Henry VIII, who reigned way back in the 1500s.

Source: New York Times, BBC

Princess Diana and an alleged lover were secretly recorded on the phone.

In 1992 — while Prince Charles and Princess Diana were still married— media outlets published the transcript of an conversation between Diana and an alleged lover named James Gilbey. In the conversation, Gilbey told Diana that he loved her and called her by the pet name "Squidgy" 53 times. That's how the scandal earned the memorable moniker "Squidgygate."

Later, in an interview, Diana confirmed that the conversation was real, but denied that it was adulterous in nature. 

Source: The Telegraph

The same thing happened to Diana's husband, Prince Charles.

Not long after Diana's leaked phone call, Prince Charles (Queen Elizabeth's oldest son) had one of his own. 

An Australian magazine published the transcript of a call between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles — a longtime married friend. The transcript all but confirmed what many rumors had postulated: That Charles and Camilla were romantically involved. 

In one of the more confounding parts of the conversation, the couple jokes about Charles turning into a tampon in order to "live inside" Camilla's trousers. 

Later that year, Charles and Diana announced their separation. 

Source: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian

Then Diana gave a bombshell TV interview — and the marriage finally collapsed for good.

In 1995, Diana sat down for a tell-all solo interview with journalist Martin Bashir to talk about the immense pressures of public life and her struggles with self-harm, postpartum depression, and bulimia. She also revealed that she knew about Charles' affair with Camilla. ("There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," she famously quipped.) And Diana even admitted that she'd been unfaithful to Charles, saying that she had been "in love" with James Hewitt, her riding instructor.  

A few weeks later, the Queen herself urged her son and daughter-in-law to divorce, and the following year, they made it official. Charles and Camilla, on the other hand, wed in 2005 and are still together.

Source: BBC, New York Times, TIME

Princess Anne divorced her husband and married a member of the royal staff.

Princess Anne, the only daughter of current Queen Elizabeth II, married Olympic equestrian Mark Phillips in 1973. But the couple spent large swaths of time apart and didn't appear to be happy — People magazine described the marriage as a "joyless sham."

Then, in spring 1989, a British newspaper obtained stolen copies of letters written to Anne by one of her equerries — a British naval officer named Timothy Laurence. Though the content of the letters wasn't made public, tabloids described them as "extremely intimate" and "too hot to handle."

In 1992, Anne announced that she was divorcing Phillips — and that she planned to marry Laurence. The two have been together ever since.  

Source: People, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, BBC

Paparazzi caught Sarah Ferguson in a compromising "toe-licking" incident.

Sarah Ferguson (popularly known as "Fergie") married Queen Elizabeth's son Prince Andrew in 1986. 

Six years later, scandal erupted: Paparazzi photographers captured Fergie vacationing with an American financial advisor named John Bryan. In one photo — an image quickly plastered on the front page of The Sun — Bryan appeared to be licking Fergie's foot. 

Things didn't go very well after that. Fergie and Andrew separated in 1992 (the same year as Charles and Diana!) and divorced in 1996. 

Source: The Telegraph, BBC

Later, Fergie was accused of taking a $633,000 bribe.

Fergie's marital drama didn't end after the divorce. In 2010, a News of the World journalist posed as a businessman and said he got Fergie to accept a £500,00 (about $633,000) bribe in exchange for access to her ex-husband. 

A video recording of their meeting was released to the media, and Fergie later apologized, saying she'd made a "serious lapse in judgment."

Source: The Guardian, Reuters

Prince Andrew had his own dirty laundry: He resigned from his job because of seedy friendships.

Prince Andrew served as the UK's trade envoy from 2001 through 2011, when he stepped down due to mounting criticism over some of his personal relationships.

Namely, he was close friends with American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Prince Andrew stepped back from his royal duties altogether in 2019 after new allegations surfaced regarding his relationship with Epstein, culminating in a disastrous BBC interview.

Virginia Roberts, pictured with Andrew above, accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with the prince when she was just 17 years old, back in 2001. 

The allegations from a 2015 defamation case recently resurfaced in the media as the case became unsealed. 

Four days after a car-crash interview with "BBC Newsnight" where he spoke about his friendship with Epstein, Prince Andrew announced he would step down from his royal duties.

Prince Harry spent a day (yes, a single day) in rehab.

After admitting to his father that he'd tried marijuana, a 17-year-old Prince Harry spent a day at the Featherstone Lodge rehabilitation center in London.

A statement from the royal family said the Harry had agreed to visit the clinic "to learn about the possible consequences of starting to take cannabis."

Source: The Telegraph

He was also photographed wearing a Nazi costume.

In January 2005, British paper The Sun published a front-page photo of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi armband, apparently at a costume party.

The prince, who was 20 at the time, quickly released a statement of apology that read: "Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume."

Source: BBC

In 2012, Prince Harry got naked at a private party in Las Vegas, and someone leaked the photos to The Sun.

The British tabloid published the naked photos of the prince in 2012, which were taken by another party-goer during a game of strip billiards in his hotel suite.

According to an anonymous source who was in attendance, the prince's security team appeared to be aware that people were taking photos. 

"No one asked for our phones or anything about us when we arrived at the party," the source told The Sun. "It was obvious people were taking pictures."

That same year, Closer Magazine published a photo of Kate Middleton sunbathing topless on its cover.

At the time the pictures were taken, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were staying in a private holiday home owned by the Queen's nephew, Viscount Linley.

After the couple won a lawsuit against the company, Closer was ordered to pay $118,000 in damages to Will and Kate in 2017.

Meghan Markle walked herself down the aisle after her father was caught staging paparazzi photos in the lead up to her wedding to Prince Harry.

Thomas Markle's no-show at the royal wedding was thought to be due to his poor health, as he suffered a heart attack just days before Harry and Markle tied the knot in Windsor back in May 2018.

However, in the year that followed, Thomas and the duchess appeared to have a strained relationship, with Thomas even speaking out against his daughter in several interviews with British tabloids.

Meghan launched a lawsuit against British tabloid the Mail on Sunday after it published a private letter she wrote to her father.

The Duchess of Sussex is currently suing the publication over the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2008 after it published excerpts from the letter earlier this year. 

However, the royal is facing claims that she "invaded her own privacy" after her friends spoke about the letter in an interview with People long before her father leaked it to the press.

After months of rumors, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they're taking a "step back" from royal life. The royal family was reportedly not made aware that the announcement was being made ahead of time.

The announcement said they "intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen." They also wrote that they will split their time between North America and the UK.

It appears the Queen may not have been aware of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's decision based on a statement from the royal communications office.

"Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage," the Queen's statement read. "We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through."

• Read more:
• 13 of the most controversial royal couples of all time
• 15 photos that show how meeting a royal has changed through the years
• 14 royal scandals and celebrations from 2019 that you probably forgot

• New research by the International Longevity Centre-UK, published in December, found that ageism could cost the fashion industry £11 billion (over $14 billion) in the next 20 years, The Guardian reported on January 5.
• "For too long the fashion and beauty industries have been bewilderingly resistant to recognizing just how fashionable and stylish the generation of older consumers are and want to remain," Diane Kenwood, an ILC trustee, told the outlet. 
• This study comes amidst brands and retailers increasing their attempts to court Gen Zers, whose shopping habits and expectations differ vastly from previous generations. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fashion, like many industries, has a long history of ageism. However, in turning its attention almost solely toward the younger generations, the fashion industry risks alienating what is a multibillion-dollar industry in its own right. In fact, on January 5, The Guardian's Amelia Hill reported on a study by the International Longevity Centre-UK that says ageism could cost the fashion industry a staggering £11 billion (over $14 billion) in the next 20 years. 

"For too long the fashion and beauty industries have been bewilderingly resistant to recognizing just how fashionable and stylish the generation of older consumers are and want to remain," Diane Kenwood, an ILC trustee, told The Guardian. "The potential of these consumers is huge and it has been shamefully sidelined. I do, though, sense a shift in attitudes starting to stir, and I'm hopeful that change will gather momentum."

Ageism comes with a cost — and a hefty one at that

Older models have been more present in the fashion and beauty industries the past few years. For example, 72-year old actress Helen Mirren serves as a brand ambassador for beauty brand L'Oreal, and a then-82-year-old author Joan Didion was tapped to star in a 2015 campaign for the French luxury house Celine; there was also 76-year-old singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell who, also in 2015, had a campaign with luxury house Saint Laurent; and in 2019, 92-year-old Iris Apfel signed a modeling contract with IMG. 

As Hill reported for The Guardian, those considered to be "older people" (Gen Xers and boomers) have increased their spending on fashion by nearly 21% between 2011 and 2018. And though, as the Centre's research found, women typically stop spending money on fashion once they reach the age 75, they are still interested in looking and feeling stylish. 

But the increase in advertisements and spending power alone may not be enough to completely sway the fashion industry to not leave older consumers behind. In speaking with The Guardian, Ari Seth Cohen, creator of the blog Advanced Style, said that the fashion industry has a fear of mortality. 

"Fashion and beauty brands have been ignoring their older customers for ages," Cohen told The Guardian. "Rather than trying to reach this savvy demographic, they prey on their insecurities and use fear and ageist propaganda to sell beauty products that promise the ridiculous and harmful ideology of 'anti-ageing.'"

What happens to the money left behind?

The fashion industry simply doesn't appear to be focused on courting older buyers. Today, the attention is turned toward Gen Zers, whose tastes and shopping habits differ vastly from older generations — even from millennials.

Research has shown (and experts have echoed) that Gen Zers want more of an "experience" when it comes to their shopping; they want brands with messages that champion and support causes that are important to them, ones that are inclusive and diverse in campaigns and advertisements, and ones that can, most importantly, come across as authentic in an age where everything seems staged for social media. 

In fact, not being able to connect with younger generations has appeared to be more of a detriment to fashion and retail than its exclusion of older buyers. Many iconic retailers, such as Sears, JCPenny, Victoria's Secret, Henri Bendel, and the once-beloved Barneys New York have filed for bankruptcy or been forced to close a huge number of stores in the last decade due to dwindling sales.

If boomers are already considered "older people" and Gen X is on its way there, then disregarding both not only further purports ageism that's problematic for cultural and societal reasons, but also ignores what combined could be a trillion-dollar market. It seems the real question is not whether retailers and brands can effectively market towards both the "young" and "older" generations — it's if they want to put in the effort to do so.

SEE ALSO: Giorgio Armani, who just bought a $17.5 million penthouse, doesn't believe he's the third-richest person in Italy: 'There are some people who are hiding'

DON'T MISS: Gen Z is changing the world — meet the powerhouses aged 22 or younger who made it onto this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 list

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: At its peak, Forever 21 made $4.4 billion in revenue. Here's what led to the brand's downfall and bankruptcy.

• Holly is a neighborhood in East Austin, Texas, that was recently ranked No. 24 in Time Out's list of the 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world.
• It's close to downtown Austin and borders the Colorado River, making it the ideal location for all Austin has to offer. 
• Holly is in the accelerated and late stages of gentrification, which means that as areas in East Austin are being redeveloped and attracting high-income residents, property taxes increase, pricing out low-income residents.
• Gentrification is a major issue in cities across the US, but Austin's history of housing segregation makes the gentrification of East Austin especially polarizing.
• I lived in Holly back in 2014, and I recently took a trip back to see how the neighborhood has changed. And I was surprised to find that the neighborhood felt totally different.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Welcome to Holly, the neighborhood that Time Out recently dubbed one of the coolest in the world.

Source: Time Out

Time Out describes Holly as "laidback, earthy, and cool."

Source: Time Out

Holly is located in Austin, Texas. For those not familiar, it's about an hour and a half away from San Antonio and three hours south-west of Dallas.

The hotspot neighborhood of Holly is just east of Downtown Austin.

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

Austin's tech industry has been on the rise since the early 2000s. Today, Austin is growing faster than any other city in the US, and that is impacting Holly.

Source: World Population Review, Business Insider

A former Austinite, I spent a day in Holly in October 2019 to see how it had changed. And I thought it felt like a completely different neighborhood.

Holly resident Sarah DeLaCruz summed up for me why people love the neighborhood: "It's everything people like about Austin," DeLaCruz said.

