“I got a mean green acai bowl from Liquiteria before coming home this morning and now I feel the chia seeds between my teeth. Also, I got up for yoga at 7 and I don’t know why I did that to myself, but it’s nice having this 2 hour buffer in between yoga and class for me to just sit on my bed and be comfortable.”
Name: Katherine Victoria Harrison
Year: 2019
House: Currently Wigg F, but will be in Winthrop next year
Concentration: Most likely Computer Science
Hometown: Dacula, Georgia (just outside of Atlanta)
Spirit Animal: A tiger. Well, I feel more like a combination of a tiger, because they’re fierce, and a hummingbird, because they’re elusive.
What is something that sets you apart from the other students at Harvard? I feel like everyone at Harvard has something that makes them unique, but I guess what you’re getting at would be my friend Maia and I’s blog. I have to learn how to balance this dichotomy between the science world and the liberal arts world because when you’re a STEM person, they put you in a box. They give you p-sets to do and put you in labs and they tell you that you CAN’T WRITE. So my whole “tour de force”, my goal, is breaking that box.
Tell me more about your blog! On February 13th of this year, I met my friend Maia at Crema Cafe in Harvard Square and she talked to me about a blog that was popular at Harvard in the past and how she was considering taking it over. After some thought, we decided to go in our own direction and make our own blog. It’s called Mod & Bean; Mod coming from our appreciation for mod fashion and Bean stemming from our constant use of the word “bean” in place of “being” as well as Boston being called Beantown. It’s just a place for us to write about what we’re thinking and it pushes us to try new things and write about them. I want it to be an inspiration for people to try things that they never would’ve done before… and to have good fashion.
What got you interested in starting one? I’ve actually wanted to start a blog for quite a while. Back in high school, I went through a very bohemian phase where Free People was my life, so I always wanted to start a blog and wear Free People and do yoga. I’ve been interested in photography since freshman year of high school and I wanted a platform to show off my photos. Also, we’ve grown up in a time where Instagram has started up and people can make a living off of just living their lives and traveling and wearing awesome clothes and showing the world. Not that I want to make a living out of this, but it’s an inspiration to see others doing it. It’s also kind of an escape; at the end of the day after p-sets and classes, I open up my computer to write a blog post. It’s fun work. I want our readers to feel inspired to live more… I’ve been reading too much social psychology lately.
Do you see this as being more of a hobby as time goes on or as something you can see a future career associated with? I guess I can see it being a future for me but not in it being my job. This blog is a representation of Maia and I’s lives, so in that regard I guess this blog is our futures. As long as I’m doing something, there may be a post about it for as long as I can see. I mean if the Travel Channel came to me and said “Hey Katherine, do you want a TV show to travel the world and eat good food and see cool places?” I’d be like “Well, I wanted to cure cancer but OKAY!”
What are your favorite spots in Boston that inspire you? The MFA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (museums in general), coffee shops in general, Pavement, Tatte Bakery. I really like going for runs along the river especially right now because the daffodils are in bloom; it gives me head space. Sweetgreen also inspires me.
Do you have any advice for anyone interested in fashion/photography/starting a blog? Okay first, photography because that’s something near and dear. Pick up a camera and just start taking photos even if you end up with bad photos and you don’t know how to fix the exposure and you don’t know what an “f stop” is. It’s one of those things where you don’t go into a photography class and are great after one class; it takes years. I don’t even want to think about the amount of bad photos I took four years ago. As for fashion and blogging, follow people who inspire you. That’s why I think platforms like Instagram and Tumblr are so cool because you get to see so many stylish people living their lives and you get inspired by them and I wanna be that! I can’t tell you how many times I wake up in the morning and think to myself, “What do I wear today?” I’ll go on my pinterest board and see an outfit I recently pinned and wear something similar that I have. The blogging sphere is so huge now that I wouldn’t go willy nilly into a blog because you have to be consistent and unique, but I would figure out what sets you apart from everyone else and then make a blog and run with it. Also focus on quality over content. I’m doing it for myself but at the same time to give quality content to people. And if you can find a friend like Maia to do it with you, that’s always a plus.