Top Irish influencer Louise Cooney is taking the Big Apple by storm, and she has been bringing her Instagram followers along on the journey with her.
Louise has been sharing her day-to-day antics as she decorates her new apartment, ventures out to events and navigates the New York social media scene.
It’s not the digital star’s first adventure in the city – Louise previously lived in New York in 2014, when she moved over for 12 months.
“When I moved out here five years ago I loved it, I loved the lifestyle, I loved the opportunities. There is something about the city that whenever I come here, it’s very inspiring, the people are going after what they want to do and anything feels possible,” she exclusively told Goss.ie.
“This is where I started my blog and I feel like as long as you are good at connecting with people and going after what you want I feel like you can get it, and I love that. ”
“I was home for four years, and when I came back I had planned to move again straight away but then I got busy with work, I had commitments at home, I had my dog and at the time I had a boyfriend so those things made me happy at home and made me happy to stay, but it got to the point where I wanted a change again.”
“I wanted a new challenge. I’m so happy here even though everything is not perfect, everything hasn’t just fallen into place – it’s going to take time. I’m still really excited by the challenge of being here,” she explained.
While many criticize social media for it’s false projections of perfection, Louise has been committed to sharing both the positive and the negative aspects of her move – from the high of her first few weeks to lows of missing family and almost being scammed by a fake insurance company.
Reflecting on her first few weeks, she explained: “I just feel like the first month I was here I was on a complete high – I said to my friends ‘I don’t want to come down from this.’”
“I was just so happy because I had waited for so long and I was just so proud of myself for being able to do this. I was just sitting in my apartment looking out the window like ‘this is crazy.’ I just try and take it all in.”
However, the trailblazing content creator pointed out that the logistics of living independently in such a competitive and expensive city do worry her at times.
“The low points are when I get a bit panicky. This isn’t my permanent set-up, I don’t get this unless I work hard and unless I get work over here,” she expressed.
“I have to work really hard in order to be able to stay here and be able to maintain it. I’m not afraid of that, I’m just scared in case something goes wrong.”
“It’s really expensive and no one is footing the bill but me and that’s scary.”
“For me at this stage of my life, like a lot of people I know when they get to their late 20s they start thinking about what they want from life, what they want to invest in, and for some people that’s buying a car or getting a mortgage or getting married, and I’m not doing any of those things so New York for me is that.”
Louise explained that her second move to New York is completely different to her first, as this move is permanent, and her last venture to the Big Apple was temporary.
“It’s different because I feel like I had so much more time to prepare to come this time, even though it all happened very quickly, I decided a year before I moved that I wanted to come,” she reflected.
“I feel like I knew what I was coming over to this time so I knew what I needed to do to get set up and I knew what I needed to get organised. That allowed me to get stuck in straight away and really set up a life here.”
“The last time I came, I knew I was only coming for a year, I was younger and everything was so exciting, but this time it’s a different kind of exciting. It’s not temporary, it’s more like a permanent move,” she confirmed.
On this week’s Gosscast Goss.ie Founder Ali Ryan talks to Lisa Cannon about her best and worst celeb interviews and the reality of working in showbiz.
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