"You have the nightlife super close, there's live music every night that's very good, and we can walk to every restaurant we want to eat at," she continued.

The neighborhood attracts all kinds of creatives, making Holly a cultural hub on the rise.

Source: Time Out

All around the neighborhood, murals fill the walls of buildings.

Holly is also close to nature. This park by the river is a peaceful spot where residents can hike or bike on the trails surrounding the water.

Designated "Grow Zones" keep the area wild. Grow Zones are areas of land that are taken off the city's mowing schedule so they can grow and recover naturally from urbanization.

Source: The City of Austin

After a peaceful hike, I had lunch at Launderette — a laundromat-turned-restaurant in Holly.

Source: Time Out

You would never know this used to be a laundromat. The design of this New American restaurant is incredibly hip and nuanced.

I had the seared salmon entrée and fries. It was delicious.

But If you're looking for something quick and cheap, Juan in a Million is the place to go.

Source: Juan in a Million, Eater Austin

It's been a taco joint in the heart of Holly for almost 40 years. "The Holly neighborhood families were our first customers, and up until today their children and grandchildren continue to be our loyal customers and that has not changed," restaurant owner Juan Meza told Insider.

Fair Market is another neighborhood hot spot. It's an event venue that is used for parties like the QueerBomb, an annual LQBTQIA+ community gathering.

Source: Austin Monthly

After wandering around Holly, I decided to swing by the place that's most familiar to me — my mom's old condo where I lived in the summer of 2014.

While the iconic "East Poultry" sign remained, pretty much everything else about the street was different.

Across the street were new businesses, like the Austin Art Therapy Collective ...

... and Sir Rat Leather and Gear.

Source: Austin Chronicle

And old houses were replaced with new ones ...

... which made me wonder where the previous residents went.

Holly is just one of many neighborhoods in East Austin that's being gentrified. As areas in East Austin are being redeveloped and attracting high-income residents ...

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

... the value of houses go up, which means higher property taxes. This can lead to people being priced out of their neighborhoods.

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

To really understand the impact this has on the East Austin community, we have to look back at Austin's racist past.

Source: Texas Tribune, NPR

In 1928, the City of Austin made it legal to cut off public services like schools from African Americans that weren't east Austin residents.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

This forced African Americans to create their own community in East Austin, known at the time as the "Negro District."

Source: Austin American-Statesman

In the mid-20th century, a Hispanic population also found solace in the East Austin community, as racial verbiage made the shift from "no people of African descent" to "Caucasian only," segregating the Hispanic community as well.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

"Even though our neighbors were not Austin's economically wealthiest, they were, in my opinion, rich in Latino culture and tradition," Juan in a Million owner Meza told Insider.

The segregation was solidified after the Great Depression, because while the federal government starting backing mortgage loans to create wealth ...

Source: Austin American-Statesman

... they wouldn't back mortgage loans in neighborhoods considered "high risk," which included minority neighborhoods like East Austin.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

This left Holly's residents without opportunities residents outside of East Austin had, keeping them in poverty while middle-class America recovered from the depression.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Today, Holly is in an accelerated stage of gentrification, while parts of it are in the late stages, according to a 2018 study by the University of Texas.

Source: University of Texas

This means that many of Holly's low-income residents face direct displacement — a term used to describe being priced out of your neighborhood as a result of gentrification.

Source: University of Texas, UT Liberal Arts

Some Austinites that are against the gentrification of East Austin formed a group called "Defend Our Hoodz" in 2016.

Source: Austin Chronicle

"We are a revolutionary organization standing for working-class neighborhoods against displacement and gentrification," Defend Our Hoodz told Insider.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Some argue that with direct displacement comes a loss of culture.

Source: NPR

Former East Austin resident Leslie Perkins was displaced about 14 years ago, and she told NPR that she wouldn't move back now.

Source: NPR

"I was a part of the community. It doesn't really exist anymore as it did. And that's pretty sad for me," Perkins told NPR.

Source: NPR

"Holly was a tight-knit community where everyone in the neighborhood knew each other and watched out for one another," Meza said of the neighborhood when Juan in a Million first opened 40 years ago.

And even East Austin's newer residents can feel the area changing fast.

DeLaCruz is one of those newer residents. She bought her house on Holly St. in 2012. "It was honestly the cheapest neighborhood we could live in at the time," DeLaCruz told Insider.

DeLaCruz says she was wary of the neighborhood when she first moved in. She told Insider that she saw a lot of crime in her daily life.

Fast forward to 2019, and DeLaCruz's realtor was right. She says her home has more than doubled in value.

But that's exactly what's driving out Holly's lower-income residents.

And with a Target and a Whole Foods on the way, it seems Holly's gentrification will only continue to take place.

Source: NPR, Austin American-Statesman, Easter Austin

• Starting on January 11, 2000, photographer Noah Kalina took a self portrait every day for 20 years.
• He started the project years before the concept of a "selfie" even existed. It was just called a self portrait back then, and he used cameras with flippable viewfinders so he could see himself before snapping each photo.
• Kalina only missed 27 out of 7,305 days, and a handful of images from August 2003 were lost in a hard drive crash.
• After 20 years, Kalina cut the whole archive — some 7,263 photos in all — into an incredible video. The project is known as "Everyday." Check out the video below!
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SEE ALSO: 11 of the most dangerous and incredible selfies ever taken

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Garrett Leight is the founder, CEO, and creative director of the luxury eyewear brand Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO).
• GLCO's celebrity clientele includes Brad Pitt, Jeff Bezos, and Selena Gomez, among others. 
• Leight is the son of Larry Leight, founder of the luxury eyewear brand Oliver Peoples.
• Having grown up in the eyewear industry, Leight said he felt it was natural for him to launch his own eyewear brand.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For millennial designer Garrett Leight, owning a luxury eyewear brand is about more than just ambition — it's about keeping his family legacy alive. 

Born and raised in Venice, California, 35-year-old Leight grew up watching his father, Larry, run his high-end eyewear brand Oliver Peoples. At first, Leight never thought he would join his father or the family business. Instead, Leight told Business Insider, he was studying journalism at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and intended to enter the music industry, or to do something similarly creative — essentially, goals that were far different from the world he grew up in.

But in 2008, Larry sold Oliver Peoples to Luxottica, and in that moment, Leight says he understood the importance of keeping his family legacy alive. 

"I feel like [this industry] chose me," Leight told Business Insider. "I just loved the family atmosphere and the energy that [Oliver Peoples] had .... and I saw it dwindling because it was becoming more corporate. So I just wanted to rekindle that." 

That summer, Leight made the decision to start his own eyewear company. He took the stake he had inherited from the sale of his father's business and invested the whole sum into launching his own brand.

"I had been working for Oliver Peoples for like two years .... [and] I kind of became miserable there," he said. "I didn't know that I was an entrepreneur at the time, and [there] was just this overwhelming feeling that I needed to create my own thing." 

On November 6, 2009, Leight opened his first concept store in his hometown of Venice and a year later founded Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO). His first collection was inspired by his childhood, he says, and reflected the artistic and intellectual diversity he was surrounded by growing up. So far, it's been a critical and commercial success. Leight says that some of the brand's best-selling frames of all time hail from those first two Venice-inspired collections.

"I launched my first collection off the influence of my customers," Leight said. "And my customers were just cool intellectual locals with really rad interests and jobs, but they flew completely under the radar. That's basically the spirit of a Venice creative. You don't really know why they're sitting at the coffee shop all day and writing on the computer, [but] they're actually doing something."

The importance of marketing to millennials

GLCO realized early on how vital it was to get millennials to buy their products.

To promote the brand, Leight and his team don't hire big influencers and they don't hire small influencers. In fact, they don't hire influencers in the traditional sense at all. Rather, they focus on connecting with a community of people who they feel would genuinely buy their products; who would sincerely love their glasses; and who would honestly tell other people about their enthusiasm for the frames. 

"For us it's less about [follower] numbers and conversion and data," said Jamie Katz, chief communications officer of GLCO. "It's more about an organic alignment. If they feel like they are an extension of what we've tried to create as the Garrett Leight lifestyle, then we feel like they're probably in a community of people that would also appreciate the Garrett Leight lifestyle."

Instead, GLCO works with stylists, who often give the products to their clients. In turn, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio,Lady Gaga, and even Jeff Bezos, have all been spotted wearing Garrett Leight glasses.

The GLCO team has also been using digital media to educate their millennial and Gen Z customers on the importance of investing in a good pair of glasses. 

"We're a born-out-of-the-recession brand," Leight said. "During that recession, the conversation was just about timeless, classic items that were valuable because they wouldn't go out of style .... [Today] it's all about logos and color and brand, and less about the things that are guaranteed to last you forever." 

This is why, Leight says, his brick-and-mortar shops aim to create unique experiences for buyers ⁠— taking the in-person opportunity to educate consumers on how GLCO products are made, and why they would be a valuable investment.

"Since we started 10 years ago, one of the most common questions I still get is how to select glasses for your face," said Elena Doukas, design director at GLCO. "I think people can be overwhelmed by their choices. [But] we're very focused in our own stores on giving an experience where the customer leaves feeling included in their selection, and expanding that experience in a digital age I think will be key moving forward."

As head designer, Doukas has been responsible for some of GLCO's most innovative designs

For the brand's most recent collection, Doukas took inspiration from her childhood in the southwest United States. 

"I've always been very drawn to the Southwest culture," Doukas said. "I loved this kind of customized experience of matching a stone to someone's personality, and wanted to combine that with glasses. I thought it would be interesting to place a stone near the temple of the frame so it not only adds a sophisticated visual detail, but it also harnesses the powers that the stones are known for."

Growing up in Colorado, the designer remembers the long drives she would take to visit her family who lived in Santa Fe. Specifically, she recalled the crystal shops along the route, and revisited those memories last year, while also stopping by the Petrified Forest in Arizona.

Upon returning to California, she decided to create an eyewear collection based on the colors and cultures of the Southwest. Her most innovative design to date: sunglasses made with the healing crystals Rose Quartz, Black Onyx, and Tiger's Eye. It is part of the Mr. Leight Fall 2019 collection.

These sunglasses — in addition to the brand's "Magician Sunglasses," which have frames that change color when exposed to UV Light — are set to make an impact on the market, proving once again that Doukas and Leight have a, if not harmonious, then a symbiotic creative relationship.

"When he first hired me, we worked together as opticians in his Venice optical shop, and it was there that we started an ongoing conversation about eyewear aesthetic and fit," Doukas said. "Garrett brings an overall vision and identity to the brand, which I then work with him to translate into the physical product that we create in each seasonal collection."

In 2018, GLCO came full circle when Leight was able to launch an eyewear collection with his father

At that point, it had been exactly ten years since Larry sold Oliver Peoples to Luxottica, but because of Garrett, the Leight family name was still at the forefront of luxury eyewear. 

"He's been such a source of positivity for the industry," Leight said of his father. "[Their collaborative collection, called Mr. Leight] felt important to me. Clearly legacy and family is more important to me than I thought ten years ago. [And] just putting that on my resume of life feels like the greater good."  

Despite finding lasting success in the industry over the past decade, Leight is careful not to assume the market will always be this favorable to his company.

"I've learned not to take everything for granted," Leight said. "Especially when you're growing really fast, you kind of feel like you're on top of the world. [But] you could lose sight of some things. As an entrepreneur, you're always one mistake away from losing everything, more or less. So you just have to be aware of your business and, especially as a creative leader, [try] to have a grounded mindset."

So as the industry enters a new decade, Leight and GLCO are taking their time, cruising California style into the future of eyewear. Having now moved beyond their initial customer base of Venice creatives, the brand can be found in 25 countries, on six different continents, and in seven flagship locations around the US ⁠— including in Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. 

"We market .... who we are, what we stand for, [and] what we've been about since day one, which is California DNA and the quality product and great customer service," Leight said. "We just kind of were ourselves and created what we thought was cool and people liked it."

