Conversations with Dustin Blake

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dustin Blake

Hi Dustin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Oranjestad, Aruba, and was adopted into the states as a little boy by my aunt. Always was a very active kid growing up and wanted to one day be a professional soccer player. That ended up not working out due to family moving me away to a very small town named Lake City Colorado. I finished high school here and went on to win Colorado State Champion 2 years in a row for the 4×800 meter race, as well as, many other state titles involving field events. I was always bullied growing up though, so went on to start spending a ton of time in the gym to the point that it grew on me as a person and ended up being the main stay part of my brand for physical fitness. After leaving home I went to NY for a while and really got attached to modeling and fashion. I knew I wanted to do something with them both for my brand on Instagram and that is h0w I got to the point I am now with Ethelwulfdustin.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was a running joke with my adopted family about how I “always had to learn things the hard way”, and boy did this end up being the case. Even right out of high school my adopted family told me I was on my own for college and for living so I went and got a full ride at CMU on the Reicher Scholarship. I then joined a sports team but had to claw my way up do to teammates feelings about me being a gay guy, and time and time again this was something that I went out of my way to mask or hide just so life could be a little easier. This lasted until the last year when I moved to Denver and realized how much life, experience, and fun I was keeping myself from having. After going out and struggling to make friends I eventually would my people with the Pups of the world.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For a while I was a server, bartender, and fine dinning caterer assistant. Then I went on to study personal training and fitness. Now I am branching back into modeling and online fully remote work so I can go back to traveling around the world and finding myself. Currently I am also a Gogo dancer at Charlie’s and dance events for Denver’s other LGBT bars as well.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Instagram is like my safe home base app. I love getting on and seeing what cool and exiting things other people are doing from all over the world. It really helps keep me hopeful of the future of possibilities waiting.

Pricing:

• 100-200 for photoshoots NSFW totally fine.
• Always looking for more collaborations with people and brands.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/dustin_duke
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethelwulfdustin/

Image Credits
@Jabblemade on Instagram