“We might be able to hear better downstairs,” Vanessa Pettorelli weaves me between racks of vintage clothing and frantic 20-year-olds grabbing bundles of Vanessa’s personal pieces with slices of Welldun pizza in their free hand towards a staircase that leads to the empty staff rooms.
It’s a Saturday morning and 25-year-old Montreal-born content creator, Vanessa Pettorelli is hosting a pop-up at Marche Floh, reselling hand-picked pieces from her personal closet as well as her own merch – fluffy white sweaters with soft pink cursive across the front and totes with hot pink letters declaring, “This tote is for vintage hauls only”.
The day starts at 11 AM with a line of Vanessa’s followers winding down the block, all waiting to meet her. When I arrive, Vanessa is running around finishing up last details. She has a few minutes for an interview before the rush of shoppers comes in. She tells me she’s nervous, she doesn’t do a lot of interviews. She’s spared by my mic malfunctioning only a few moments in. I apologize profusely and ask if she’ll have any spare moments during her pop-up for the interview if I can fix the issue. Yeah, no problem, she tells me. After the rush dies down. She doesn’t mind me sticking around. She apologizes to me for having to stay at her pop-up on a Saturday (I would have been here anyway).
It is almost three hours before the line disappears outside. Three hours of Vanessa meeting and greeting, hugging and giggling with the excited shoppers there to meet her, to dress like her, to embody her. Someone asks Vanessa to sign their Polaroid camera which sets off a chain of autograph requests. I’ve never autographed something before, she laughs.
The room we sneak off to is sparse, void of Vanessa’s edgy-feminine pieces. There is a folding table with untouched Tim Horton’s breakfast and a few folding chairs that Vanessa pulls out for us.
How has the pop-up been going? Did you get any pizza?
I didn’t get pizza! No, honestly, it’s been really fun. There’s been a lot of people. There’s a lineup that I’m really grateful for. It’s just it’s honestly, it’s so fun. Like, I love doing things like this. Hopefully, there’s going to be many more to come but, yeah, I really like building a community and seeing everyone in person. It’s really fun.
Something that stands out to me about you as a creator is you feel so relatable on a larger scale, but it’s always known that you are from Montreal and I think that’s a nice balance.
It’s good to have both.
You did a collab with Montreal Vintage shop Oissemeu, a collab with Evry Jewels, this popup at Marche Floh, and you vlog your food tour around the city. How important is it for you to contribute to Montreal’s culture? Is it something you do with intention?
I feel like it’s not necessarily intentional. It’s just—I love Montreal so much, and I love growing up here, and it is a part of myself. Honestly, I used the tools that I had growing up in the city, and then it just turned into me being more relatable because, like, it was easy to talk about Montreal, and people connected to that.
I also found that there weren’t a lot of Montreal creators, and I couldn’t look up to anyone. Anytime I would look for YouTubers or TikTokers, there wasn’t anyone doing something in Montreal. So I felt like, oh, like, why not me? So I kind of started doing that, and I think I’m always gonna be connected to Montreal. I love the city, and I think it’s important to talk about, you know, your everyday life.
Montreal has a thriving arts and fashion community but compared to the states, Montreal doesn’t get as much attention. A lot of Canadian creators will move to, like, New York when they start to grow.
Yeah, it’s true.
How did that play into your growth and your current content?
That’s a good question. Honestly, at first, I was comparing myself to people in the States—there are more brand deals, more opportunities with, you know, different businesses, especially for social media. In the States, they’re so much more advanced than Canadians are, especially in Montreal because it’s a smaller city. Even Toronto is bigger than Montreal in terms of influencer campaigns. So, I think when you start, obviously it is hard, and I think I was comparing myself a lot to the bigger creators. But you have to use what you have, and what I had was, you know, my daily life, going to school, and I feel like people related to that.
Did that set you apart?
Well back then, I really wasn’t getting that many views. I think it’s only recently where I started to talk about not only Montreal but, you know, traveling and my interests—things that don’t have to do with my city—to make it kind of extend more than Montreal. I feel like brands like to see a mixture of where you grew up, but then also things that could be used to, you know, promote other businesses. I think the most important goal is to kind of internationalize your reach.
And even now, I work with a lot of Toronto, New York, and LA social media agencies, and I obviously work a lot with Montreal ones too. But in order to grow, you do have to work with those other cities. As for me, I think you honestly have the potential to grow anywhere. I know a lot of my favorite creators—some of them are from Ottawa, some of them are from Toronto. You don’t necessarily have to move to New York to have a great career. I think it just really depends on what you want to post and how fast you want to grow.
How did you get into content creation?
I studied marketing in university, and I was in Co-op, which meant that I was working 9-5s. I was working at a bunch of marketing companies, and I didn’t feel like it was creative enough for me. So, I ended up starting content on the side during COVID, and I would just post pictures on Instagram. I always loved posting pictures, and then that kind of just turned into starting to get brand deals and starting to work with other creators. After that, I realized that it was possible to have this as a job.
It took a long time. It took, maybe, I started in 2020, so now it’s four years I’ve been doing this. But I would say I only started to make a decent living in 2022-2023. So it’s really in the past year and a half. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have any other friends to ask or any coworkers. I was kind of alone in the space, so I really just started by doing it myself. Then, you kind of learn along the way.
That’s like a long time, I feel like I would have just like given up.
Yeah, four years, haha. Honestly, it took it took a while, yeah.
It was a passion project. It started as just, you know, something for fun on the side, but then it quickly turned into a job. I think I put in so much work because I wanted it to be my full-time job. They say you have to treat it like a full-time job in order to actually manifest that. It is a lot of work. So, it’s a lot of hours that you put into it.
There’s a knock at the door and Vanessa’s partner pokes his head in.
So sorry, There’s people who are beginning to ask about you. He says.
Oh! We’ll be so quick. Ten more minutes
I’m sorry I’m talking so much.
No, no, no, this is perfect. I’m really enjoying listening to your thoughts.
So, you shared on social media—I remember when you were soft launching your relationship on TikTok and before that you posted TikToks about celebrating being single. How important is it to integrate those personal relationships into your content?
I like that question. Honestly, I feel like it really gives the viewer a sense of closeness, and I think it’s important to be authentic online. But then again, not every creator feels comfortable doing that. And even sometimes, some things that happen in my personal life I don’t share, so it’s good to have a division just to keep yourself separate from social media.
But I do think that being authentic really helps other people, and I know for me, like, I would always see relationships online, but no one was speaking about being single and, like, having fun being single. So I would make a lot of videos about that because I didn’t—I just didn’t see that online. So I think you never know who it’s going to help.
One piece of advice you’d give someone who’s struggling to show themselves through their content?
Oh, OK. Honestly, I even struggle with that sometimes too, really. I think you just get better by continuing to fail and to post. It’s really like a muscle—you have to exercise it, and you have to practice, and you won’t get better until you practice. I used to be so shy, and I couldn’t even publicly speak; it would make me so nervous. And then you just, you kind of just work through it. And by failing multiple times over and over, you start to realize your strengths and what you can improve on.
If you could describe your brand in one or two words, what would they be?
Oh, that’s great. I don’t know! Oh, my brand… I wanna say, interpersonal—kind of like, I really do feel like I know my followers and we’re all friends, which I feel like a lot of influencers say (haha). But through hosting events like these, I start to remember faces, and I really like that, and I think it’s fun just to connect with people.
And then another word I would say would be, hopefully, inspirational. I want to be able to inspire people to do similar things in a creative space or just to not follow a typical path that is sometimes laid out for you. I didn’t really start in this; I started in sciences and, like, commerce. So, I just want to let people know there are so many opportunities that they can pursue. And just to represent Montreal, and for you to know that you can accomplish anything anywhere. So hopefully that comes through in my content.
Your life has changed a lot this past year and a half. What are you enjoying about this season of your life?
Oh that’s cute! Like in terms of work or just anything?
I guess a little bit of both, a little bit of like content creation, but also I guess whatever you’re doing!
Honestly, I really—I really do appreciate where I am right now because I feel like it’s very consistent. Like, I’m consistent in my job, and I feel like it was so confusing for so long because it was so new to me. But now, I’ve been doing this for two years, so I feel like it’s very easy to build it day-to-day and to organize my life. And it’s fun to build relationships with brands that are continuous. I’m really enjoying going on certain brand trips, and traveling—that’s really fun for me. And just, like, being creative and making new content is always inspiring. So, I’m really grateful to be able to do what I do and just to continue having more creative endeavors.
We have to, like, wrap up haha. But before we go, you just moved to your new apartment. So what’s next? What can we expect? Like what can we look out for?
Lots of home content like I’m in my home era. I really like decorating! I’m enjoying my time in Montreal, but I also want to travel. So travel content and hopefully more events like these. Maybe not in terms of vintage clothes, but some kind of community event would be really fun. Maybe revolving around food. I love food, Just something that brings everyone together. It would be fun and yeah, just more creative. Creative things to come!
Thank you so much for stepping away from your popup to speak with me. You said you hope to be an inspiration. Is there anything you wanna leave with?
I just want to inspire people like to do content creation. I just feel like people think it’s so far removed from who they are and they don’t know how to start. And I feel like people look to influencers like ohh like I can never do this or I don’t know how to do this. That was me four years ago but it’s not as complicated as you think it is. I just want people to pursue it if they want to and you just learn along the way.
Honestly, I need to hear that haha.
But also, like, no pressure though. Like, don’t—honestly, it’s going to come when it’s meant to. And if you don’t feel ready, don’t force yourself. But if you’re feeling confident, or even if you’re not feeling confident, you just need to try. If you feel like you want to do that, don’t feel pressured by people to have to post videos. I think your creative time will come.
Like even me, I wanted to start off on YouTube, and I was so bad at editing when I was 15. And then I didn’t know TikTok was going to be a thing, and then that came up, and that was my way to do it. So you never know what can come your way that’s going to resonate with you better. Instead of trying to be like everyone else and trying to do the same things, you don’t know what’s going to resonate with you. It could be videos, it could be pictures—you never know.
That’s so true.
Yeah, wait for your time. Just like, honestly, don’t care about what people think. I know everyone says that, but my biggest advice is to listen to the people who inspire you the most and not people who aren’t in the same industry that you want to be in. Because they—they don’t have advice for you, right? So listen to people who are in that creative space.
Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto-based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.