Category: Essays

Essays

Different Bodies in Blogging

Different Bodies in Blogging

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I am a skinny white girl. I’m not 5’11” with killer cheekbones, I don’t have flawless skin, but nonetheless I fit the archetypal media ideal body type, and I think that it is very important for me to acknowledge this as someone with someone with a certain level of influence in fashion blogging.

Blogging is different from, and better than, traditional fashion media in that it allows everyone a shot. ‘Normal’ girls from a wide range of backgrounds, each with a very different body, become as influential and aspirational as any model or fashion celebrity. This is really fantastic and in many ways revolutionary, yet the blogging world is still dominated by slim white bodies. That isn’t to say we should discredit these beautiful, inspirational, entrepreneurial creators who build successful careers from nothing, but we should question why most of them are skinny white girls, in a field which (theoretically) could and should be modifying and expanding societal beauty standards rather than reinforcing them. We should acknowledge and celebrate the growth and success of the plus size blogging industry, but question why it must still be its own industry. We should think about why in-between sized bodies are even more scarcely represented.

Having a skinny white body does not leave me free from all scrutiny. I have experienced ‘skinny shaming’ as a result of my body being shared with thousands and thousands of people. Comments on photos of me posted by popular brands on Facebook have ranged from the ‘get her a burger lol’ to the dreaded ‘you should use real women not sticks’, and people have (incorrectly) assumed that I suffer with an eating disorder and have made nasty remarks to that effect (needless to say, eating disorders are a separate and complex issue, but accusations like that are helpful for absolutely no-one). None of this is nice to read, and thankfully it is not something I experience very frequently. More importantly, however, these comments don’t affect me on any sort of long-term basis, and this is partly due to the fact that the media unremittingly reinforces my body as a good body.

What I am trying to say: body shaming of any kind is awful, but being attacked for being skinny is not the same as being attacked for being fat. For every girl who was bullied in school for being too skinny, there are probably a hundred girls who were bullied for being fat. Even in very extreme cases, for example Cheryl Fernandez-Versini’s media onslaught following very visible weight loss, the tone of the articles and tweets about her was overwhelmingly one of concern and pity. When Gemma Collins appeared in the I’m A Celeb jungle, people took gleefully to social media to make fun of her for being fat. Neither of these things is okay, but they aren’t the same. Whatever my personal body insecurities might be, they are not reinforced by society as a whole. Whilst the odd individual or weird gossip magazine campaign (#strongnotskinny?) will try to tear me (and Chezza) down, the society around me is structured to reassure me and build me back up.

This is not always the case for bloggers who don’t have skinny white bodies. I asked the beautiful and successful Gracie of graciefrancesca.com about her experience as a ‘different body’ in blogging –

I don’t have the ideal body type, never have done and probably never will, and whilst there are tons of beautiful ‘skinny white girl’ bloggers killing the game with huge brand campaigns, there is a lack of that for girls who don’t fit into that ‘ideal’ form of beauty. Unfortunately I think it stems further than just body type, I think race and looking different in general also play a massive part.

Growth and opportunities appear to just be harder if you don’t look like what most of the world would like you to look like. You go on the Bloglovin’ homepage and see the same type of girl, you scroll through a popular brand’s Instagram feed and the same type of girl appears there too! Where is the diversity? It’s disheartening, sad and damn right shameful. Are plus size women off brand? And do black girls not fit into your feed? If we’re not skinny and white, are we not good enough?

Of course, I love what I do and I’ve broken down barriers and achieved things I once thought were unachievable but I’m not blind to the challenges so many of us face. There is a very obvious (to me anyway) divide within the community when it comes to size. You’re either a blogger, or a plus size blogger. It doesn’t really matter who created the labelling because its just a label, but I am 100% sure that being a plus size blogger OR having a plus size body type hinders your opportunities.

I receive comments about my body all the time, I’m too fat for some and I’ve been too slim for others. Everyone has an opinion on what women should look like and it can be hurtful and damaging – as a blogger or someone of social influence I think it’s important to challenge body shaming no matter what size you are.

So there’s a little food for thought for next time you’re thinking about commenting on someone’s body on a brand repost, something to notice when you’re scrolling through the fashion brands you follow on Instagram, or something to consider when you’re searching for new bloggers to follow and support. If you have any thoughts on blogging and body image, I’d love to hear them!

Words by:
Hannah Farrington @hannahlouisef
and Grace Victory @gracefvictory

Image via Pinterest

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January 25, 2016 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays

A Post About Self-Appreciation

A Post About Self-Appreciation

 

We are about to enter a new year and so, inevitably, the internet is awash with new year’s resolutions, goals for the year ahead, and posts about change. Whilst I think that self-improvement and ambitiousness should be be encouraged and celebrated, I think that it is equally important to remember how amazing we already are.

