Turning a Passion into a Career: Julia Weber, Little Miss Ottawa

When Julia Weber, BCom/13, was at apple orchard, a man who had recently moved from Brazil saw her Little Miss Ottawa car and said that her content had been a huge resource for him this past year in Ottawa. This man was one of Julia’s 27,000 followers on her Little Miss Ottawa Instagram account.

Little Miss Ottawa started as a passion project for Julia in 2014. While completing her Commerce degree at Carleton, Julia took part in an international exchange to Australia and caught the travel bug. Her next big trip was to England, where she noticed she was doing a new activity and visiting new places every day while abroad. It made her wonder why she wasn’t doing this at home in Ottawa.

This inspired Julia to seek out adventures in Ottawa, take photos and post them on Instagram under her anonymous Little Miss Ottawa account.

“I thought, why don’t I start posting on my own account things to do and see in Ottawa?,” Julia expressed. “I did it anonymously, and it just started catching on. I think it speaks to how people really want to do things in Ottawa, but they might not know where to look. We often get that boring rep, but we’re far from boring. It was also my way of exploring my hometown, because there’s so much to do in Ottawa.”

Within the first few weeks of starting Little Miss Ottawa, Ottawa Tourism and Wingd reached out to her to collaborate. In 2018, Julia was chosen as a team TELUS ambassador and flown to Vancouver a week before driving a Ford EcoSport from Halifax to Charlottetown as part of Ford’s cross-country campaign. The exposure she got through this led to the opportunity to travel through Quebec with Hostels International Canada, and being offered a Ford EcoSport for a few months by Jim Keay Ford.

“I’m really strict on brand partnerships. I’ve had make-up companies reach out, but I don’t show my face, which I think adds to some of the mystery. So no, it’s not a fit. But I’ll work with travel companies or tourism groups. I added an event page to my website so I could have even more resources for people,” Julia said.

She even recently partnered with Ray Otten of Ottawa Properties, because she was receiving many messages from people moving to Ottawa, or wondering what neighbourhoods were good to live in.

Julia’s decision to not reveal her face has allowed Little Miss Ottawa to grow without pressure these past four years. She wanted the focus to be on the content, and for people to be able to imagine themselves doing the activities she features on her blog and social media. As time has gone on, she said it has been harder to keep her identity a secret.

Instead of being in front of the camera, Julia has sharpened her skills behind it. When she started the account, all of the photos were taken with her iPhone. She would go to photography meetups with her iPhone to develop her eye and learn from other photographers.

“I don’t think you need the biggest fanciest camera to be successful. If you can take a good photo on an iPhone, you can take a good photo on anything. I don’t want that to be a barrier to entry for anybody,” Julia shared.

After Julia graduated from Carleton, she worked at the Bank Street BIA doing special projects and admin before becoming the marketing manager. She then worked in a marketing agency where she helped grow their social media department. Little Miss Ottawa also continued to grow during this time and she eventually chose to focus on her business, while also taking on some social media clients.

What has helped Julia in her career was the different experiences she got in university. As a brand ambassador she was able to try her hand at events and media relations, she sought out internships when she was a student and in her Marketing Communications course BUSI 3205 she helped create a campaign that doubled the number of attendees at Carleton Ravens sports games.