SEE ALSO: LVMH just offered to buy Tiffany & Co — here's a look at 17 of the most iconic brands the French luxury giant owns

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• The Queen doesn't get all her money from taxpayers.
• She profits from a land trust called the Duchy of Lancaster in addition to the estates and artwork she inherited from her father.
• Prince Charles paid Harry and Meghan, William and Kate, and their children a combined $6.5 million (£5 million) in 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• The Sunday Times estimated the Queen's net worth to be $442.92 million (£340 million) in 2016, which makes her far from the richest person in Britain.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Queen may be financially supporting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (for now, anyway) — but she's not as rich as you might think.

Elizabeth II has a net worth of $442.92 million (£340 million), derived from a grant from taxpayers and two additional income sources, The Sunday Times estimated in 2016. That's still more than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have a shared fortune of $30 million, Business Insider previously reported.

Nonetheless, the young couple announced their decision to "step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family" and work towards financial independence in a statement released on January 8.

Here's how the British royal family makes their fortune.

SEE ALSO: How Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could earn enough money to become 'financially independent' of the crown — and why it likely won't include a return to the screen

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Every year, the Queen gets a chunk of cash from taxpayers called the Sovereign Grant.

It comes from the treasury and it's funded by taxpayers, according to the BBC.  

The basic agreement is that the Queen gets the grant in exchange for surrendering all profits from the Crown Estate— the family's massive portfolio of properties — to the government. Every year, the Queen is given an amount of money equivalent to 25% of the Crown Estate's profits. 

The Grant totaled $107.1 million (£82.2 million) in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Sovereign Grant pays for the family's travel, palace upkeep and utilities, and royal employee payroll, according to official royal family financial reports. But The Telegraph notes that the grant doesn't cover costs of security and royal ceremonies — that money comes from a few other places.

The Queen's private income is called the Privy Purse.

That money comes from the Duchy of Lancaster — a portfolio of land and other assets that's been in the royal family for hundreds of years. It contains $715 million (£548.6 million) worth of net assets (including 18,433 hectares of land) and is made up of residential, commercial, and agricultural properties, Wall Street Journal UK correspondent Max Colchester reported.

It brought in $27 million (£20.7 million) in 2019, according to The Journal. According to the royal family website, this sum helps with costs not covered by the Sovereign Grant — namely, it's used to pay "expenses incurred by other members of the royal family."

The Queen also has other valuable assets that add to her net worth.

The Queen also outright owns Balmoral and Sandringham Estates, an expansive art collection, and other valuable assets that have been passed down from earlier monarchs, Wall Street Journal's Colchester said on a January 14 episode of The Journal's What's News podcast.

The unknown total value of Her Royal Highness' property makes it difficult to estimate her total net worth, according to The Journal. A royal finance expert did tell The Journal that the royal family members are "millionaires, not billionaires."

In 2016, The Sunday Times estimated the Queen's net worth to be $442.92 million (£340 million).

Prince Charles has a major income stream of his own.

The Duchy of Cornwall— yet another suite of properties owned by the royal family — covers the expenses of Prince Charles and his heirs. That means Harry and Meghan, William and Kate, and their children are all covered by the Duchy of Cornwall, too. Charles paid them a combined $6.5 million (£5 million) in 2019, according to The Journal.

The Duchy paid Charles $28.1 million (£21.6 million), The Journal reported. Its total value is $1.2 billion (£923.8 million). 

The Queen and the Prince of Wales effectively control most of the royal family's fortune and divvy out payments to support other family members, The Journal reported.

Royals who work for the Crown full time aren't allowed to earn any money from outside sources, however.

That rule will no longer apply to Meghan and Harry as they complete their transition to their "progressive new role" within the royal family.

The couple will likely use book deals and speaking engagements to fund their luxurious tastes going forward, while other expenses like their security detail will remain on British taxpayers, royal commentators previously told Business Insider. Even though Harry has never had a job outside of his military service, it likely won't take much effort for them to start raking in multimillion-dollar paychecks. The Sussexes have "great earning potential," royal commentator and author Kristen Meinzer told Business Insider.

"We could easily compare them to any former presidents," Meinzer said. "My mind keeps going to Barack and Michelle Obama and how [they] make money. The reason I compare the two is that they're already friends with each other and I would put them on the same level in terms of fame."

The Duke and Duchess will likely start receiving book offers as soon as they are cleared to generate their own income, and the value of those offers will likely be in the neighborhood of the $60 million advance that Barack and Michelle Obama were reportedly paid for the rights to their memoirs in 2017, according to Meinzer.

The Atlantic's Joanna Weiss theorized that the couple could leverage their massively popular @SussexRoyal Instagram account with sponsored content, but Meinzer says she doesn't expect that the couple will be hawking Sugar Bear Hair vitamins like Kylie Jenner and the Kardashians.

• Colliers International, a global real-estate firm, has listed three islands off the coast of British Columbia in Canada for sale.
• These islands aren't far from the Vancouver Island mansion where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stayed during their winter vacation, shortly before #Megxit news broke. 
• The prices of these islands range from around $1.1 million CAD ($841,830 USD) to $1.7 million USD.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Now is the perfect time to buy an island — especially for these prices.

And who knows? A buyer might just end up island-neighbors with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who stayed on Vancouver Island during their winter vacation last year, shortly before announcing their intention to break off from the royal family and seek "financial independence."

Colliers International, a Vancouver-based real estate firm, has listed several islands off the coast of British Columbia for sale, Vancouver Sun reports. The islands we've highlighted here are priced as low as $841,830 and cost as much as $1.7 million.

Some of the islands, such as the West Ballenas Island, are in their natural state, meaning they offer the perfect opportunity to be developed and built upon. They have large forested areas and private beaches, offering stunning views of the surrounding waters. 

Here's a look at the three islands, arranged in order from least to most expensive.

SEE ALSO: 3 private islands in Belize just hit the market — and at less than $530,000 a piece, they each cost less than the typical home in NYC and Honolulu. Here's what the money will buy you.

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Jelina Island — $1.1 million CAD ($841,830 USD)

Located in the Georgia Strait, this island has a massive forest which takes up most of the inland area.

Source:Vancouver Sun, Colliers International

Stretching across seven acres, it already comes with an already-built cabin and boat house. It also has sea otters and killer whales within the vicinity, perfect for a sightseeing day at your own private beach.

Source:Vancouver Sun, Private Islands Online

Halibut Island — $1.995 million CAD ($1.5 million USD)

This island, situated in the southern Gulf Islands, is on sale for the first time in 50 years.

Source:Vancouver Sun, Colliers Canada

It is known for its gravel beaches and it's just a few miles away from the US border.

It has a bustling wildlife population and is one of many feeding grounds in the area for Orcas. It's also pretty close to the Port Sidney Marina.

Source:Vancouver Sun,Colliers Canada

West Ballenas Island — $2.225 million CAD ($1.7 million USD)

This island is close to its natural state, practically untouched by humans. Though if purchased, a part of the island will still be owned by the Canadian government for the use of its lighthouse.

Source:Vancouver Sun, Colliers International

The island has an elevation point which reaches 109 feet. It's located in the Georgia Strait.

Source:Vancouver Sun, Colliers International

• Michelle Obama's style has evolved since she became First Lady in 2009.
• She made waves for going sleeveless at the beginning of President Obama's tenure, and today she is celebrated for her sparkly ensembles and modern suits.
• Clothing Obama wears often sells out after she wears them in public, highlighting her status as a fashion icon.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Michelle Obama has redefined First Lady fashion.

From her commotion-causing sleeveless portrait way back in 2009 to the glittering Versace gown she donned for her final state dinner in October 2016, the former FLOTUS has continued to charm America with her knack for selecting elegant but down-to-earth designs. And her sense of style has continued to make headlines even after her White House days.

Need proof that we all love her taste? NPR reported that many of the items she wears sell out almost instantly. One academic even did a study of Obama's effect on fashion and concluded that, when she wears a garment, that garment's designer can get a financial boost to the tune of $38 million. 

But she's not trying to create waves with her wardrobe. Actually, her personal style philosophy is simple:

"I always say that women should wear whatever makes them feel good about themselves. That's what I always try to do," she told Vogue in 2013.

Here's a look at how her style has evolved since she first hit the national stage.

At the August 2008 Democratic National Convention held in Denver, Colorado, Obama stood out in a simple turquoise dress by designer Maria Pinto.

Obama's dress had a simple brooch embellishment. 

Source: Vogue

On election night a few months later, she wore a fiery Narcisco Rodriguez dress.

For the Obama event in Chicago, Illinois, she layered a cropped cardigan over her wrap dress.

Source: New York Times

At the inaugural ball in January 2009, Obama's ethereal white gown put young designer Jason Wu on the map.

She topped off her outfit with dainty earrings and a chunky bracelet. 

Source: New York Times

Obama made waves by going sleeveless (in Michael Kors) for her first official portrait, which was taken in January 2009 in Washington, D.C.

The look also spurred a national obsession with the former First Lady's toned arms. 

Sources: Huffington Post, ABC News

She stepped out in an elegant black and white ensemble during a March 2009 visit to London, UK.

The former First Lady's outfit had a retro glam vibe.

She wore a stunning patterned midi dress during a trip to Germany in April 2009.

To let this bright dress shine, Obama kept her accessories minimal.

And here's a crisp yet casual ensemble she chose for a visit to a school garden in Washington, D.C., in May 2009.

Obama paired her cropped pants with a quirky button-up shirt.

The former First Lady has a thing for statement brooches, too. She wore this one in September 2009 to an event in Washington, D.C.

Obama topped off this monochromatic outfit with matching pink lipstick. 

At her and Barack's first-ever state dinner in November 2009, Obama wore a shimmering gown by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan.

The former First Lady finished off her outfit with lots of jewelry and a matching shawl.

She kept it classic for her husband's first State of the Union address in January 2010.

Obama gravitates toward A-line skirts.

You can't miss Obama's penchant for patterns and bright colors in this snapshot from September 2010.

To complete her vintage-inspired look, Obama paired her pleated dress with pearls.

She hosted the December 2010 Kennedy Center Honors in a beaded gown by Naeem Khan.

When it comes to formal events, Obama often goes for sparkling gowns, as seen here.

Source: Huffington Post

Obama got backlash for wearing British designer Alexander McQueen to a January 2011 state dinner with Chinese leaders — but she looked incredible.

Obama finished off her look with a voluminous updo, statement earrings, and a wrap. 

Source: Washington Post

Belts are another mainstay in Obama's wardrobe. Here's a flashy one she wore during a trip to London in May 2011.

The former First Lady used the eye-catching belt to add structure and shape to her shift dress. 

On the same trip, for a banquet with the Queen, she chose a flowing Tom Ford gown.

Obama completed her glamorous outfit with long gloves, a sleek updo, and stunning earrings.

Source: New York Magazine

On July 4, 2011, she hosted a barbecue in Washington, D.C., and wore a bold Sophie Theallet sundress.

She paired her patterned dress with sandals and hoop earrings.

Source: Huffington Post

Obama chose a glittery Chris Benz dress with a timeless silhouette for a 2011 awards gala.

Obama took her look to the next level with a sleek updo and bold earrings.

Source: Huffington Post

That same year, she attended a ceremony for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in a cinched, sequined gown by Michael Kors.

She finished off her outfit with tons of statement jewelry.

Source: InStyle

And on Veterans Day 2011, she bundled up in an ornate skirt-jacket combo.

Obama finished her look with a pair of over-the-knee boots, leather gloves, and bib-like statement necklace.

She looked festive in this Cushnie et Ochs gown for White House Christmas celebrations a month later.

The former First Lady finished off her outfit with lots of eye makeup and statement earrings.

Obama appeared on an episode of "Top Chef" in 2012 wearing a bold outfit.

Obama topped off this colorful look with a metallic belt.

She welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron to the White House in a Marchesa gown.

Obama's dress was glamorous, but her glittering statement necklace stole the show.

Source: InStyle

Later that spring, she attended the Kid's Choice Awards in shiny pants and an eye-catching jacket.

The former First Lady's outfit merged casual and glamorous details.

Obama wore Preen — one of her favorite labels — to a 2012 press conference.

She topped off her patterned dress with pearls and a bright yellow blazer.

She returned to Michael Kors for a Congressional Medal of Freedom ceremony, opting for a gown with Greek-goddess vibes.

Obama elevated her one-shoulder dress with an ornate belt.

