Hi I’m Nancy, and my phone always eats before I do 
I have contributed to the google maps and discovered the Local Guides program just about one and a half years ago and it has not only changed my life but also changed my phone’s life too! To me, being a Local Guide not only means giving back, helping others, and supporting local communities but also creating a new platform for myself. Being a local guide, to me, means building confidence and exposing talents.
I am an architecture student so I love to travel to a lot of different cities, but I always end up getting familiar with the city first by going through the google reviews of nearby restaurants, attractions and parks in the area. I’m also the type of person who prefers the visuals and aesthetics rather than the texts, so instead of looking at the menu first, I always go to google review to look at the photos whenever I get to a new restaurant or cafe. Therefore, I thrived to be those people who post photo reviews to help those ones like me and giving back to the community and local businesses at the same time.
I love taking pictures and I love how being a local guide allows me to share my photography on almost anything from food, architecture and to sceneries but also helping others at the same time. The local guide program also boosts my confidence by receiving so many views on my photos. Some of my photos reached over 10,000 views and one of my most viewed photo for a new Starbucks Reserve in Downtown Vancouver that just opened a year ago reached 36,790 views! Taking pictures of food became one of my greatest hobby!
Since then, I’ve developed a habit of documenting my meals and taking pictures of them before I eat anything. I wanted to share what I am enjoying with the google local guides community and also everyone else who wants to see an actual image of the food before they decided to order. I also created a new food instagram account just to share all the food photos I took and also the places I’ve traveled to.
Here it is 
https://www.instagram.com/nan_fooood/
Being a Local Guide means local business support, community sharing, and confidence boost. I’ve now created lists of food themes to explore and also support local businesses just like how I reviewed sushi restaurants and bubble tea stores in Vancouver last year. This year, I want to explore a new city that I’ve never been to (pssst yes that means Bay Area ) and I’m totally ready to feed my phone with it 
!