While it may seem like a waste of time to others, expressing her art of makeup creations through an Instagram is one way junior Abby McCollum expresses herself.

“I’ve always been really creative [and] loved to paint and draw, and this was just something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s just really fun, and I love it,” McCollum said.

While McCollum has been a fan of makeup since she was young, she has only recently gotten into the more flamboyant side of the makeup spectrum.

“When I was younger, my mom and [I] would always wear makeup or I’d play around with her makeup, but it really started a year or two ago when I actually wanted to start doing more creative looks and I just kind of built on myself and kept working,” McCollum said.

To showcase her makeup looks, McCollum decided to create an Instagram account devoted to displaying what she is artistically capable of when dealing with makeup.

“I’ve had my Instagram account for about six months,” McCollum said. “I really like seeing people’s reactions to what I do and how they feel about it, too, and everyone is really supportive.”

Though not all of the makeup looks that McCollum tries to do work out, she likes the process of simply applying makeup. That process includes planning a look, which, for McCollum, consists of looking through Instagram and other social media platforms for inspiration.

“[A look] probably starts when I’m scrolling through Instagram and I see, like, maybe I want to recreate something or there’s a trend going on and I want to hop on the trend or do that kind of makeup look, so [my looks] start on Instagram,” McCollum said.

McCollum recommends the same thing to those who want to start doing their makeup more seriously.

“If you’re interested in something, you should 100% try and do it before you knock [the idea] down,” McCollum said. “Even if you think ‘oh, I won’t be the best at that,’ there’s always room to grow.”