Source: InStyle

She kicked off the DNC in 2012 wearing a dress by Tracy Reese and pumps reportedly from J.Crew.

Obama's dress was bright and had a quirky pattern.

Source: Huffington Post

In November 2012, she hit the campaign trail in a simple floral shirt dress.

The First Lady cinched her dress at the waist with a matching, built-in belt.

In 2013, she donned Naeem Khan yet again to present the Oscar for best picture via telecast.

Obama changed things up a bit, sporting chic blunt bangs.

Source: Hollywood Reporter 

Obama picked this monochromatic ensemble for a visit to South Africa.

The only touch of color in this outfit came from Obama's jewelry.

She wore this stunning Tracy Reese flared dress for a ceremony in summer 2013.

Fit-flare dresses are one of Obama's favorite styles.

Source: USA Today

She deviated from slim silhouettes to wear this billowy Carolina Herrera gown at a French state dinner in 2014.

The top of her dress was made of embellished mesh, which paired nicely with her plain skirt.

Source: Washington Post

In May 2014, she gave a speech at the Metropolitan Museum of Art wearing another Naeem Khan dress.

Obama went for an emerald motif.

Source: New York Daily News

And she gave new meaning to the phrase "technicolor dreamcoat" in 2015.

She completed her outfit with silver heels, simple earrings, and pink lipstick.

For her second state dinner with the Chinese prime minister, Obama chose a gown from Chinese-American designer Vera Wang.

The Obamas showed off their personalities — and their stunning outfits.

Source: Washington Post

Obama proved that plain doesn't have to mean boring in this Narciso Rodriguez dress. She wore it to the President's final State of the Union in 2016.

Sometimes, the best outfits are the simplest ones, as seen here.

Source: CNN

She celebrated International Women's Day 2016 in a printed dress and classic black heels.

Although her outfit wasn't exactly practical for spray-painting, it was a classic Obama look.

During a trip to Cuba, she wore a colorful, embroidered frock by Naeem Khan.

She paired her outfit with sleek heels, bright earrings, and a tousled updo.

Source: InStyle

The Obamas danced the tango during a visit to Argentina earlier this year. The former First Lady stunned in this crystal-studded dress.

This ensemble was an instant classic. Obama paired her stately gown with matching earrings, a swept updo, and a masterful smoky eye.

Source: New York Magazine

This muted dress and jacket combo looked elegant during a visit to the British royal family.

Barack shielded the former First Lady and her dusty pink outfit from the rain. 

The First Lady made a rare appearance in a suit at the 2016 Invictus games.

Obama went for a darker look at the sporting event, sticking to an all-black motif.

Source: US Weekly

Obama chose a flowy, feminine gown from Naeem Khan for a Nordic state dinner earlier this year.

The former First Lady added structure to her outfit with a high-waisted belt.

Source: InStyle

For the 2016 DNC, she made a speech in a simple but striking Christian Siriano dress.

Obama completed her look with a pair of shining heels.

Source: InStyle

This Naeem Khan ball gown was covered in hand-painted gold leaf.

Obama topped off this glamorous look with big, loose curls and an impressive contour.

Source: InStyle

And at her final state dinner in October, Obama dazzled guests in a rose gold chain mail gown custom made for her by Versace.

Some fans said that it was her best look yet. 

Source: Washington Post

Obama went for an all-red ensemble for Trump's inauguration in January of 2017.

Obama showed off her personal style by pairing her ensemble with a pair of ruched boots.

In April 2017, Obama made her second public appearance of the year when she attended the AIA Conference on Architecture in Orlando, Florida, wearing a striped dress.

This neutral-toned look was unusual for Obama, who usually sticks to bright colors.

In May 2017, she spoke at a Healthier American event in Washington, D.C. She looked trendy in this belted ensemble.

Obama wore a high-low blouse that she cinched with a thick belt and trousers.

In July 2017, Obama wore a black dress with an unconventional neckline to the ESPYS in Los Angeles, California.

Obama put a modern spin on the timeless little black dress.

The former First Lady went for another sleek, modern look at the Obama Foundation Summit held in Chicago, Illinois, in October 2017.

Obama paired a simple blouse with high-waisted, plaid pants for a sophisticated, timeless ensemble.

The next day, Obama went for a decidedly more modern look for a portion of the summit in which Chance the Rapper performed.

Obama rocked a '90s-inspired ensemble, layering a sleeveless tunic over a white blouse. She finished off her outfit with simple black pants and a thin belt.

Obama went for a monochrome look with a white dress at the United States of Women Summit in May 2018.

She paired the a-line dress with matching white shoes.

When she launched her book "Becoming" in November 2018, Obama paired high-waisted white trousers with an asymmetrical top.

Obama's sparkly top nodded to the ensemble she sports on the cover of her book, though the top here is more of an evening look.

The former First Lady opted for a sparkly, pinstripe suit when she appeared on the "Jimmy Fallon" show in December 2018.

Obama put a modern touch on the suit, opting for high-waisted pants and a black top that featured a sweetheart neckline. She accessorized the look with strappy heels.

The former First Lady made a surprise appearance at the 2019 Grammys, where she wore a silver jacket and pants.

The suit featured a long belt accessory, creating an elevated look.

In May 2019, Obama wore a striking purple suit while on a stop of her book tour in Atlanta.

The former First Lady wore a sparkly, black top under the suit, which complimented her dangling earrings.

And in what might be her most daring look to date, Obama stepped out in a form-fitting yellow gown in November 2019 when she attended the American Portrait Gala.

The gown featured a silver overlay that added a chain mail-like texture to the gown. Obama kept her jewelry simple.

• Read more:
• Michelle Obama will host an Instagram video series following college students as they navigate the challenges of higher education
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly getting advice on their future outside the royal family from Barack and Michelle Obama
• Photos show Michelle Obama and George W. Bush's enduring friendship, built on wisecracks and cough drops
• Michelle Obama shared a rare family photo for Thanksgiving with Malia and Sasha looking all grown up

• Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, has a $150 billion four-point plan that would fundamentally transform how the internet works in the United States.
• The plan would effectively turn the internet into a publicly provided utility, similar to how water and power are distributed.
• The broadest goal of the proposal is to provide every American with access to affordable high-speed internet. "High-speed internet service must be treated as the new electricity," the proposal says, "a public utility that everyone deserves as a basic human right."
• Here's how Bernie thinks it can be done.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, last month unveiled a sweeping $150 billion proposal that would fundamentally reshape how the internet works in the United States.

The plan, dubbed "High-Speed Internet for All," would effectively turn the internet into a public utility along the lines of water and power. "High-speed internet service must be treated as the new electricity,"the proposal says, "a public utility that everyone deserves as a basic human right."

To that end, the $150 billion would go to creating "publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks," the proposal says.

Here's how it works:

SEE ALSO: Photos capture how Bernie Sanders went from being a working-class kid in Brooklyn to a top 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

1. Requiring internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast to offer "a Basic Internet Plan that provides quality broadband speeds at an affordable price."

The core of Sanders' high-speed-internet plan is to provide internet for everyone in an affordable way.

Its primary method of doing that: regulations from the Federal Communications Commission.

"The FCC will review prices and regulate rates where necessary, ensuring areas without competition aren't able to run up prices," the plan says. "We will also require providers to offer a basic plan for a regulated rate to all customers, ensuring everyone will be able to affordably connect to the internet."

The "providers" in question are massive media conglomerates like Verizon, Comcast, and Charter. "Bernie will regulate these providers like a utility," it says.

The proposal includes further subsidies for people who qualify for government assistance programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and it proposes free broadband in all public housing.

2. Redefining "minimum broadband speeds" so that a 100 Mbps download speed and a 10 Mbps upload speed is the floor.

Calling for "high-speed broadband" doesn't mean much if your definition of "fast" internet is stuck in the past. The current FCC minimum to be considered broadband is 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up.

It works, and it gets the job done well enough, but it's a slouch compared with many other parts of the world. Under Sanders' proposal, the FCC would increase its minimum to 100 Mbps down/10 Mbps up.

It's a little detail that makes a big difference in the broader plan, as it guarantees a base internet speed.

3. Breaking up companies that offer internet service and provide content, like Comcast and AT&T.

Over the past several decades, the telecommunications industry has consolidated into a few major players who provide internet access, and those companies have in turn merged with major media companies. The resulting giants will sell you the internet and cable service you use and provide the content that runs on those services.

Under Sanders' proposal, these conglomerates would be broken apart.

The proposal says Sanders would use "existing antitrust authority," rather than the FCC, to dismantle "internet service provider and cable monopolies." Moreover, he would "bar service providers from also providing content."

Comcast, which owns NBC, and AT&T, which owns WarnerMedia (HBO, Turner, Warner Bros.), would likely have to unwind those purchases.

4. Providing $150 billion to create "publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks."

While it enforces regulations on major internet service providers, the proposal includes a major expenditure: $150 billion to create "the necessary resilient, modern infrastructure" for high-speed broadband that's widely available and affordable.

The money, part of the broader Green New Deal initiative, is intended "for municipalities and/or states to build publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks," the proposal says.

One major condition is included: Grants from the funding must go "toward creating good-paying union jobs" and come with rigorous standards.

5. Ending data caps and speed throttling.

Another notable detail in the proposal: putting an end to data caps and speed throttling.

As people stream more content and download larger, higher-definition movies, TV shows, and games, they use more data. Just as that amount has increased, some internet service providers have begun placing caps on users — 200 GB per month, for example. If you go over your cap, there's a chance you'll get slapped with a charge.

In some cases, your provider may even "throttle" your service speed in an attempt to dissuade you from using it. The proposal from the Sanders campaign explicitly calls for the elimination of both practices.

• A company called MSCHF has quietly been creating some of the most absurd, cynical, and viral projects and products that have spread across the internet.
• Products from the seven-person company range from an astrology-based stock trading app, to a toaster-shaped bathbomb, to Holy Water-filled sneakers.
• CEO Gabriel Whaley recently told Business Insider that MSCHF runs on "unstructured chaos"— the team believes that nothing is off limits, allowing them to do "whatever the f--k we want."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Their only post on LinkedIn refers to themselves as a dairy company. It's probably the best, and only, description you'll ever get of the startup behind AI-generated feet photos, an app for making stock investments based on astrological signs, and Nike sneakers filled with Holy Water.

Even its CEO and founder isn't sure how to characterize the company.

"A brand of what? I don't know. Being a company kills the magic," Gabriel Whaley recently told Business Insider. "We're trying to do stuff that the world can't even define."

Whaley is the founder and CEO of MSCHF, the company behind some of the most viral stunts, stories, and products that have spread throughout the meme-laden, cynical internet community. Their products are meant to poke fun at everything and anything, because MSCHF takes pride in pushing the boundaries.

There's no apparent thread connecting MSCHF's slew of projects: The team has built a browser add-on that disguises your Netflix watching as a conference call, designed a squeaking rubber chicken bong for smoking weed, and created a YouTube channel solely consisting of videos of a man eating everything from a tub of mayonnaise to a photo of Pete Davidson. But for Whaley, the lack of continuity is the point: As long as the team can figure out the resources to create and launch a product, "nothing is safe."

"Our perspective is everything is funny in a nihilistic sort of way," Whaley said. "We're not here to make the world a better place. We're making light of how much everything sucks."

Business Insider visited the headquarters of MSCHF in December, located at a nondescript address that blends in among the warehouses peppered throughout Brooklyn's trendy Williamsburg neighborhood. The space is dingy, with cult-classic movie posters on the walls and tables covered in loose papers and partially unpacked MSCHF products. The "conference room" is a tiny loft located up a flight of stairs bearing a sole plastic chair. Whaley is quick to share that the roof leaks when it rains and the heating isn't great, and takes pride in showing off the inside of the single-stall bathroom filled with graffiti and artwork.

Before MSCHF, Whaley was a West Point military academy dropout who was already heralding goofy viral projects on his own, such as an app that was essentially Tinder for airplane travelers. His work landed him a brief stint at BuzzFeed in 2013, but he left after a year when the department he worked in was shut down. He officially launched MSCHF in 2016.

