Wakefield food blogger aiming to grow following 2022 success

Jade Charlesworth, 30, of Horbury, started out as a food blogger by sharing pictures of her previously cooked meals on social media, and steadily grew from there. Her account currently sits at over 14,000 followers.

"I love taking pictures of everything and creating memories – my passion is food,” she said.

"I’ve always taken pictures of my meals and put them on Facebook only for them to just get a few likes. One of my colleagues suggested making a blog but I thought no one would ever look at it.

"I was bored one night in 2019 and created an account on Instagram called JadeLovesFood92 not realising what it would become. My boyfriend Jon helps me out with the account. He’s an ex chef and catering teacher and loves food as much as me. He does all the cooking if I need something done for a post and he helps come up with ideas for posts.”

"For the first few months I was just uploading my huge backlog of food pictures. After nine months I got my first invite to an event and it’s really gone from there!”

When the Covid lockdown hit, Jade took it as an opportunity to change and develop her brand further and try new things.

"As lockdown continued people were trying to set up postal baked goods - business/restaurants were doing meal boxes for home and wanted advertising so they would send me their products in exchange for a post. My Instagram grew from strength to strength. When restaurants opened up after the pandemic, they wanted advertising so I was asked to go in and do posts in exchange for a free meal.”

"Since then I have worked on a gifted basis with a lot of companies in exchange for a post including Miller & Carter, Quorn and Galaxy as well as businesses in West Yorkshire.”

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though, with Jade explaining that she does get some less than enthusiastic responses to her work.

“I have had some negative comments from people about what I do but what some people don’t realise is the time it takes to just do one post. Sometimes if companies send me their products I have to buy additional ingredients etc to make my post look appealing.

"Whilst I’m super grateful for all the opportunities my Instagram account has given me there is more to just “free meals” – I work full time in a high school so I have to fit my Instagram around my job.”

Jade said the food isn’t the only benefit of the account.

“I struggle meeting new people but my Instagram has pushed me out of my comfort zone and I’ve met loads of other bloggers/influencers and business owners.

"I have also attended new restaurant/menu launches and it’s a great chance to meet people I would have never normally met – I look forward to seeing where my Instagram account takes me in the future!”