Next Monday is International Women’s Day and I’ve teamed up with Kendra Scott for a week of interviews that celebrate the Kentucky women who inspire me. Today’s interview is with my friend Danielle Rudy Davis, co-owner of Lemonade PR and blogger at LouWhatWear.

Danielle is so knowledgeable about PR campaigns and Internet trends. She always has the funniest takes on celebrity culture and especially on reality TV, and she knows absolutely everything that’s going on in Louisville! Danielle is a great friend and an absolutely invaluable professional mentor; I so value her input!

Thanks so much to Kendra Scott for helping bring the Kentucky Women Who Inspire Me series to life — stay tuned to HerKentucky.com and my Instagram this week for previews of the newest Kendra Scott jewelry collection and a fun shopping event!

HerKentucky: Please tell me a little bit about yourself and how you wound up in Louisville.

Danielle Davis: How much time do you have? No seriously, I’ll give the quick version. I was born in Louisville, but my parents got divorced when I was three years old and my mom packed up and moved to Miami, Florida. So I grew up and went to school in Miami but I spent a ton of time in Louisville visiting my Dad and grandparents. I lived here every summer, so it’s always held a very special place in my heart.

Loved it so much that I decided to go to University of Kentucky for college. Moved here when I graduated (during the great recession) thinking it would be for a couple years. Met a boy, got married, three kids and too many Derby Days to count later, it’s home.

HK: You are a seriously busy lady! You have a full-time job as the co-founder of a PR agency, you’re a wife and mother, and you have a side hustle as a blogger and influencer. How do you get it all done?

DD: The short answer is that I don’t. Truly, balancing it all is nearly impossible. Whenever one area thrives, another usually takes a bit of a backseat. I think our society puts such a premium on women “doing it all” and we’re expected to manage it all while looking perfectly put together. It’s a lot of pressure.

 I try my best to keep juggling all the balls in the air but at some point, you end up dropping one. Right now, unfortunately that’s been the blog. I love it so much and it’s such a passion project of mine but with Lemonade being busy and trying to make my kids a priority, I’ve fallen behind with it.  

HK: Tell us a little about LouWhatWear, both how it started and how it's evolved.

DD: Before I started Lou What Wear, I had a blog called Secondary Embarrassment where I wrote long-form, snarky recaps of The Bachelor and Bachelorette. I was a journalism major/English minor in college, and I missed writing. It became an outlet to share my perspective outside of my 9 to 5 job. Honestly, at times I think I should have kept up with it because it was really growing but the recaps were LONG and they took three or four hours to write. It started to take the fun out of watching but it got me really into the blogging world.

 I started following a lot of personal style blogs and loved the whole concept but one thing I noticed is that there wasn’t really anything here in Louisville. Lots of people were doing it on the coasts but no one was talking to our unique consumer. It was 2011 and the Courier-Journal had just shut down its style section, so I saw an opportunity. My friend Kelly came up with the name and from day one I invested in making it look professional. I hired a design duo to do the logo and website – I wanted to make sure it was something sustainable. I originally started by taking pictures of my friends at events and parties as well as sharing really locally focused shopping info.

I started it before Instagram, before being an “influencer” was a thing. It was just a way for me to connect with people, be a little creative and share my interests outside of work. Eventually I started sharing my own personal style and it’s grown and changed as my life has.

HK: I love that you include so much real-life, not-always-perfectly-curated content in your blog and social media along with the pretty pictures. Of course, I’m here for the #FREEBRITNEY and hard seltzer content, but I also love when you post about the often-hard realities of being a working mom or the hard truths of the racial, socioeconomic and political tensions here in Louisville. I know that, as a blogger, the events of the past year have really made me more aware of the content I post and a little less concerned about offending anyone. Tell me a little about what being “authentic” or “real” on social media means to you.

DD: Well first off, I appreciate that more than you know.