Now, MSCHF is 10 employees strong. They're all twenty-somethings — including just one woman who was hired in 2020 — and Whaley describes them as "fans of mischief." In the four years since founding MSCHF, Whaley hired his team along the way: one employee he found playing soccer in Chinatown, and another he hired by sliding into his DMs.

When a mass shipment of MSCHF's latest product is delivered to the office — a dark $10 toaster bath bomb— all seven employees in the office that day crowd to the center of the warehouse to unpack them and get them ready to be shipped to customers. It's a flurry of activity, a cloud of cardboard boxes and packing materials.

The layout of its headquarters is a stark reflection of the MSCHF's unofficial doctrine to adhere to "unstructured chaos." Daniel Greenberg, MSCHF's head of commerce, flaunted how MSCHF shirks the traditional business model: The MSCHF team currently sets aside no budget for advertisements and marketing, and conducts no user testing of its products.

It's also unclear whether, or how, the MSCHF team makes any money. In the past three months, the company has closed two rounds of funding from investors — including an $8 million round just made public this week — totalling $11.5 million, according to PitchBook's funding database.

However, Whaley told Business Insider he's not worried about the sustainability MSCHF's current way of business, and how the company can continue to scale. To the MSCHF team, the only opinion that matters is theirs, and their only goal is to get people to notice them — whether that attention is negative or not.

"If we can make people a fan of the brand and not the product, we can do whatever the f--k we want," Greenberg, the head of commerce, told Business Insider. "We build what we want. We don't care."

There are times when this dissident outlook has gotten MSCHF in trouble from entities and companies that don't share the same attitude. Slack shut down an open Slack workspace where anyone could compete in guessing the word of the day to win $1000. In its most blatant middle finger to the establishment, MSCHF created a shell restaurant called "The Blue Donkey", where employees who pay for meals using company money or corporate perks could pretend to order "food" using an online delivery app, like Grubhub or Seamless. In actuality, those "food" orders were political donations to candidates with anti-corporate policies. Blue Donkey lasted only hours before it was shut down.

MSCHF has since committed itself to releasing a new product every two weeks: Its newest release is Clickswipe, a desktop app that swipes right on Tinder anytime you click the mouse on your computer. In line with its anti-establishment attitude, MSCHF only announces its products via text message (you can sign up for early access on its website). Despite their limited publicity, MSCHF frequently sells out their products — they only make 1,000 units — "in minutes," Greenberg, the head of commerce, told Business Insider.

"We're in this weird place where we're not really thinking like a business," Greenberg said. "We just do shit, and people buy our stuff."

SEE ALSO: The married couple who created a wacky sex button went on 'Shark Tank' and the investors didn't understand why it even exists

Join the conversation about this story »

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• In 2015, I moved to Invercargill, New Zealand — one of the southernmost cities in the world — for a job at the local newspaper.
• Though it has claims to fame like being home to the southernmost Starbucks on earth, it's not a large city — the population was just 55,800 as of June 2018, though it's the largest community for more than 100 miles in any direction.
• Rent was affordable, and I paid just $570 a month for an entire two-bedroom house.
• The city also provided access to plenty of outdoor activities and weekend getaways, as well as exposure to unique foods such as cheese rolls, and animals including ostriches living in the local park.
• Beautiful as the scenery was, it was the friendliness of residents that really stood out, though.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"It's good people here," someone said on one of my first days in Invercargill, New Zealand.

It's something I kept thinking about after I moved to the southernmost city in New Zealand in 2015 — which is closer to Antarctica than the Equator — for a job at the local newspaper.

Over the course of a year, I was able to experience many "typical" things in my new home — including the friendly people and the southernmost Starbucks on earth.

Despite the fact it wasn't a large city — the population was just 55,800 as of June 2018 — it felt bigger because it was the largest community for more than 100 miles in any direction, and there were a surprising amount of things to do.

Even better, I paid just $570 a month for an entire two-bedroom house.

Here's what it was like to spend a year living in one of the southernmost cities in the world — and why it was unlike almost anywhere else.

I moved to Invercargill in 2015 for a job with the local newspaper. It's so far south it's closer to Antarctica than the Equator.

The only things farther south than Invercargill are a small town called Bluff, an even smaller town called Oban on Stewart Island, and then open water — broken up every once and a while by uninhabited islands — until Antarctica.

It's wasn't as cold as I feared it might be — though there were still quite a lot of days where it was below freezing, it rained frequently, and the wind was almost nonstop, since Invercargill is right in the path of the so-called "Roaring Forties" that whip around the globe without any large mountain ranges to break them up.

When I arrived, I was immediately struck by how friendly everyone was.

The people I met in Invercargill were maybe the friendliest I have ever met. Even just walking down the street, it was not uncommon for strangers to say "hello" (or, being in New Zealand, "kia ora.")

Another thing that immediately struck me was just how many cows there were.

Cows were everywhere, especially outside of the city proper. The dairy industry was so important to Invercargill and the wider Southland region, much of the area's culture revolved around it. One advantage: it meant getting fresh milk and cheese was never a problem.

There were also a lot of sheep.

There are many times more sheep than people in New Zealand — and that was true in the area around Invercargill, though especially up north in the Otago region, where there could be thousands of sheep living on a single "sheep station."

Compared to other parts of New Zealand, rent was affordable. I paid $570 per month for a two-bedroom house near the city center.

My house — located in a nice neighborhood on Mary Street just east of the city center, and only a few blocks from the newsroom where I worked — was unfurnished, but I was able to purchase furniture for an affordable price from the nearby Salvation Army. Much as I liked it, it did feel weird having an entire house to myself while still in my twenties.

As affordable as the $570 a month I paid was, it was also more than others paid, too — I knew some people who paid as little as $300 per month for their places, though they had housemates.

For a city with a population of about 50,000, Invercargill felt a lot bigger — it was the largest city for more than 100 miles in any direction. It had a lot of shops.

You name it, you could seemingly buy it in Invercargill — despite the city's size. Many of the shops were also locally-owned, so money spent would often go back into the community.

Walking to work every day, the city was full of interesting architecture and areas to explore — like the most unique water tower I have ever seen.

Dating to 1889, the Invercargill water tower was made up of about 300,000 bricks, and considered a symbol of the city. But what really impressed me was it existed so far south, in an area that even in the 21st century still felt like being on the edge of human civilization.

It was often very quiet at night, even in the city center.

Traffic jams were not exactly common in Invercargill — at least not like in a large city.

Despite the quiet, there was a lively cultural scene, like performances at the Civic Theatre.

Concerts, plays, ballets, stand-up comedy shows, even an annual book sale — there was always something on at the Civic.

Bars like Waikiwi Tavern were also busy every day, too — partially because you could not buy alcohol at supermarkets.

Due to special licensing laws, supermarkets and convenience stores in Invercargill were not allowed to sell alcohol — you could only get it at bars, restaurants, and liquor stores.

Churches also played a key role in Invercargill's daily cultural life — even though New Zealand is not a very religious country.

For a city of its size, there were a lot of churches in Invercargill — from large, traditional ones to contemporary churches, a mosque, and even a Mormon church.

Being so far south, there were a lot of "southernmost" things to check out — like the southernmost Starbucks in the world.

Located on Esk Street in the middle of the city center, there was a laminated sign on the wall marking just how far south the world's southernmost Starbucks was (more than 46 degrees south, to be precise). It was a popular selfie spot, especially among overseas visitors.

There were a lot of places to eat, too. Cafes like Zookeepers had loads of charm.

The random animal-themed statuary all around always made visiting Zookeepers an experience, regardless of the reason. My favorite piece of art, though, was the cheetah riding a bicycle that hung from the ceiling. Oh, and the coffee wasn't bad.

The region had its own unique cuisine — like cheese rolls.

"Southland sushi," as cheese rolls were known, quickly became my favorite food. Ingredients include bread, cheese (Edam and cheddar are especially popular), butter, onion soup mix and more, heated up to gooey, crunchy perfection. Available at cafes throughout Invercargill and the wider Southland region, it's a mystery why they're not more famous elsewhere — even further north in New Zealand they were not especially popular.

One of the best places to get cheese rolls was at Rain Espresso in the city center.

Open early in the morning, you could pick up some cheese rolls on your way to work — or pop by to take some home with you in the evening. As part of my work at the newspaper, I wrote a weekly column about what it was like to be an immigrant in Southland — and cheese rolls were a common subject.

Fish and chips were also popular. Some of the best came from The Albatross.

Co-workers at the newspaper would speak of The Albatross in hushed, almost reverential tones. I did not understand why, until I joined them one afternoon. Put simply: the golden, crunchy fries were the best I've ever had.

For a place of its size, Invercargill was chock-full of oddities. Among the strangest sights were two ostriches that lived in a park near my house.

Petra and Jacinta may well be the southernmost ostriches in the world. They lived in a large area in Queens Park, just north of the city center. Visiting them was free, too.

One of Invercargill's most famous residents was a tuatara named Henry, who is more than 110 years old.

Henry has lived a rich life. According to The Independent, he became a father at the young age of 111. He's also met a number of famous people — even royalty such as Prince Harry, who The Telegraph reports came by in 2015 to stroke Henry's scales. From personal experience, stroking Henry felt a lot like rubbing semi-smooth sandpaper.

In terms of humans, the mayor was a legend — not just in Invercargill, but all of New Zealand.

Tim Shadbolt has been mayor of Invercargill since the 1990s. "Mayor Tim," as many people called him, seemed to be permanently smiling, and as busy as he was, seemed to have time to talk to anyone.

As with any coastal area, the beach was a popular place for people to go to relax— sandy Oreti Beach in particular.

Oreti Beach was about a 10-15 minute drive from Invercargill's city center. You could even drive your car right onto the beach — but cars would frequently get stuck in the sand.

Visitors to the beach would sometimes include animals from Antarctica, like the occasional leopard seal.

I saw my first leopard seal within my first month of moving to Invercargill. I was shocked how terrible it smelled — even at a distance of about 60 feet, as I was told getting any closer could be dangerous, since the fact it came to Invercargill from its normal territory around Antarctica meant it was probably sick.

Hiking and spending time in nature was hugely popular, especially on the weekends — after all, New Zealand is famous for those things.

The area around Invercargill had several of New Zealand's famed "Great Walks." There was also Fiordland and Milford Sound, featured in films like "The Lord of the Rings." I really enjoyed the dramatic coastline — there was always something to explore.

Outdoor activities in general were big, like cycling.

Competitive cyclists, recreational riders, couples, families — it was surprising how many cyclists there were, especially in a place as frequently cold and windy as Invercargill.

For adventures further away, nearby towns like Bluff also had lots to see and do.

The port town is home to an annual oyster festival, and aside from the usual pubs and restaurants included an allegedly haunted hotel.

Roadtrips to places like Riverton were also a common weekend activity.

West of Invercargill, Riverton was a small town big on charm. It had some especially nice beaches, full of rocks that kids (and pets) loved to play around. But the beaches could also feel nice and secluded at times.

Amazing sunsets were a treat year-round — even when walking home from work.

Not only were the sunsets spectacular, but you could sometimes see the Aurora Australis — the Southern Lights, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the Northern Lights.

There was a strong sense of community in the city. Holidays like the Queen's Birthday were an opportunity for people to come together.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Invercargill in 1954, and according to local legend even stayed the night in the city center. Many decades later, her birthday was still a public holiday.

Waitangi Day, held on February 6, was an important day.

Waitangi Day marks the day (February 6, 1840) when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed — one of New Zealand's most important documents. Events are held throughout the country, including at many maraes — communal/sacred spaces for the indigenous Māori people. This was also the case in Invercargill and Southland. Visiting a marae on Waitangi Day was something I will never forget.

Another big event was Christmas at the Races, held in December and featuring a fashion contest.

People from throughout the Southland region came to Christmas at the Races to indulge in a day of horseracing, fashion, and a very large amount of food and drinks during what was the start of the Southern Hemisphere summer. But beyond that, it was an opportunity for friends who hadn't seen each other in a while to catch up — or to make new friends, since many Southlanders were very outgoing.

Sports were a chance to come together, too — especially rugby matches at Rugby Park.

