Amy Or­tiz: Fash­ion In­flu­encer and Den­tal Hy­gien­ist?

MISHAWAKA-Amy Or­tiz, the wife of cur­rent Res­i­den­tial Di­rec­tor, Robert Or­tiz, comes to Bethel Uni­ver­sity not only with a great sense in fash­ion, but also a big plat­form on so­cial me­dia to share it on.  

Amy Or­tiz is the new girl in town, with roles such as a mother to her three chil­dren, a wife to a Res­i­dent Di­rec­tor, a li­censed Den­tal Hy­gien­ist and a so­cial me­dia in­flu­encer through In­sta­gram and a self-made blog.  

So­cial Me­dia In­flu­encers seem to be raid­ing the in­ter­net and has be­come any Gen­er­a­tion-Z’s de­sired job.  

A so­cial me­dia in­flu­encer is a user on any so­cial me­dia plat­form that has cred­i­bil­ity within a cer­tain in­dus­try and shares their ex­pe­ri­ences with a large au­di­ence. Or­tiz says, “[It is] some­one that, not nec­es­sar­ily talks to one au­di­ence, but helps a com­mu­nity through dif­fer­ent things, like fash­ion, and in­flu­ences in a pos­i­tive way. They are a voice from the heart.” 

The jour­ney started eight years ago, af­ter her first son was born. Start­ing out, Or­tiz posted fash­ion in­spi­ra­tion and fam­ily ex­pe­ri­ences, and no­ticed her role on­line when women were di­rect mes­sag­ing her dur­ing her in­ter­net breaks to ask if she was okay. Or­tiz then no­ticed how much post­ing Bible verses, en­cour­age­ments, and even fash­ion in­spi­ra­tion re­ally meant to women around the Chicago area, and even across the coun­try, and soon grew pop­u­lar by word of mouth.  

Amy Or­tiz aims to en­cour­age and reach His­panic and Latin Amer­i­can women in their twen­ties to their thir­ties, from North­ern United States to South Amer­ica, who share the typ­i­cal short and curvy body type in search for fash­ion tips and Christ.  

Through her In­sta­gram, Or­tiz shares daily out­fit in­spi­ra­tion for women with cloth­ing pieces from af­ford­able stores rang­ing from thrift stores to Wal­mart and an as­sort­ment of oth­ers. She is con­scious of her au­di­ence and preaches look­ing good for less, but also be­lieves in in­vest­ing in qual­ity items that will last her for years to come. Her blog is also used to pro­vide fol­low­ers with links to in­di­vid­ual cloth­ing pieces to buy for them­selves.  

Or­tiz loves shar­ing Christ-filled in­spi­ra­tion and fash­ion tips, but also has shared her weight loss jour­ney through­out the years. She says that her vul­ner­a­bil­ity has opened doors for dif­fer­ent op­por­tu­ni­ties and be­came more than just shar­ing a pic­ture on In­sta­gram.  

Be­fore mov­ing to Mishawaka, Amy Or­tiz part­nered with dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies to pro­mote on her plat­forms and has been given op­por­tu­ni­ties to travel across the coun­try. Be­cause of her va­ri­ety of op­por­tu­ni­ties in the fash­ion in­dus­try, Or­tiz has trav­elled to places like, Nashville, New Or­leans, and even New York City for Fash­ion Week in 2016. New York Fash­ion Week is one of the biggest events in the in­dus­try where brands come to­gether to show­case their col­lec­tions for the up­com­ing sea­son.  

Her role on so­cial me­dia has come with many bless­ings but has strug­gled in the last cou­ple months fol­low­ing her fam­i­ly’s move to a smaller town. Af­ter the move, Amy re­al­ized how dif­fer­ent smaller cities are when it comes to fash­ion. She said, “There was a shift in my wardrobe”. Also, Or­tiz says, “[Chicago was al­ways sport­ing] the lat­est trends. It’s a place where pat­terns can be mixed, and you can look crazy with­out be­ing looked at weird. There was a flex­i­bil­ity to dress the way you want.”  

Mov­ing to In­di­ana, Or­tiz no­ticed there is a shift in fash­ion, be­ing low-key and more min­i­mal­ist, it is a place where jeans and sim­ple t-shirts are trend­ing.  Which are trends that dif­fer from her vin­tage and retro look. Or­tiz had to adapt to the ho­moge­nous fash­ion in or­der to re­late to her new-found au­di­ence.  

The in­flu­encer is start­ing from the be­gin­ning again, try­ing to look for busi­nesses to part­ner with and peo­ple to work with to con­tinue her work on­line. With no fam­ily nearby, it be­comes dif­fi­cult for Or­tiz to travel the way she could be­fore. Through trav­el­ing and dif­fer­ent events, the in­flu­encer uses her pro­file as a cre­ative out­let, with lit­tle in­ter­est in cre­at­ing a full-time ca­reer out of her pro­file and blog. Amy is cur­rently fo­cus­ing on work­ing as a den­tal hy­gien­ist at a lo­cal of­fice and her roles as a mother and wife.