• By Michaela d'Artois April 20, 2020

Instagram: @sacha.strebe
Location: Los Angeles
Astrological Sign: Gemini
Book that changed your life: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
Podcast you can’t stop listening to: More Than One Thing By EyeSwoon; Gloss Angeles; Goop; Deepak Daily Breath; Friend of a Friend, WorkParty; Pretty Big Deal; Second Life
Instagram account you love to follow: @nikita_gill and Wolf and Woman have beautiful poetry. Poetry is great for anxiety—it’s good for the soul—so I’m trying to read more and take time to do that. I also love @thatcoolmoodboard for inspo, @erenatepaa and @eyeswoon for interiors, and female artists like Jackie Leishman and Simone Bodmer Turner.
Beauty product (or treatment) that changed your skin: Monthly chemical peels. They’re a gamechanger. And getting microinfusions with Dr. Samolitis. My skin glows and I look so fresh, not tired!

It’s those with adventure deep within them that make the best storytellers, and Sacha Strebe is a prime example of this. As one of four siblings, her childhood was marked by independence and freedom. Strebe recounts fond memories of the white sand beaches of Cairns, Australia: “My sister and I enjoyed fresh watermelon slices on the shore as the juice rolled down our chins and onto our sun-kissed bellies.” While her family remains on the Gold Coast, Strebe continued “searching for more” which led her to countries afar, to the love of her life, and finally settling in L.A.

Strebe is approachable, lighthearted, and has the eyebrow game many spend lifetimes striving for. Just 30-seconds on her Instagram Stories and you feel at home in her bathroom watching her lather on the mask du jour. With an impressive resume of digital editorial gigs including her current position as Editorial Director at Create & Cultivate, we couldn’t wait to hear more about her hopes for the female collective and to extract some nuggets of wisdom about imposter syndrome, working from home, liquid facials, and more!

MD

What was your first job?

SS

I had random babysitting jobs as a young kid. My first official job was working at a deli in the local grocery store. I remember having to empty the fat from the chicken rotisserie into buckets and wheel them into the fridge out the back. I really wanted to work at the checkouts, but this job came up first and I hoped it would be a foot in the door and eventually lead me to the checkout position. It didn’t happen, so I quit after six months and was hired in a checkout role at their competitors. After a few months, they promoted me to front end controller and I was so proud.

MD

What do you feel is the most important message you would like to get across to women around the world with Create & Cultivate?

SS

Don’t be in a rush. I was always in a hurry to be super successful in my career. I could never understand why everyone else was more successful than me, and I felt like that was a poor reflection on my work or how committed I was. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have always worked so incredibly hard, sometimes to the detriment of my mental and physical health (it’s true, ask my husband!). Oprah is right: success and luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Eventually, while I was busy preparing, opportunity came a-knocking.

I also realized that success for insatiable people like me never comes. We will always be chasing the next thing, learning a new trick, growing into a new skin, and challenging our abilities. I’m trying to embrace that restless, unforgiving, demanding part of myself and forgive myself on the days when I don’t. It’s not always easy. There are definitely days where I feel like I’m not enough, or I haven’t achieved what I was born to do, or worse, that I never will. That’s when I need to get still, exhale, and write a gratitude list. It’s also important to look back on our achievements and celebrate the small wins. We often have the blinkers on and don’t take time to appreciate the moment or how far we’ve come.

MD

What’s the best way to cope with imposter syndrome in the workplace?

SS

I still suffer from this, and not just in the workplace. Maybe it will always be there but I do try to focus on the work. I have worked long enough to know that when I put my mind to something, I can and will achieve it. You just need to keep learning and leveling up. That will give you the confidence you need to push any imposter syndrome negative self talk to the side. We are all a work in progress, we’re all feeling the same way, so just show up and be you because that’s more than enough.

MD

Advice for aspiring editors that want to pursue a similar path?

SS

I cold emailed editors, called about job openings, and submitted job applications for every opening (even the ones I wasn’t qualified for) and interned wherever possible. I wrote for every publication that would publish my work, and wrote for my own blog. If you are truly passionate and want it more than anything else, you’ll do the work to prove it. That hustle, passion, and spirit will get you over the line when the right job comes along. Now you can even follow your favorite editors on social media and DM them to ask for advice. That wasn’t around when I first started.

Facile Skin

Essence

Biologique Recherche

Lotion P50

Cosmedix

Opti Crystal

“we are all a work in progress, we’re all feeling the same way, so just show up and be you because that’s more than enough.”

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MD

How have setbacks in your career been blessings in disguise?

SS

After many cold emails to the editor-in-chief at our local newspaper on the Gold Coast, I received a rejection letter in the mail. I should have been devastated and given up, but it only made me more determined. I kept emailed and calling. Eventually, he was so intrigued by this girl with an incessant determination that he invited me in for an informational interview. We hit it off. There weren’t any job openings at the time but he said they’d call when something did. A month later, I got the call for a position on the copy desk. It was a very basic, entry-level position that paid terribly—I accepted it immediately. I worked my way up to the fashion editor role (and had a baby in between!) where I reported on Australian Fashion Week and edited their weekly fashion and beauty insert. It was my dream job.

MD

You recently went from working from home to office life. Which do you prefer and where do you feel most productive?

SS

I definitely like the stimulation of being in an office and working alongside other creatives, but there are so many distractions and meetings. I really do miss the focus and attention I can achieve when working from home. When I have a big project or story I have to write, I prefer to be at home in the natural light with the birds singing off the balcony. I really do need a balance of both.

MD

What motivated you to start sharing your beauty and lifestyle routines on social media?

SS

Growing up in Australia where the sun is so harsh, we are all taught to take care of our skin. My mom put me onto a cleanse, tone, and moisturize routine from about the age of 14. After I left my tenure as the editorial director of MyDomaine, I started a design newsletter called Stylexicon so I could continue writing about my passion for interiors and decor. But when I launched, a lot of my friends started requesting a beauty equivalent. That’s when I came up with the idea for Skinlexicon and so now I alternate between the two newsletters—design one week, skin the next.

I think my skincare advice resonates on social media because there aren’t many women around my age (I turn 40 in May) who share realistic advice and products for anti-aging and skin health and are honest about injectables. I did a video with Dr. Nancy Samolitis on my liquid facial, which showed her administering microinjections of various fillers and botox around my face for an instant lift. I had so many people thank me for the honesty and it surprises me that this is so rare. I think more women should be open so that we break down the taboo and encourage others to simply feel good in their skin.