In spite of the perceived narcissism that inherently comes with running a blog based almost entirely around photographs of myself (although that isn’t to say that narcissism is always a negative quality), I find bigging myself up to be one of the most difficult things to do. When meeting someone new and talking careers, I find myself instinctively downplaying my blog; ‘yeah it’s just pictures of myself wearing clothes really, haha’.

But, 2015 has been a massive year for me. I went through the break-up of a four and a half year relationship, I graduated, I went from the relative financial stability of being a student to being entirely self-employed, I moved from a familiar city close to home to a completely unfamiliar city 200 miles away, my grandfather passed away 3 weeks after I did this, and although I don’t speak very openly about my personal feelings and ‘how I am doing’, I have been having a very tough time as of late. With all that in mind, I wanted to end the year with a list of my personal achievements; something that I can look at and be proud of myself for, in spite of how overwhelming this year has been:

  • I turned my hobby into my career.
  • I achieved a first class law degree from the University of Manchester whilst doing this.
  • I moved to London, not for a job or a place at university, but as a self-employed, self-sufficient young woman.
  • My content has improved tenfold since the
    beginning of this year: I’ve worked with more people to improve my photos, I’ve tried harder with my writing, and everything is just better.
  • I’m 22 years old and I have a career, not just a job.
  • I am 22 years old and I am my own boss.

Of course having a great life or remarkable set of achievements does not equal happiness, but compiling this (albeit quite short) list of things I have done this year in lieu of a list of things I want to change was, I think, a great self-care move. I have reread it a number of times before hitting ‘publish’ and have found it very cathartic, and will no doubt continue to do so well into 2016. So, by all means continue to be ambitious and use the New Year as a kick-start into doing things that you want to do, but don’t disregard the importance of a little bit of self-appreciation too <3

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December 30, 2015 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays

In Defence of Emojis

In Defence of Emojis

 

My academic concern with English Language ended with my A Levels in 2012. Nevertheless, my career revolves around language use and its subtle nuances, and the way different groups of people use language across different time periods is something that fascinates me.

 

Bloggers, journalists and other social media influences are, I think, largely responsible for influencing the language used on the internet. If they aren’t starting language trends, they’re perpetuating them and ensuring that they are exposed to large audiences. In the same way that we pick up linguistic idiosyncrasies when hanging out with a friend from a different city, for example, we instinctively begin to emulate the writing styles of our favourite tweeters.

 

 It goes without saying that the existence of the Oxford English Dictionary as an institution which governs language and words which are and are not deemed ‘legitimate’, and the race and class issues embedded within that, is problematic. That is a separate discussion; love or hate the OED, its 2015 word of the year is the crying laughing emoji. As the year comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about people who believe that the ‘internet generation’, armed with our emojis and imperfect grammar, are ‘ruining the English language’. To put my point concisely: they are incredibly wrong.
When writing a formal email, letter or essay, our grammar and spelling are accurate. When writing blog posts, we use full sentences with a more casual tone; with the odd ‘lmao’, ‘tbh’ or ‘imo’ thrown in to express this. When tweeting, we use ‘u’ and ‘ur’ for effect, as well as to save on characters.

 

In many ways, excessive emoji use could be just another language trend, akin to typing like thiis or even tHiS in the eArlY 2000s. Perhaps I feel differently because I’m much older now than I was when I was editing my Myspace profile, but I think that we are past that. Us ~~~millennials~~~ (did I use enough ‘~’ to demonstrate self-awareness about how embarrassing the term ‘millennials’ is?) don’t use emojis, abbreviations and recently coined words out of a lack of other options. I very consciously choose ‘u’ over ‘you’, depending on context, to convey a different tone. A heart-eyes emoji, flames emoji, or ‘omg!!!!’ on your mate’s selfie is just as important as your auntie’s ‘you look beautiful x x’ comment on your Facebook profile pic.

 

Moreover and perhaps more importantly, I don’t believe that language can in fact be ‘ruined’. Language should be non-prescriptive. Perhaps this renders my first point redundant, but who doesn’t like a little emoji-based dialog?
There’s no real goal in this extremely un-academic essay, save for the fact that I haven’t written one in a while. Language cannot be ruined. Being able to adapt one’s language use to suit a context is a mark of advanced language use, not the opposite. So screw the h8rs, tbh, keep doing u, and let me know what you think about an emoji being 2015’s ‘word of the year’.

 

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December 20, 2015 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays

In Defence of Doing Stuff By Yourself

In Defence of Doing Stuff By Yourself


“There’s a new film out but no-one else wants to watch it!”

“I really love [insert touring band here], but nobody will come see them with me”

“I want to try [new café in town] but all my friends are working”

 

I am willing to bet almost every penny in my bank account that almost every person reading this has uttered, or at least thought, a variation of one of the above phrases. I have certainly been guilty of it, but recently I’ve started to *gasp* do stuff BY MYSELF.

