Story by Christina Amano Dolan
Photos by Michael Atilla
Megan Wilson is the perfect touch of sweet sauce everyone needs. She’s the friend you call when you’re panicking in a dressing room before a big event, scrambling to figure out what to wear. She’s the coworker you turn to for advice on where to take the visiting relatives to dinner when you want to impress with lavish food while keeping your wallet in tact.
“I think of fashion, food, travel, and beauty as the extra special sauce we all add to our lives to make them sweeter” she says. And thank goodness her blog has it all!
So who is the face behind the blog Sweet Sauce? With her blog rising in popularity since its debut, Sweet Sauce has been flourishing with events, fitness and lifestyle tips, style lookbooks, collaborations, and much more. With a blog so impressively busy, it may be hard to pinpoint who exactly Megan Wilson is. “Now some people don’t even know my name” she joked in an online interview, “They just call me Sweet Sauce.”
But of course she wasn’t always known as the face behind Sweet Sauce. In fact, her resume may be even more impressive than her incredibly dynamic blog!
She grew up on the outskirts of Richmond in the small town of Louisa County, spending her long summer days by the waters of Lake Anna. Following a boy and an academic scholarship, she attended the University of Richmond, studying journalism and studio art. Luckily for her, her two passions carried over into both her blog and career today, sharing “I learned a lot of digital art skills that cross over into journalism and my marketing work today.”
Megan had found early success in her career prior to the creation of her blog. She worked at a nonprofit for both fundraising and marketing until she grew bored and sought a creative outlet. Suddenly, she began to think of a platform to share her fashion and style tips, how to craft the website, what it would look like, and finally, her iconic name. “Sweet Sauce is a term of endearment my ex boyfriend gave me early in our relationship” she explains, “I thought it would make a good blog name and it stuck.”
Although she had already known how to build a website, of course like every blogger, Megan admits the early months of the blog were a bit rocky, “Honestly, in the beginning I didn’t even know what a fashion blog was. My first 6 months were so funny and a total mess.” But the beauty of the blogger community is it is never too difficult to learn from others. Megan has learned from a network of fashion bloggers she loves to follow, quickly designing her blog to the success it is today (while still personalizing it to be her very own).
Despite her blog’s success, it may seem impossible to keep up with both a blog and a hectic work schedule. She has three main occupations she devotes herself to today: Sweet Sauce Blog, content creation for clients, and writing for RVA Magazine, Richmond Magazine, Style Weekly, Richmond Grid, and more. So how exactly does she master so many demanding professions?
Scheduling is key. She has her own home office, motivating herself to meet deadlines and stay on schedule. “I reorganize and reprioritize the list every day. I get new assignments, new ideas and new inspiration every day, so I get good at being flexible and adapting my project list.” Her life revolves around self-discipline, organization, and – above all – truly loving what keeps her busy. Her rule is, “I only accept or work on projects that make me really happy, pay well, or hopefully meet somewhere in the middle.”
But of course, no one can truly thrive with solely work encompassing their lives. Megan suggests always scheduling in your own personal time, whether it’s working out, going out with friends, or even travelling. “If your personal life isn’t good then what’s the point?… You can do fun and work if you just stay aware of your priorities.”
As featured on her “travel” tab on her blog, one of Megan’s favorite escapes is to travel anywhere and everywhere – even to places as close as Fredericksburg! “Everywhere is exciting if you make it that way… you just have to be curious, open minded and nonjudgmental. You’ll see real beauty in people, businesses, nature, food, and more.” Just this year, she has already visited Fredericksburg, Fort Lauderdale (twice), Miami, and Key West. She even writes for Virginia’s tourism brand, Virginia’s River Realm.
“I go out there monthly to create content and it’s always refreshing!”
Her blog, of course, features much more than her small and large endeavors. Her style tab features a wide array of looks she loves to wear around the city. She says, y“My style pendulum swings pretty wide. I don’t have to go to an office, per se, and I get to have a little more fun with what I wear because of that.” A lot of her looks take inspiration from seventies, bohemian style. She particularly favors the decade of suede for its flattering fit and patterns. “ I personally love the feminine figure and don’t shy away from accentuating my own and encouraging other women to do the same.”
With warmer weather emerging, Megan has been recently sporting the classically cute and comfy high-waisted look. “Anything high waisted is going in my closet. It’s flattering and easy to wear.” With the brighter, more vibrant season springing back to life, she is especially looking to get back into bright and bold colors.
Unlike other bloggers, however, she doesn’t solely focus on her own style, but even features a “Your Style” tab that is always open to submissions! She wants to spotlight the many looks that are worn around Richmond, from street wear to classic vintage looks. “I want to expose my followers to all kinds of styles, perspectives, people and brands.”
So who is the face behind Sweet Sauce Blog? Megan Wilson is an inspiring blogger who has found her most important passion both inside and outside of her career: working with people. Being a diligent writer and blogger, she has found the perfect excuse to constantly work with people and help them in ways the average person can’t.
She loves sharing what she learns about new people with the world, too, always hoping to enlighten and improve the lives around her. “I feel like it’s my tiny rebellion: giving a voice to all the positive people and things going on right under our noses, despite a dreary list of national and international headlines.” She’s the perfect touch of sweet sauce everyone needs in their lives, whether it’s learning of new fashion, travel, lifestyle, food, and beauty tips to sweeten up their day a bit more!
