Hello Twenty York Street readers! My name is Elaine of www.torontobeautyreviews.com and I am so honoured that the fabulous ML asked me to be a guest blogger on her site while she is away. I really didn’t know what to write about as I really don’t consider myself very interesting!
However I’ve recently been going through a slight dilemma that ML suggested I write about. (I think she was tired of me direct messaging her on twitter and emailing her with my freak outs – so now all of you have to suffer hahaha!) Perhaps some of you fellow bloggers out there can relate and she also mentioned that she has possibly the most intelligent readers in the world and that all of you would be able to provide great suggestions for me.
My blogging journey started off as an accident. I had heard of the concept of blogging but honestly did not understand why anyone would read anything that a normal person had to say. I mean really, what could be so interesting? I stumbled upon a few style blogs that struck a chord with me – turns out that all the issues I encountered while shopping weren’t just MY issue – there were others out there just like me! It kind of all snowballed from there. As a reader I felt like I was an outsider looking in on this fascinating blogging community. I wanted a piece of the action! I made contact with a couple of the bloggers I regularly read and they were so welcoming and encouraged me to start a blog of my own. Long story short, I jumped on the blogging bandwagon this past summer and have NOT looked back since.
As I realized through the power of maintaining a blog I began to realize that I really DID have things to say! The blog that I started out with was a style blog and was kind of anonymous. Most of my readers I had never met in real life and there was NO WAY I was telling my real life friends about it either – so embarrassing! I decided that starting another blog was the answer – blogging about my love of beauty products and helping my real life friends and family with product tips and sharing my passion with them through a new medium. I thought to keep the two blogs completely separate – one for my “virtual” friends and one for my “real” friends.
Turns out, the lines blurred and the blurred rather quickly! I was getting overwhelmed with maintaining both blogs and I also had two twitter accounts on top of that! I felt like I was being split in half and trying to maintain my so called two identities was proving to be too much for me (guess I’ll never make it as a superhero!). So just recently I decided to merge the blogs together. Some of you might be thinking “what’s the big deal – so what?” But for someone who is generally quite private it was a HUGE deal! I have met some of the most amazing people through blogging, but lets face it – only a blogger and regular blog readers would understand the concept of photographing yourself, writing about yourself and assuming people will actually visit your site – am I right? My anxiety grew over the thought “what will my real life friends and family think?”
Well the other day I made the leap and merged the two – and let me tell you once all the posts I had ever written were all in one space it was literally like a weight lift off me. I’m no longer in hiding and I feel like the two parts of me that I share with my readers can now be at peace together. I definitely made the right decision.
My blog may look like a mess right now and it will definitely be confusing to the followers of the blog I left behind, but now I can go back to enjoying blogging instead of stressing over it. After all that’s really what it’s all about isn’t it?
I hope there are some of you out there that can relate to my story and would love to hear your thoughts and your experiences with this crazy world of blogging.
My sincere thanks to ML for being an amazing friend – she is one of the reasons I continue to blog – a connection started through blogging and maintained through social media but hopefully a friend for life
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4 comments:
I think you did the right thing..I understand that you are a private person but there´s really no big deal to it..and believe me thinking what others would think is the worst thing to do..you just be yourself..I believe almost everybody is interesting, they have stories to tell and points of view to share..great style to show off and tips that for sure will help others...For me blogging was also something I discovered and I told myself oh I have to be here haha and it was difficult cause I always liked fashion but I didn´t really knew the scene here in my country or was aware of collections and all that I was kinda a regular admirer...And in my case I am not very sociable its a little hard for me to talk to people and be all you know the "one everyone want to talk to" and I was kinda private to cause I thought "oh who will read it...I dont even know if I have style!" But inside me I knew there was something I wanted to say, to show and to be part of...and It has be the best thing I´ve ever done...Not only getting to know fabulous people from other countries, the fashions, point of views and the countries themselves...but in my own country I´ve met so cool people that I know have the honor to call my friend and it opened me a huge window to a whole new world I didn´t even know it existed...trying to do new things that may be a little bit different to what you normally do is scary and worrying sometimes..but I believe you must just take a leap and go for it...for me I discovered I was more sociable than I thought and it made me feel I finally found my right place...so be cool and enjoy as much as you can cause this blogger family...they fucking rock! ;)
xx
Andy
The Black Label
I think you did a very brave thing merging your blogs. It's hard to be open with the people in our lives when you consider yourself to be private.
I can totally relate to your situation. Last summer I started a personal blog which morphed into fashion, style, event, personal and art blog. I kept it from my "real" friends because of the emo aspect, I didn't want people to think I was weak when I try so hard to be tough.
Being more open has it's struggles and anxieties but in the end it's for the better. I've become closer to my "real" and "virtural" friends.
Thank you so much ladies! And thank you ML for letting me do a guest post :)
It certainly was scary, but so far I've had good feedback :)
I'm glad to know you both can relate to what I was going through!
Aw Elaine! I already knew some of this but it's great to have it all in one post.
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oxo
ML
Twenty York Street
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