I’ve always been relatively independent; I was never the girl in school who rallied a group of pals around just to visit the bathroom. When I moved out and lived in student halls I spent a lot of time alone on account of having less in common with my flatmates than I’ve had with anyone else I’ve ever met. Now I have lived alone for almost six months, and since graduating I’ve been left making a living in a way that doesn’t involve much human interaction (this blog), and a group of friends who work full time. What I’m probably saying is that my doing stuff alone, going for a walk, taking my laptop to a café, reading in the park, hasn’t been so much of an active choice as a necessity. I like staying in in my pyjamas from time to time, but not that much.

BUT, however it has come about, it really isn’t that bad. Passers by don’t really give you funny looks, baristas don’t pause with a knowing look of pity when you order your coffee ‘to stay’, and I’d even go as far as to say it is enjoyable. There’s something extremely liberating about doing stuff alone, that is (for me) very different from being home alone, or even being out doing ‘chores’ like the grocery shop. The first time I went to a gig by myself was an enlightening experience in this respect. Ariel Pink was playing in the Royal Northern College of Music concert hall (like a proper sit down concert) and most of my friends couldn’t care less. Having enjoyed pom pom (even in spite of the terrible person that Ariel Pink evidently is, but that’s a discussion for another day) I decided to go down alone; I bought a ticket at the door, and spent roughly two hours watching live music by myself. And that was that.

Since then I’ve been to a few more shows alone. I saw Nils Frahm perform at the Albert Hall (an especially immersive experience which I almost feel was improved by being alone, and has been by far one of my favourite ‘concerts’ of the year), and in my most adventurous move yet I even travelled to Leeds (an hour’s train from Manchester) to see Purity Ring. Watching bands alone seems to have the most social stigma attached to it, but it is really no big deal.

This isn’t revolutionary, and to some people comes more naturally than anything. I can also appreciate that those who suffer badly with social anxiety may face a very different set of obstacles when it comes to going out and doing things without a friend. However, if doing stuff alone is something you’ve considered but each time opted to stay home instead, I hope my directionless rambling (I just felt like writing ok) can persuade you to (figuratively) join me in doing stuff by yourself.

Words by Hannah Farrington
Photo by Toni Power

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August 10, 2015 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays

Cultural Appropriation is not Festival Fashion

Festival season is in full swing, and white girls in bindis and braids are out in their thousands. I can’t refresh Instagram without a sigh of disappointment as a girl I follow posts a wink-peace-and-pout selfie adorned in a cheap version of the traditional jewellery, or seeing another photo of Kylie Jenner appropriating black culture with every fibre of her being (but it’s ok because Justin Bieber said so). Perhaps even more surprisingly, popular brands are sharing those same images with hundreds of thousands of followers, seemingly without a second thought. Even the Native American headdress is still making an appearance in white people’s party pics, despite festivals such as Glastonbury finally banning the sale of them, and many a celebrity coming under fire for sporting them (remember Ellie Goulding’s “Halloween costume” and Karlie Kloss at Victoria’s Secret).

 

For those who don’t know, cultural appropriation (CA) is the adoption of certain elements of one (typically oppressed) culture by another (typically dominant) culture. This, in my view, is wrong, and the aim of this post is to explain why. As a white girl I am not best suited to talk too loudly about the appropriation of other peoples’ cultures, and with this in mind I asked Suki and Shope to help me out. I would like to use what platform I have to hopefully (without trying to sound too patronising) educate my audience, encourage discussion, and in particular I am concerned with making bloggers and brands who themselves have large audiences realise that what they are doing is in inappropriate, offensive and (yes) racist, no matter how well intentioned they are. This isn’t targeted at one particular blogger or one particular brand because there are just so many still doing it, but if it applies to you please pay attention to what Suki, Shope and I have to say. Make yourself a brew because it is quite a long one; calling all bloggers, brands and social media influencers: cultural appropriation is not festival fashion.
Focusing on the issue of bindis, here’s what my fabulous Pakistani friend Suki Deen has to say:

Why do you want to wear a bindi? The majority of the time, people want to wear it as a fashion statement simply because they think it looks “cool”, thus appropriating a culture whilst remaining ignorant to the meaning it holds to others. They see no problem in this, and I can understand where that attitude comes from. I hear a lot of people say that they wouldn’t mind if an Asian adopted something from their culture, but this is exactly where the problem lies – this isn’t a cultural exchange. For a cultural exchange to happen, there needs to be understanding and respect, which if I’m honest, most people who wear the bindi as a fashion statement don’t have. For a cultural exchange to happen, there needs to be understanding and respect, which if I’m honest, most people who wear the bindi as a fashion statement don’t have. You can’t take whatever you like from another, marginalised culture for your own self expression just because you think it looks good, whilst remaining uneducated and ignorant towards its symbology.

