This guest post is quite special to me. It's written by a friend of mine, Amanda, who writes the blog 'The Online Stylist'. We've met; we've done coffee and cakes and discovered that we had a-l-h-o-t in common. I asked Amanda to write a post which was full of honesty and she suggested writing about her life as a fashion blogger. And let me say that being a fashion blogger is indeed Amanda's life. She lives, breaths, positively oozes fashion. I can count on one hand the number of people I have met who show utter passion for what they do, and Amanda is one of them. What I admire most about her is her unfailingly witty, wry view of the world and how she puts herself 'out there' through her online presence. Oh, and I didn't mention that she is one of the only bloggers I know of who has created a viable and thriving business from what they do...It’s lovely to be here on Lou’s beautiful blog. I was thrilled to be asked to guest post for her – she is one of those people that; when you meet them in real life, turn out to be even more wonderful than their blog manages to communicate.
I blog over at The Online Stylist – it’s the place where I indulge all my fashion and style musings with a healthy measure of shoe and bag obsessions thrown in. I choose to write an honesty post for Lou’s 'January Diaries' and in doing so, wondered if some of my feelings will be shared by lots of bloggers, fashion or otherwise.
Up until 2007 I had only worn and worshipped fashion from afar and never dreamt I could one day say I worked in the field. Via redundancy and a series of happy accidents, I ended up writing a blog that quickly turned to fashion as it’s main topic and began to be picked up on by others. And here I find myself, aged 42 & ¾’s and so some tell me, an established fashion blogger, who is now starting to earn a small income from what she does.
So what’s it like? It’s more amazing than I ever could have imagined is the first thing I would say. From blogging about the shoes of my dreams that I regularly gaze at on Net-A-Porter to be being invited to their press day…yep, that qualifies. From nervously attending my first show at London Fashion Week one season to finding myself stood within six feet of Anna Wintour the next…definitely up there with dream moments. It’s a continuing journey of unknown delights that never fail to knock me off the high heels that I now feel are necessary when attending events in London. Even though my feet might feel the need to disagree!
But you really do need those highs when you spend hour after hour in front of the computer, sometimes at the expense of your family because you’re addicted to this new found passion that’s crept into your life. You never know when the magical opportunities will present themselves and they often take on the persona of buses - nothing for eons and then two or three turn up together.
It’s the highs that keep you motivated when you try and juggle the childcare, home commitments, attention you know you should be paying your husband and daughter and the sleep you know you should be getting, in exchange for just one more hour to come up with another post. A post that sometimes you think nobody actually reads.
You have to focus on the highs when you realise that not everyone is happy about your small successes. But you learn to rise above it and push the initial hurt aside because you made up your mind to be the consummate professional since your blog became your business. One that you care very much about and where you chose to only share the positive stuff.
You focus on the positives as you tentatively dip your toe in the waters of personal style blogging. To the uninitiated, this is where you get to dress up in things from your wardrobe that don’t make you feel like you’re having a fat day and then get your husband to take pictures of you. In public places. Whilst passers by look on in bemusement and your daughter rapidly exceeds her time limit of five minutes before she gets bored and starts creating havoc!
And you all the while you tell yourself that it doesn’t matter that you’re not a size 8 and old enough to be the mother of some of your fashion blogging friends. You publish each of these style posts and hold your breath in case you fall foul of the trolls that lurk in blog-land but then breathe a huge sigh of relief when your readers react positively and leave you wonderful comments.
You continually think that you could do more and produce better content - your best is never good enough and you are your own worst critic. You alternate between wishing you lived in London so that you could attend all the events you had an invitation for and thinking that its possibly best that you have to undertake a 2 hour train ride to get there. Otherwise your obsession for this “I found my passion late in life” new career would mean you’d never see your family and without them, none of it would have quite the same meaning.
But if these are the petty niggles that are representative of a bad day at the office, all you have to do is remember how fortunate you are to be doing something you love heart and soul and wouldn’t change for the world. It doesn’t pay a fraction of the income that you spent half your working life building up but no matter. What matters is that you have the chance to try and build a career out of something that you truly love and you’re sure as hell going to give it your best shot.
Eye bags, nerves and insecurities aside, being a forty something fashion blogger rocks my world. And that’s something I never thought I’d hear myself say!
Happy Two-Year Blog-iversary Lou! I can’t believe that two years have passed since I first came across your blog with its sweet honesty and inspiring imagery. I’m glad to count you among my new found friends!
Lots of love, Amanda xxx
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