Like the rest of New Zealand, some Invercargill residents treated "the rugby" almost like religion. With entrance gates, hot dog and soda sales, and large groups of people of all ages coming together to cheer the home team on, the atmosphere was similar to football games in small-town America.

After about a year, I moved to Auckland for a new job. The differences were vast — for one, I missed the easy access to nature and the sense of community.

People in Auckland were friendly, but not like Invercargill. Similarly, optimistic as many Aucklanders were, I did not think it was quite the same. Beaches in and near Auckland, though beautiful, also felt different than the wild beauty of Southland's coast.

Invercargill will forever hold a special place in my heart.

The location, the scenery, the people, the food, even the weather — every day felt like an adventure in Invercargill, and I find myself becoming more nostalgic for it each day.

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• Author Sarah Wells details the "moments of cultural confusion" that have arisen in her relationship with a partner from a different cultural background.
• Wells, a Vermont native, writes how she and her boyfriend, who grew up in southern China, differ on matters of language, food, and perception of societal pressures.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

My husband and I were born less than six months apart, but over 7,000 miles away from each other.

While he was growing up in the modern cityscapes of southern China, I was discovering the world from within the boundaries of small-town Vermont. Our paths collided when we both started graduate school in Boston and have yet to disentangle.

While we both enjoy science fiction, dry jokes, and searching for the best lunch places in town, our relationship is not without moments of cultural confusion and things being (sometimes literally) lost in translation.

Language introduces some challenges from time to time

When it comes to learning languages, my husband leaves me in the dust. He is fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. That said, there are still occasions when the appropriate English word eludes him and we are both left in the dark.

For example, while munching on a batch of shortbread cookies I had made, he told me how much he liked their "dusty" texture. After my look of horror, we quickly discovered that he'd really meant to complement their "crumbly" texture.

Yet comparatively, my language skills leave much more to be desired. Aside from my quickly dissolving basic French, I speak no other languages. While this doesn't create a language barrier for us, it can when we video-chat with his parents back home.

He's taught me enough for a few confident Nǐ hǎo's, but the conversations still rely heavily on his parents' English. To practice my Mandarin, we conduct frequent mid-dinner lessons where I try to (literally) get my mouth around Chinese tones.

Our cooking methods and tastes differ

Our relationship has a large focus on food — both preparation and consumption. While this passion is culturally indifferent, through many meals cooked together we've found that the preparation behind the food sometimes isn't.

Take for example, the oven. As a baker, I've always viewed the oven as the focal point of the kitchen. It's essential for creating not only delicious baked goods, but roasting vegetables, grilling pizzas, and even reheating leftovers.

When my husband told me that many kitchens in China lack an oven, I was shocked. While I can't imagine a kitchen without one, he says that almost all Chinese cooking can be done over a stovetop flame instead.

When it comes to taste, there are only two major points where our opinions vary: texture and sweetness. Growing up in the United States, I am used to only a few textures in my food – smooth, chunky, crunchy, and chewy.

In Chinese food, the diversity of texture is much wider, and the crunching sensation of eating cartilage is still one I'm getting used to. Likewise, my husband is still adjusting to how sickly-sweet American desserts can be. While fruit-based desserts like pies or tarts are generally safe, he'll usually pass on a cupcake topped with a tower of frosting.

My home state is the opposite of diverse

Bringing your significant other home is always a relationship milestone, but for us, it has a few extra hurdles. Primarily, it's expensive and time consuming to fly to China. As recently minted master's students who couldn't take much time away from work, that leaves Vermont as the more plausible option.

Vermont is a beautiful state, but when it comes to diversity it's as white as the snow that covers it. To be precise, the Census Bureau reports that the state is just under 95 percent white. That's a shocking figure, but growing up as a white person in a white state, it wasn't something I always noticed.

However, it was one of the first things my spouse noticed when he visited Vermont. While he thankfully wasn't faced with any prejudice or racism on that trip, there is still something unnerving about being the only person to look or speak like you in a crowd of similar faces.

Like any couple, our relationship is built on the similarities we have as individuals, not the differences our cultures may have. However, it would be naïve to believe our cultures haven't shaped us. Discovering these differences, misconceptions, and even biases are essential better understanding each other and each others' families and backgrounds. Instead of driving us apart, they give us the opportunity to learn, and love, even more.

SEE ALSO: 21 people reveal why they don't use dating apps — and how they meet people instead

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Gucci and Louis Vuitton are the only two luxury brands to have been ranked among the top global brands every year since 2000, according to a 2019 report by marketing and consulting firm Interbrand. 
• But despite meeting at the top of the market sector, Gucci and Louis Vuitton had extremely different paths to the luxury summit.  
• After years of stagnating sales, Gucci ended up as 2019's fastest growing luxury company with a brand valuation of $15.9 billion, according to Interbrand. 
• Meanwhile, Interbrand ranks Louis Vuitton as the world's most valuable luxury brand. The company started off the century with a $1.7 billion lead in brand valuation over Gucci and has been on the rise ever since.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — and in the luxury sector, only Gucci and Louis Vuitton can truly say they conquered both.

A 2019 report released by marketing and consulting firm Interbrand revealed that Gucci and Louis Vuitton are the only two luxury brands to have remained ranked among the world's most valuable every year since 2000— a feat not even achieved by other luxury giants like Burberry, Fendi, Prada, Hermès, or Cartier. 

Louis Vuitton — the world's most valuable luxury brand, per Interbrand's 2019 report — started the century with a $1.7 billion lead in brand value over Gucci, and at the turn of the 2010s, it was nearly $13 billion ahead of the Italian fashion house.

But today, Gucci is the world's fastest growing luxury brand, with a brand valuation of $15.9 billion — though it's still trailing behind Louis Vuitton's current $32.2 billion valuation.

Despite the difference, however, both Houses have held steady enough to remain at the top of the luxury sector, and their separate journeys also highlight the increasing competition between the conglomerates that own them — Louis Vuitton's parent company LVMH and Gucci's parent company Kering.

For decades, LVMH and Kering have been in the ruling class of luxury goods, and the trajectories of Gucci and Louis Vuitton may reveal why.

SEE ALSO: Only 2 companies have ranked among the most valuable luxury brands in the world every year since 2000 — Gucci and Louis Vuitton

DON'T MISS: LVMH just agreed to buy Tiffany for $16.2 billion — here are 17 of the most iconic brands the French luxury giant already owns

In the early 1900s, Guccio Gucci had an idea that would change the world.

The son of a craftsman, Gucci was born in 1881 in Florence, Tuscany. As a young man, he worked as a porter at the Savoy Hotel in London. It was there he fell in love with the intricate designs and craftsmanship of suitcases. 

So, upon returning to Florence, he founded the House of Gucci, a shop specializing in the manufacture of leather goods. It began by selling bags to horsemen in the 1920s, then later, moved into selling luggage.

In 1938, the Gucci shop opened on Via Condotti in Rome. Nearly a decade later, the Gucci logo was introduced, and soon after, the brand's famous red stripe was born.

Gucci, along with his sons Aldo and Vasco, created many of the brand's classic bags in the early 1950s and turned their store into a national staple. 

But it wasn't until after Guccio died in 1953, that the brand became an international emblem of luxury.

Source: WWD

After the founder's death, the Gucci family opened other stores around the world, including in Paris, London, and Tokyo.

The 1960s saw an increase in the brand's prestige and clientele. Gucci was welcomed and worn by the Hollywood elite, from Grace Kelly to Jackie Onassis Kennedy.

The jet-set era had been defined, and Gucci has since become a synonym for it.

But then hard times came, and it would be decades until the brand saw the height of its early glory days again.

In the 1990s, Tom Ford made Gucci synonymous with the word chic; the 2000s saw Frida Giannini define the brand as heritage. But it was Alessandro Michele, who, in the 2010s, once again made the brand synonymous with decadence. 

Long before Guccio Gucci was even born, Louis Vuitton — the founder of his namesake brand — had arrived in Paris and opened a luggage company of his own.

Hailing from the village of Anchay in France, Vuitton came to Paris in 1837 and was welcomed by a city in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. In 1854, he opened his first luggage store in the city, then moved the workshops to Asnières-sur-Seine, a commune northeast of Paris.

It was there that he and his craftsman created what is still regarded as one of the most iconic travel accessories of all time — the waterproof flat top luggage trunk.

At the time, flat trunk luggage was popular, but often attracted thieves. Vuitton is also credited with revolutionizing the luggage lock, putting a single lock system on his luggage, which is still in use today.

In 1896, the iconic LV monogram was introduced — nearly 50 years before Gucci's emblem was designed.

By the mid-20th century, Louis Vuitton luggage became a staple item for jet-setters, and the brand expanded into daywear, which saw the introduction of the iconic LV purse. By the 1990s, the brand was so successful that now-legendary designer Dapper Dan was able to make a fortune selling knockoffs to rappers.

Even wearing faux Louis Vuitton was a symbol of status.

In 1997, Marc Jacobs was tapped to be artistic director of women's collections at Louis Vuitton, and the brand was catapulted to the forefront of fashion's new era.

"[Louis Vuitton] is a testament to how you have to be a really strong brand with absolute clarity and conviction in who you are and what you stand for, internally and externally," Rebecca Robins, global chief learning and culture officer at the consultant group Interbrand, told Business Insider. "The stronger you have that, the harder and stronger you play with others, and that is why Louis Vuitton is the first to have ever hit the top 20 and top 100 and that's why its the only luxury brand to have stayed there."

As Vogue reports, Marc Jacobs made hat boxes popular and launched artistic collaborations that defined the late 2000s, introducing monogrammed umbrellas, tights, fans, and even fur muffs. The Louis Vuitton logo became recognizable around the world.

In 2013, Nicolas Ghesquière replaced Jacobs as the artistic director of women's collections. Ghesquière is now helping to lead the brand through a time where streetwear is the new jet-set, and tiny bags are the new trunk luggage.

But it seems no cultural turning point was too sharp for the company to surmount, as Louis Vuitton today ranks as the world's No. 1 luxury brand, with its brand valuation topping $30 billion, according to Interbrand.

In 1994, Tom Ford became creative director of Gucci, just three years before Jacobs took the helm at Louis Vuitton.

Both designers were considered game-changers while heading their respective brands and held their positions into the 2000s.

According to Interbrand, in 2000, Louis Vuitton had a brand valuation of $6.8 billion and maintained a steady-but-faltering single billion-dollar estimation until 2005.

By that time, Jacobs had launched many successful collaborations, including one with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who, according to Vogue, is credited with creating the now iconic white and multicolored LV bag pictured above.

In 2004, to celebrate its 150th anniversary, Louis Vuitton opened stores around the world, including in New York City and Johannesburg.

The company also opened a store in Shanghai. In 2005, Louis Vuitton reopened its Champs-Élysée store in Paris. By the end of that year, the brand's value more than doubled to over $16 billion, according to Interbrand.

The brand grew steadily into the 2010s, reaching a $21.86 billion valuation in 2010 — the highest the company had ever been valued since Interbrand began tracking brand valuations in 2000.

During the first part of the century, Jacobs modernized and reworked the LV logo, featuring the monogram on everything from umbrellas to tights, in the hopes of making the brand a constant fixture in the minds of the world's next generation of buyers — the millennials.

Meanwhile, when the new century began, Gucci only had a brand valuation of $5.1 billion, which faltered until reaching its lowest value of $4.715 billion in 2004.

By 2005, Gucci had climbed back up to a valuation of $6.619 billion, but it was still nearly $10 billion less than where Louis Vuitton was around the same time, according to Interbrand.

Ford, as reported by CR Fashion Book, is credited as being Gucci's "savior." He was creative director from 1994 until 2004 and was known for helping to infuse a "sex appeal" that wasn't found in high fashion at the time.

But Ford stepped down from the brand in 2004, following a dispute with Kering — Gucci's parent company.

That same year, Kering took a 99.4% ownership stake in the label, up from the 67.6% stake it had the year prior.

Source: CR Fashion Book

After Ford's departure in 2004, Alessandra Facchinetti stepped in to lead the womenswear division, while John Ray took over menswear and Frida Giannini was named creative director of accessories, Vogue reports.