For a while, I tried to keep up with the Joneses but gah, it’s exhausting trying to be something you’re not. I’m sure this is something I fail at regularly but one of my goals is to be the same online as I am in real life. So yes, I will talk your ear off about Britney in real life, but I also want to go beyond that. I want to talk about how hard it is to manage the responsibilities of being a mother while also trying to excel in your career. I want to discuss the real issues in our city, the lack of funding and attention to underserved neighborhoods and the 9th street divide.

I think working in a field where you’re required to stay up to date with the latest news has made it feel more natural for me than maybe for others. I think everyone has their own unique perspective and I do my best to share mine. I will say though, people on the internet have OPINIONS. And all of that commentary certainly elicits some strong, even mean, responses.

 At the end of the day, I try to be myself. I’m irreverent and depend on humor to make it through tough times. I’m also brash and certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve realized being everything to everyone is something I am terrible at and instead, I try to lean in to who I am and hope people will appreciate it.

Danielle and her husband Drew love Derby more than just about anyone you know!

HK: For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of meeting you, I don’t know how to describe how much your face lights up when the word “Derby” is mentioned. Please tell me a little about how much you and Drew love the Kentucky Derby and the role that Derby fashion plays on your blog in spring months.

The Kentucky Derby is simply the best. It’s my absolute favorite time of year and there’s just something so special about our city at Derby time. And actual Derby day is the cherry on top.

I went to my first Derby in 2004 and I’ve been to the track on the first Saturday in May every year since but two. My daughters were both born in mid-May and even being MASSIVELY pregnant couldn’t stop me.

I think people outside of Kentucky have a perception of Derby but you can’t really understand it until you’ve been here. There’s so many ways to experience it and enjoy it. You can go absolutely wild partying in the third turn of the infield, and you could be surrounded by actual royalty in certain areas. There’s something about being there, singing ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ with 100,000+ people with a Mint Julep in hand that is so unique and special. It’s unlike any other sporting event.

And then the fashion! It’s not all floral dresses and church hats, it’s so much more. I realized early in my blogging career that there weren’t many resources out there showing how people really dress at the track. And nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a girl dressed to the nines realize she’s going to be up to her ankles in mud in the infield. I wanted to be a resource for everyone from people coming for the first time to people going for their 21st time.

My Derby series has really been what set me apart initially. Now there are so many more bloggers and many of the amazing local bloggers here do such great Derby content but when I started, it was a chance to really share that true enthusiasm with an audience that was being totally ignored or pandered to with stereotypical choices.

HK: How has the past year changed your blog and life? I know you added Red the dog to the family, and he’s pretty adorable!

DD: The past year has been a lot. I love my kids but there’s a reason why I never stayed home with them. I am TERRIBLE at being a stay-at-home mom and even worse at being a teacher. I lack the patience, creativity and motherly instincts to fill their days in a way that fills their minds and imaginations. So that whole thing was really tough in those early days… which is probably why I broke down and got a dog!

One thing I did on the blog side was to check in daily on IG for my Corona Captain’s Log posts. It was a place for me to talk really candidly about everything from my kids driving me crazy to registering to vote. As with everything I do, I tried to bring some humor to the situation especially since most of the time, laughing was the only thing keeping me from crying.

As tough as it’s been though, we’ve been incredibly lucky throughout this and I have no place to complain. After a couple tough months, our business Lemonade (that I co-own with my business partner Lynsey Trager), is doing really well and my kids have been lucky enough to be in school on-and-off for the last year. I’ve pivoted a lot of my content on the blog to be more focused on who I am now and not who I want to be. It’s given me more leeway to be myself, share my true passions and connect more deeply with people (and I guess, piss some off even more!)

HK: What’s the best piece of advice you have for others?

DD: Those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. A lot of times when I doubt myself or start having anxiety about what I should be doing, I go back to that saying.

That and - “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Whenever I get overwhelmed (which is frequently), I go back to that and instead of getting into a worry spiral, I try to do something productive towards solving the problem that’s stressing me out.

Thanks so much to Danielle for the interview and to Kendra Scott for working with me to bring this series to life. You can find Danielle on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog.