Kelowna student profiles up-and-comers on hip new blog

A blog that started recently in the Okanagan is featuring the stories of young people around the world who are working hard to make it big.

Sarah Bernstein, founder and CEO of The Urban Hustle, is originally from Vancouver but moved to Kelowna to study at UBCO in 2011.

With a background in editorial writing and social media, she decided to create her own website after submitted work to magazines and other publications in the past.

"I kind of branched into reaching out to bloggers, foodies, artists and musicians and I started to develop my own plan,” she explained. “I wanted to build on featuring everyday people around the world who are all hustling out there, are working hard and aren't getting enough recognition.”

Thus, The Urban Hustle was born.

Bernstein started thinking of interview ideas in July and launched in September.

As a student of fine arts, who has a self-professed love of design, Bernstein said she really enjoyed getting the site started. "I'm very in my element now."

Four months in, Bernstein said she’s had lots of success reaching out to people she wants to interview through Instagram and other social media sites.

"I've had a lot of positive feedback from people. I think I've created a type of esthetic on my site that the people I contact like,” she said. “My brand has a good appeal to most people I contact so I think that helps a lot.”

Lately, more people have been messaging her to do collaborations and to feature her on their own sites, a strange feeling for someone who’s usually on the other end of the interview.

"I love listening to other people's stories, just sitting down with the people I'm interviewing and having a normal conversation and getting an insight into their life,” she said. “I love meeting new people and I think that getting to know people on a personal level makes my stories better I think, when I have a strong connection with the person I'm interviewing.”

Now that Bernstein is in her last year of university she has lots to do, but she said working on the site has been a nice break.

“It's a good balance with school because it's something fun that I can work on and I'm trying to branch out into advertising and make a business out of it,” she said.

Once she graduates in June, Bernstein said she plans to get out more regular content.

"I'm not really sure where this will take me but I definitely want to keep pursuing my website and trying to expand it. I just want to keep pushing this and see where it goes.”