Giannini became creative director of the entire Gucci label in 2006, at which point she decided to focus on "heritage" and bring Gucci back to its roots.

Throughout her tenure, Giannini reimagined the brand's signature Flora print and redesigned some of their other classic fixtures. But her collections failed to garner consumer interestand received lukewarm reviews from her peers. Robins says this is probably due to leadership issues at the brand.

"Some of these brands expand three centuries; some of these brands are over two hundred years old," Robins told Business Insider. "[And] it's all about the strength of leadership and what that means for the brand .... If we are doing our jobs right, we are being guardians of those brands." 

Source: Vogue, Business of Fashion

As writer Kimberly Ong noted in her 2017 essay about the brand, Gucci had suffered a massive blow to its image during Giannini's time at the helm, which ultimately followed the brand into the 2010s.

"Gucci was associated with bad taste,"Ong wrote."It was associated with gaudiness and outdatedness, and ultimately [it was] unrelatable. No one wanted to buy Gucci, and the company faced near bankruptcy."

Giannini left Gucci in 2015.

Gucci's brand valuation had reached a peak of $10.385 billion in 2014 but fell to $8.882 billion in 2015, according to Interbrand.

Louis Vuitton, meanwhile, entered the 2010s with a $21.86 billion brand valuation.

Jacobs remained the artistic director of women's collections at Louis Vuitton until 2013, when Nicolas Ghesquière took over. Over at Gucci, Alessandro Michele was tapped to take Giannini's place when she departed in 2015. 

Ghesquière was then known for being the creative force behind the reinvention of Balenciaga.

At Louis Vuitton, Ghesquière launched the now-popular petite malle bag— which was the trunk luggage reimagined as a purse. And the bag quickly became sought after by consumers. 

Ghesquière also had Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin, Rei Kawakubo, and others each design a handbag for Louis Vuitton's 160th anniversary. The brand also collaborated with Jeff Koons for two collections.

In fall 2017, LV created a collection with Supreme — arguably one of the most profitable and influential fashion launches of the century.

Women's Wear Daily reported that following the Supreme launch, Louis Vuitton's revenue jumped nearly 21% to nearly $17.3 billion and accounted for a 19% jump in LVMH profits the following year to $20.59 billion. 

"[This collaboration] had a wider impact on the industry," Robins told Business Insider. "[We saw] this big shift in a greater openness, transparency, collaboration, [and] inclusiveness ... we've seen barriers broken down, we've seen collaborations on what is the next wave .... in some ways it was not unexpected. If anyone was going to be big on that, it would have been Louis Vuitton."

In 2018, Louis Vuitton appointed Virgil Abloh, founder and CEO of the popular streetwear brand Off-White, as the artistic director of its menswear collection.

Abloh's appointment made him the first African American to be named artistic director of a French luxury fashion house, according to the New York Times.

Interbrand reports that LV's brand value increased substantially between 2017 and 2018, from $22.919 billion in 2017 to $28.152 billion in 2018.

By 2019, the brand had jumped to a $32.223 billion brand valuation, making it the world's most valuable luxury brand, according to Interbrand.

Since then, the brand has been on a quest for (luxury) world domination. In January 2020, Louis Vuitton bought the second-largest diamond in the world, as Business Insider previously reported, in addition to launching a multiyear partnership with the NBA. It also announced plans to open up a restaurant in Japan.

Meanwhile, under Giannini's successor, Alessandro Michele, Gucci became 2019's fastest growing luxury brand, with a growth rate of 23% and a brand valuation of $15.949 billion — nearly double the valuation it had when Michele first took over the reins in 2015.

In 2017, Gucci grew 44.5%, Forbes reported, and had made up 39% of Kering's corporate revenues, and 57% of Kering's Luxury activities segment. In a 2017 interview with CNBC, Kering chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault said that nearly 50% of Gucci's sales were coming from millennials. Today, Interbrand reports that number has jumped to more than 60%, with their fastest growing audience being Gen Z.

Much of Gucci's success comes from the way the brand has been able to utilize social media as a digital marketing tool.

On the internet, the new Gucci collections stand out — they've got a contemporary feel, mixed with vintage classics. Michele even brought back the interlocking GG logo and the iconic Gucci bags from the 1960s, while introducing consumers to the Dionysus buckle.

In fact, as reported by Forbes, Gucci's CEO Marco Bizzarri told the Julius Baer Global Advisory Board that Michele had designed nearly all of Gucci's best selling items.

By the end of 2017, Forbes reported that Gucci had a 130% increase in web traffic, surpassing that of Louis Vuitton.

Gucci has been able to appeal to younger audiences by teaming up with contemporary icons of the day.

Gucci has worked with people such as singer Harry Styles, photographer Petra Collins, and artists such as Sue de Beer and James Kerr.

In addition, Michele has collaborated with director Glen Luchford to create short music films, including 2017's "Soul Scene" campaign which featured only black models and was inspired by black youth around the world. At the time, New York Magazine noted that the music video was part of Gucci's quest to re-market itself toward this new generation, and "signifie[d] the brand's push for more culturally relevant and boundary-pushing advertising."

"[Gucci] has become much more open, inclusive, transparent, and collaborative," Robins said. "It's almost a masterclass in leadership style, [of] a really powerful combination of creative and business leadership."

In 2017, Bizzarri said that the brand now had a "Millennial Shadow Committee," consisting of people under the age of 35, who give feedback on the brand. At the WWD's Apparel & Retail CEO Summit in 2017, Bizzarri revealed that the shadow committee is given tasks of "either discussing the same topics that we discuss in the normal meeting with executives, or giving me ideas on different processes."

In turn, the "gaudiness" Gucci was once negatively associated with has become its signature. In 2019, Gucci sponsored the Met Gala, which had the theme "camp"— defined by Susan Sontag's 1964 essay as "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration."

"The strength [is] in [Bizzarri and Michele's] working relationship and what that meant to not only consumers, but also to Gucci's employees," Robins told Business Insider. "I think that's been a really powerful shift in how the brand has shown up differently, both on the inside and on the outside."

Gucci is, as many would say, the modern day example of "camp." Or, to others, simply "ugly fashion."

In 2018, Gucci released a collaboration with designer Dapper Dan, inspired by the latter designer's life in Harlem and pieces from his 1980s archive. Ironically, the man who got his start selling knockoff Gucci and Louis Vuitton launched a successful collaboration with the former, nearly 30 years later.

And so now it's the turn of a new decade, and Gucci's snake logos, butterflies, wolves, interlocking G-tights, clashing colors, textiles, and fabrics — once considered emblematic of the brand's "outdatedness"— has become a signature of the time.

Through the use of successful digital marketing, Gucci finally became cool again — because, quite simply, they told everyone they were cool.

And then they proved it.

• A Twitter account called "Royals Take The 6" is posting photos of wax versions of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle around Toronto.
• There was also an accompanying Instagram account, which appeared to be deleted on Saturday.
• It's not immediately clear who — or what organization, brand, or company, if any — is running the account.
• The wax figures of the duke and duchess have been photographed at Toronto's famous CN Tower observation deck; a local brewery; and a law firm, as a nod to Markle's days as an actress on "Suits."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are rumored to be moving to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, as they start anew following last week's announcement that they'll "step back" from their royal duties starting in the spring.

On Monday, Harry reportedly landed on Vancouver Island, where Meghan and baby Archie have been since earlier in January. Paparazzi have wasted no time following the duke and duchess, with some photographers reportedly attempting to take pictures with long lenses inside their home.

In the midst of Prince Harry and Meghan's tumultuous situation, one account — called "Royals Take The 6"— has taken a comical approach to the couple's arrival in Canada by photographing hyper-realistic wax figures of the duke and duchess around Toronto. The "Royals Take The 6" Instagram account appeared to be deleted on Saturday, but the photos are available on its Twitter account.

"The 6" refers to a nickname of Toronto, which was apparently popularized by Drake, the rapper and native of the city.

The account's first photo showed the Harry and Meghan figures standing in front of the CN Tower, an iconic observation tower in Toronto

"We made it to #Canada! Our first stop was the iconic @CNTower. These #views have us feeling like a couple of true #canucks. Although, it is a bit colder on this side of the pond. Stay tuned to see where we head next!" the caption read.

One commenter on the Instagram post viewed by Insider seemed to be fooled by the wax figures, writing: "Love that you are here. Hope in true Canadian style you are given privacy."

A user responded, writing: "You realize they are wax, right?" and the original commenter responded: "Omg! LOL."

The figures also stopped by a local Toronto brewery...

...and visited a Toronto law firm, Goodmans LLP, where the caption referenced Markle's acting role in the TV series "Suits."

Wax figures of Prince Harry and Markle were at one point featured at Madame Tussauds in London, but the statues were removed one day after the couple initially shared their plans to step away from royal life, via an Instagram post on January 8.

It's not immediately clear who — or what organization, company, or brand, if any — is behind the "Royals Take The 6" account.

When Insider contacted the account on Instagram, the user wrote in a message: "Hi there. Thanks for following along with our travels. We are just getting settled into our new and home and are enjoying visiting the sights of the 6. At this time we are not participating in any interviews."

The message ended with a mysterious invitation: "Stay tuned for where we go next."

Followers and fans seem to be, at the very least, entertained by the wax figures

"That doesn't look at all like prince harry," one Instagram wrote in the comments of the account's most recent photo, which shows the couple in front of a sign for Canadian news network CityTV.

"Hahahaaaaa!!!!! this is so WEIRD! love it!! So who's paying for all their security????" another user commented on the original Instagram photo.

• Read more:
• 16 celebrity wax figures that went terribly wrong
• Inside the small, coastal Canadian community that's abuzz over Harry and Meghan's possible move there
• Everything we know about what's next for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as they try to become 'regular' citizens in Canada
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want to be 'financially independent.' Here are 6 other royals who have forged their own careers.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Garrett Leight is the founder, CEO, and creative director of the luxury eyewear brand Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO).
• In the past decade, Leight and his team have made GLCO one of the top millennial brands in the luxury eyewear market, with high profile people from Jeff Bezos to Selena Gomez spotted wearing GLCO eyewear. 
• Leight sat down with Business Insider for an interview about his career beginnings and his rise in the luxury market.
• He also gave advice to the next generation of entrepreneurs and those looking to enter the luxury sector.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Luxury eyewear designer Garrett Leight knows exactly what millennials want. In fact, with a celebrity clientele list that includes Jeff Bezos, Kendall Jenner, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and Jennifer Lawrence— Leight doesn't just know what millennials want, he knows what the world wants. 

"We market .... who we are, what we stand for, [and] what we've been about since day one, which is California DNA and the quality product and great customer service,"Leight told Business Insider."We just kind of were ourselves and created what we thought was cool and people liked it."

In an interview with Business Insider about his career, Leight also gave some advice for others who aspire to enter the luxury retail field, and for entrepreneurs who have launched — or who are thinking about launching — their own business. Here are his five key tips.

SEE ALSO: How one millennial CEO built a luxury eyewear brand that's been spotted on everyone from Jeff Bezos to Brad Pitt

DON'T MISS: Barneys shutting down is 'surreal' but 'not surprising,' says the millennial CEO at the head of a luxury eyewear brand that Jeff Bezos and Brad Pitt have been spotted wearing

1. Companies must "innovate or die."

In speaking about luxury retailer Barneys, Leight said one of the main reasons the store failed in the 2010s is because it didn't establish an "identity" that could connect with the younger generations. 

"Today, millennials [and] Gen-Z, we want to connect with something. We want to know who we're supporting,"he told Business Insider."You gotta dedicate some effort both financially and creatively to creating something that buyers [and] consumers can connect with."

He also said that brands should pay attention to what happened to the once-famed retailer, noting that if they fail to adapt to the changing taste in the consumer market, they could easily be the next to fall.

2. Authenticity is key.

When speaking about how his brand uses social media for marketing, Leight and his brand's chief communications officer Jamie Katz emphasized that they rely on authenticity in order to connect with customers, future buyers, and most importantly, brand ambassadors.

"It's more about an organic alignment. If they feel like they are an extension of what we've tried to create as the Garrett Leight lifestyle, then we feel like they're probably in a community of people that would also appreciate the Garrett Leight lifestyle and the brand," Katz said.

