Margaret Zhang is a woman of many talents. She’s a blogger, writer, stylist, photographer, creative director and, on top of all that, a student at the University of Sydney completing her combined Bachelor of Commerce and Law.

At just 21, Margaret has already achieved so much including working for Harpers Bazaar and NYLON magazines, Nike, David Jones, Mulberry and NET-A-PORTER – just to name a few! Above all, she is a social media whiz. With over 427,000 followers on Instagram Margaret has decided to host workshops on how best to use the medium.

Excitingly, Margaret will be visiting Canberra Centre on Saturday 6 June to host one of her Instagram workshops. I caught up with Margaret ahead of her visit for a little chat and mini scoop inside her life.

How important is Instagram to you and the success of your blog, Shine By Three?

I think Instagram has been more imperative to building my personal digital brand profile than my blog, per se. I think my audiences for the two are quite separate, interestingly enough!

In an effort not to give too much away ahead of your masterclass at the Canberra Centre, how did you learn what worked and what didn’t when gaining followers on Instagram?

I don’t focus too much on numbers – just making sure that the content I’m putting out there is genuine and high quality. Some posts you expect to do well totally bomb, and others that you weren’t so happy with skyrocket, so it’s an unpredictable space that isn’t worth losing too much sleep over!

What are your favourite photo editing apps to use? Or are you a #nofilter girl?

I love Snapseed and Luminance to adjust White Balance.

Who are your all time favourite designers?

Such a hard one! I love what out Aussie designers are doing at the moment – Dion Lee, Michael Lo Sordo, Josh Goot, ELLERY, Christopher Esber to name a few… Internationally, I love Jacquemus, Christopher Kane, Balenciaga, Acne, Raf Simons. It’s too hard to choose!

You are a woman of many talents! What do you plan on doing with your Commerce and Law Degree?
I use it everyday in my freelance business. I’m fascinated by intellectual property and media law, so will come back to that some day!

What does ‘Shine By Three’ stand for?
It doesn’t mean a thing – just an impulse decision when I started this whole thing at 16! Shine was a word that I liked the sound of at the time.

Last but not least, what does a typical ‘Day in the Life of Margaret Zhang’ look like?

There is no typical day! There’s usually at least a few hours of class, a few hours of exercise, a lot of phone calls, mixed in with shoots, meetings, presentations, and as of late, a lot of plane travel!

Thanks Margaret!

Want to join the Instagram Masterclass? Tickets are only $50.00 with a complementary gift bag including a $50.00 Canberra Centre gift voucher plus much more. Click here to find out more and reserve your spot.