Cherie Clonan: CEO, Fashion Enthusiast, and OBUS Lover
Cherie Clonan is a woman who wears many hats—CEO of The Digital Picnic, proud autistic advocate for neuro-inclusivity, mother, and fashion lover. Her digital marketing agency is well-known for blending social good with online strategy, but beyond her professional accomplishments, Cherie is a fierce advocate for creating inclusive workspaces that reflect diversity and individuality. She has a deep love for fashion, especially OBUS, where she finds clothes that resonate with her love for bold prints, comfort, and style.
As she balances the demands of running a business and motherhood, Cherie remains passionate about dressing in a way that makes her feel confident and empowered. With 2025 on the horizon, she’s gearing up for new challenges and milestones, all while looking fabulous in her signature OBUS pieces. Let’s get to know Cherie—the woman behind the brand, her love for fashion, and her inspiring approach to life.
Cherie: Look, really honestly, what drew me to the brand was the colour. I operate from a place of dopamine deficiency. So if there's any kind of dopamine on the menu, I lap it all out. But what I love most is knowing that I'm not hurting people or planet when I'm shopping with Obus. It's just really important and becoming more and more important to me as I grow.
Cherie: My name is Cherie. I'm the CEO at Digital Picnic. I do joke that I feel like I'm a part time CEO and full time awkward turtle. My team will definitely say that as well. We're a digital marketing agency specialising in helping brands have much more visibility online, whether it's through organic content or paid. I'm a really proud autistic woman raising a largely neurodivergent workforce. And I really do love showing off how incredible neurodivergent strengths are and how that translates to our work.
OBUS: Perfect. Thank you. And thank you for contributing to such an unseen demographic of people as well.We're here to talk about Obus and yourself as an OBUS Lover. So what first drew you to the brand and what keeps you coming back to new collections season after season?
Cherie: Look, really honestly, what drew me to the brand was the colour. I operate from a place of dopamine deficiency. So if there's any kind of dopamine on the menu, I lap it all out. But what I love most is knowing that I'm not hurting people or planet when I'm shopping with Obus. It's just really important and becoming more and more important to me as I grow.
OBUS: What has your relationship with fashion been like, for example, are you a Madonna constantly reinventing yourself, a RuPaul Charles, you know your silhouette and you always make it work or are you a Lady Diana and you're setting the trends?
Cherie: I think people would describe me as the Lady Diana, which is really hard to confess. I just don't see myself as that. Whatever I do or whatever I seem to wear, people ask like where it's from and so on. I've got to be really honest with you, I genuinely just dress for my brain. I've just reached this point where my brain feeling happy is the most important thing to me now. And it's just wild to me THAT ends up translating and a lot of people asking, “where is that from?” Google reverse searching things that I wear and so on. It shocks me to my core, but yeah, I dress for my brain. So if that's Diana then. I guess I’m that.
OBUS: You've spoken about how social media can be used for social good. Do you think the fashion industry has a role to play in this movement, and how can brands like Obus use their platform to inspire positive change?
Cherie: Yeah I do, and I think a lot of brands don't even recognise the power of their own community and I'd love to see lots of brands recognising just how powerful their community really is. My business and our community, in I think two days raised enough money to fund an apartment for an entire year that was given to a not for profit which helps women and gender diverse folk escape domestic violence. And that was just our little brand. I really think 2025 is going to see a lot of brands recognising their community is much more powerful than they realise. And we're just going to go like village on some things that matter to that brand. Figure out what your purpose is, get your community behind it. And you'd be so surprised what eventuates from that commitment.
OBUS: Yes. We love community first.
Cherie: I don't even think people realise, we could only rent this apartment for a particular amount of time and then our community was like, go one more year, run a masterclass, charge this, we'll sign up for it. So they got the learning and then we got to allocate the funds for a whole other year on that apartment.
OBUS: Yeah, wow, that's incredible and like life changing for somebody as well. Well done. All right. Final question. Looking ahead to 2025, what's on your radar both professionally and personally when it comes to fashion and the way you express yourself through the wardrobe?
Cherie: I think I'm just falling in love even more and more with my weird little self. I've stopped dressing like I felt like you were meant to at 41 or I stopped dressing like I'm embarrassed to walk to the school yard to pick up my kids. I just embrace my weird little self. I am a weirdo. I bloody love that about myself and so I just hope to get more and more weird because it just makes me so happy.
OBUS: Yes, I love that too. I feel like we all need to take that moment and really discover what we love and just stop worrying about what everybody else thinks.
Cherie: Honestly, I actually find that it's more weird to dress like something you aren't, just this is me and yeah, bloody love my weirdness.
OBUS: Yes. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Aw, thanks so much, Cherie! Any final thoughts?
Cherie: I love this brand. I think, this is the kind of year when we're recognising that Shine, Sheens, Temu’s, whatever, are pumping however many millions per day into paid ads, that we've seriously got to, as a whole group of human beings, get behind the brands that aren't doing that. And add to cart knowing we're making really good decisions for people and planet.
OBUS: Amazing. Thanks again.