3. Mental health care is vital.

To ease his stress, Leight makes sure he involves himself in activities that can take his mind far away from the world of business and entrepreneurship. He plays golf, softball, and regularly gets massages and acupuncture, and he recommends others invest in health and wellness activities that can ease the mind. 

"I've felt overwhelmed in my head," Leight told Business Insider. "For me, stress comes ... in my neck and my back. Some people, it's in their stomach, it's all through their body ... I think even if you feel great at 25, it eventually will catch up to you. So I think introducing these [wellness] forms are important." 

Katz doubled down on what Leight had to say. 

"People think, 'Oh no, I can't take a break. I have to stay focused. I have to do this, and work all these hours,'" Katz said. "It's like, you're gonna end up not achieving what you could achieve if you just take the time to take care of yourself, do a digital detox, shut down for a little while to take your mind off of what you're doing and then come back feeling refreshed, feeling focused. You could get to the answer that you're looking for, the solution or whatever it is, so much quicker."

4. For a burgeoning brand, too much inventory can be deadly.

"You have to pay for everything you buy [but] you're not going to sell everything you buy," Leight said. "Some people are so lucky and, especially today, in that they could just have, it seems, mostly with celebrities and influencers, that they just make something, and they make 50 units and it sells out, and it's all about scarcity. But that's super rare and I would just be really conscious [of how much inventory you have]."

5. Strong leadership starts with having a grounded mindset.

One of the most important things Leight has learned throughout his career is to not take anything for granted.

"When you're growing really fast, you kind of feel like you're on top of the world and [you] could lose sight of some things," he said. "At least as an entrepreneur, you're always one mistake away from losing everything, more or less. So you just have to be aware of your business. And, especially as a creative leader, trying to have a grounded mindset and an understanding of the financial and operational side [can help you] be operationally excellent and not lose what you've created."

• Byte, the long-anticipated successor to the video-sharing app Vine, launched to the public on Friday night.
• By Monday, Byte had been downloaded more than 1 million times, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. 
• Just over the weekend, Byte was downloaded 780,000 times. By comparison, Vine — whose cofounder is behind Byte— attracted only 105,000 downloads in that same period when it launched in 2013. Meanwhile, the viral app TikTok was downloaded 8.2 million times this weekend.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The new app from Vine's cofounder is already being teased as a true competitor to TikTok, but it still has a long way to go before it reaches the viral fame TikTok achieved in the US.

The debut of Byte on Friday was met with rapt attention from creators and fans who adored the six-second video app Vine and mourned its death when Twitter shut it down in 2016. Terms including "Vine" and "Byte" quickly began trending on Twitter as users flocked their mobile app stores to download Byte, claim their usernames, and start searching for meme-worthy content.

The immediate hype surrounding Byte translated to more than 1 million downloads three days after its release,  according to data provided by app analytics firm Sensor Tower. Just this weekend, Byte accrued around 780,000 downloads of the app, more than three-quarters of twhich came from the US alone, Sensor Tower told Business Insider.

This number is nothing to scoff at, as compared with the debut of its bonafide predecessor. When Vine launched in January 2013 (solely on the App Store for iOS devices), it accrued 105,000 downloads in its first few days, according to Sensor Tower data. Byte launched simultaneously on both iOS and Android.

That means Byte lapped Vine's download numbers by more than seven times over in its debut. Byte is the product of Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann, who has been teasing a follow-up to Vine for more than two years. The journey to bring his project to fruition appeared to hit some bumps: He indefinitely postponed his first iteration, V2, before picking up with Byte. Hofmann introduced Byte's closed beta in 2018.

Meanwhile, the world of social platforms has drastically changed thanks to TikTok, a short-form video-sharing app that's developed into a launchpad for viral hilarity and widespread memes. The app now has more than 1.5 billion all-time downloads, and has rocketed in popularity in the US in the year since it first touched down here.

With a number that big, Byte has a long, long way to go to catch up. In the same timeframe this weekend that Byte attracted 780,000 downloads, TikTok racked in 8.2 million downloads, Sensor Tower told Business Insider.

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• Byte is a newly released app for watching, creating, and sharing six-second videos.
• The app is already being touted as a successor to the popular app Vine, which shut down in early 2017, and a worthy competitor to TikTok, the app that's adored by Generation Z and behind some of the internet's most viral memes.
• Here's how to use Byte, which was released publicly on Friday, to discover clips and create videos of your own.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The long-awaited successor to Vine, the video-sharing app that launched the careers of internet celebrities like Jake Paul and Logan Paul and memes like "back at it again at Krispy Kreme," was released Friday for users to create and share six-second looping videos.

Byte was made available in iOS and Android app stores last week following more than two years of operating in beta and building anticipation. The app is led by Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann, who saw his original video app killed in early 2017.

Byte draws similarities to its predecessor Vine: videos are maxed out at six seconds, play in loops, and can be re-posted to other users' accounts to share with their followers. However, the new 2020 atmosphere for social platforms means that Byte is up against TikTok, the wildly popular app well past 1.5 billion downloads.

Here's everything you need to know about how to use Byte for watching, sharing, and creating six-second videos:

SEE ALSO: The first download numbers for Byte, the app heralded as Vine 2.0, show it still has a long way to go to catch up to TikTok

The home page of the Byte app is your feed for discovering content from a variety of users across the platform. If you've ever used TikTok, this page will look familiar: To find more content, scroll vertically and the next video will automatically start playing. Aside from commenting and liking photos, users can also reblog videos: You can see if the video on your feed was reposted if there's a note above the caption.

Next to the comment and heart icons, each video has an arrow with additional actions: share the video, repost the video to your Byte feed as a "rebyte," and report the video for being inappropriate or in violation of Byte's community guidelines.

You can view the guidelines for the content allowed on Byte on the company's website.

Under the sharing button, Byte users are given options to distribute a video via text message, email, and a variety of social platforms. However, it's important to note that Byte videos don't have links. That means that the only way to share a video is right from Byte's app: You can't copy and paste a link to your friends. Videos still display a tag that says Byte is in a beta version.

A Byte spokesperson told Insider that the team was "planning on" implementing links into Byte for videos and user profiles.

The second tab on Byte is where users can discover videos broken down by category and channel, including "pets,""chill,""experimental," and "weird" (which is currently spelled incorrectly as "wierd" in the app). This tab also has a search bar — however, it can only be used for searching by username, and there's no option for searching by caption or video contents (like on TikTok).

When you click on or discover a Byte user, the app will display their profile (on the left). This is where you can see all of the videos of a certain user, and choose to follow them so they can appear high up in your home feed. On each profile, you can also block or report the user, or choose to view the user's "rebytes" to see the type of content they like from others.

The lightning bolt icon in Byte's horizontal menu bar is for your activity, such as new followers, and likes, comments, and reblogs of your videos.

The right-most icon is where you can find your Byte profile. User profiles can be pretty personalized: Besides adding a profile photo, display name, and short bio, users can choose from a variety of color schemes to apply to their profiles.

Also in your profile tab is the settings menu, where users can sort through and get more details about how they interact and use the app. The most important settings may differ depending on how you use the app. If you're mainly a browser and viewer of videos, you can see the videos you've liked and reblogged. If you're a creator, you may be more interested in the stats tracking your number of followers and video views (called "loops").

For Byte users who want to go beyond viewing videos, the app's section for content creation can be found under the middle circular button. Byte will pull up a simple content studio, with buttons for recording and switching between front and back-facing cameras. The progress bar at the top tracks how much more time you have in your six-second timeframe to add additional clips.

Under two buttons, Byte allows users to to upload videos from their phone and integrate them into their Byte videos. You can cut and edit the video segment you want to use for your video in the Byte app.

Byte's main competitor, TikTok, has a variety of popular, high-tech effects available to users for their video creations. Meanwhile, it appears Byte has only one filter: "ghost mode," where you overlay an image onto a video you're recording.

Once a few seconds of video has been recorded for your Byte, a white arrow at the top-left corner of the screen will appear, allowing you to publish your video. Before publishing, you can give your video a caption and add it to a channel, which users can click on in the explore tab.

Byte is still in its early stages, and it's likely the app will change and address issues as more users download the app. In its first weekend after being released Friday, Byte attracted 780,000 downloads on both iOS and Android devices, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Source: Business Insider

• UK finance startup Freetrade, a competitor to Robinhood, has acknowledged a high rate of attrition after Business Insider learned that 22 staff departed in 2019.
• The company peaked at 53 staff in 2019.
• The departures were down to a mix of resignations and firings, including its five-strong design team in the second half of 2019.
• Freetrade has raised a total of $20.4 million from venture capital and crowdfunding backers for its fee-free trading app.
• "Building a company is a journey," Freetrade CEO Adam Dodds said in response. "You need to get the best people you can, in the right positions, which changes over time. When you grow as fast as we have in the past year, that change process is greatly accelerated."
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Freetrade, a fee-free trading startup to rival Robinhood, has acknowledged a high staff attrition rate after Business Insider learned that 22 staff departed in 2019.

Freetrade is headquartered in London and has raised $20.4 million from venture capital backers such as Draper Esprit and through crowdfunding. It says it has 70,000 users for its trading app.

The company acknowledged the departures to Business Insider and said the turnover was a "higher rate of attrition than we strive for." The company said it had a maximum of 53 staff in 2019.

CEO Adam Dodds added that some of the departing employees had been at the startup for less than a month.

"Building a company is a journey. You need to get the best people you can, in the right positions, which changes over time. When you grow as fast as we have in the past year, that change process is greatly accelerated," Dodds said in a statement.

"The hard truth is that if we didn't have any staff turnover we'd be dead as a company," he added. "Equally, this is a higher rate of attrition than we strive for and we will continue to make improving our people processes a top priority as we continue to grow."

Six former employees speaking to Business Insider said the firm's rapid growth and blunt style of management had contributed to staff turnover.

The company lost its five-strong design team in the second half of 2019. Its head of design, James Storer, resigned in July. Two additional employees resigned from the team in the following months before the remaining two were fired, according to an internal email seen by Business Insider.

The email, sent to the remaining Freetrade staff, states that the design department had been in a state of "flux" and that the exiting team members were not "culturally aligned." 

The company confirmed the design team departures.

Another high-profile exit was Andre Mohamed, one of the company's cofounders.

According to filings with the UK's Companies House, Mohamed left the company in October 2018. His departure was first reported by TechCrunch, though the reasons were unclear. Mohamed did not return a request for comment.

Former employees say working at Freetrade wasn't easy

Former employees said, amid the layoffs, that working at a fast-growing startup wasn't always easy.

According to messages seen by Business Insider, chief marketing officer Viktor Nebehaj referred to "significant burn rate." Ex-employees perceived this to be a reference to high staff turnover, and told Business Insider this contributed to a sense of unease.

Nebehaj did not directly address the messages, but said in a statement: "I was one of the earliest employees at Google Europe and saw what it takes to build a high-performing tech company.

"One of the most important things for me is candour, especially in the workplace. It is a core value at Freetrade, and it means both being truthful as well as caring personally. It's Marmite for some people."

The former staff said Freetrade did not have an office manager or HR professional to manage employee grievances or concerns. 

Personnel difficulties, the people added, were compounded by the company's adoption of "radical candour", a style of extremely honest feedback promoted by former Google executive Kim Scott.

"It's part of the 'culture' at Freetrade to value direct feedback," one former employee told Business Insider. "But what that translated to was that if you disagreed with something you would be shot down."

The company is currently advertising for a head of people role on its website. Freetrade confirmed it was actively looking for a head of people, alongside other dedicated HR staff. 

Issues around layoffs and growth culture are not unique to Freetrade. Europe's burgeoning fintech scene has led to an influx of capital into the sector, with finance startups raising $25 billion since 2015, per Atomico data. 

"There's always the risk that too much capital could lead to more aggressive growth and therefore less stringent oversight or governance, in all companies, not just fintechs," said Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital and a special envoy for fintech in the UK government. "Culture is already bedded in and funding can expose or magnify both positive and negative traits."

SEE ALSO: We asked 9 of the most prominent VC investors in European tech to pick out fintech startups they think will blow up in 2020. Here are the 15 they chose.

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