I was raised often wearing traditional Asian clothing, and I’m sure other British Asians will agree that we are more than aware of the looks we often get for being “different” when dressed this way. We’ve all heard jokes about Indian women having red dots on their forehead, but when a white person does it it’s simply a cute alternative fashion accessory for their festival outfit. The people you have appropriated the bindi from do not have the same privilege as you.

Unless you have directly experienced this for yourself, you will probably not be aware of the privilege you have and what it feels like to be looked at as an outsider due to your traditional dress. This is a sensitive topic, and I hate to separate people into groups based on their race or culture but that is essentially what it comes down to – something that is socially acceptable for one group is not for another. I find people being complimented for wearing the same bindi that Asians would be penalised or mocked for quite annoying; it is a double standard. To some people out there, the woman who wears a bindi because it represents her culture is just some Indian lady with a weird red dot on her forehead, and you are not liberating or appreciating her culture in any way by simply going to some high street store and buying a pack of stick on bindis to wear on your forehead because you want to look edgy in your selfies on Instagram.

I know there are many differing opinions on this, and I am not saying that I am against people having an interest in things from other cultures. Appreciating other cultures is a great thing – it can break down stereotypes and promote education on other ethnicities and religions. What I am against is people doing this with a lack of knowledge and respect. To people saying they see no harm in it and that it’s okay, ask yourself – who are you to dictate what is and isn’t acceptable when it isn’t your culture that is being appropriated? The problem, for me personally, lies in the adaptation and acceptance of Asian culture without the acceptance of Asian people.

Why do you want to wear a bindi? If you want to wear one because you think it’s just some cute fashion accessory – please don’t.

The girls who would mock a South Asian girl for wearing traditional dress at school are the same girls who just bought a different bindi for every day of Secret Garden Party, and that is the abysmally unfair reality of how the fashion and beauty worlds are still structured to benefit people with white skin, and how cultural appropriation perpetuates this in the most disrespectful manner. For more on bindis, take a look at this interview with Sanam, aka Rihanna’s extremely badass henchwoman in her new video for BBHMM.
Cultural appropriation in fashion doesn’t stop at the bindi. I asked the gorgeous and incredibly articulate Shope Delano of Sassy Black to weigh in on fashion’s appropriation of black culture:

Cultural appropriation is probably the most over-used phrase of 2015, but not without good reason. I think it has been pretty conducive in awakening many people to the possibility that some of their fashion choices are causing deep offence. Unfortunately, awareness is still not enough to stop the defiant few, *cough* Kylie Jenner *cough*.

I don’t think it is outlandish to say that cultural appropriation is a form of racism. That’s because it is a form of racism. But when people hear the word ‘racist’ their defence mechanisms go into over-drive, and instead of them actually attempting to rationally understand the racial implications of wearing braids, corn-rows, or other typically black hairstyles, they fiercely object to the possibility that anything they say or do, could ever be racist, because ‘they would never intend to cause harm’, or ‘they have a black friend’, or ‘a hairstyle can’t be racist’.

Whilst the first response fails to acknowledge the undeniable fact that many racist beliefs and behaviours are ingrained into a person due to us living in a white supremacist society, (irrespective of whether they intended it or not), and the second response really not worth addressing, I’d quite like to briefly discuss the third response, regarding the whole ‘a hairstyle can’t be racist’ drivel.

Lets be concise: you are taking the parts of black culture, that suit you – the parts that are currently trendy, or the parts that are currently profitable (braid bars, anyone?). You’re dipping into a culture, that we, blacks, don’t have the choice to dip out of. It would be ideal if there was an ‘opt-out’ option for institutionalised racism, police brutality, problematic stereotyping. It’d be ideal if we could be black, without being black, you know? It’d be ideal if we could keep the desirable traits such as profitable ‘urban’ hairstyles and ‘fuller’ lips, but forget the painful past, and just dodge the tasers, bullets, and mysterious prison deaths.

There is a huge ignorance to context, both past and present. Racism, without getting into the nuances of it, is based on the belief that one race is superior to another. White privilege, is a subconscious superiority complex, which many refuse to be aware of. CA is the result of privilege, and thus is the result of beliefs of racial superiority, and thus, is racist.

That is, if we’re being concise.

On the issue of cultural appropriation amongst fashion brands, bloggers and social influencers: it is of course rampant, but that is simply because it still exists in the fashion industry. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. Similarly, to expend energy and penalise brands for producing and selling trends that appropriate marginalised cultures, may not be most productive. However, what each blogger and influencer can individually do, is be more critical of the ideas that they are maintaining and promoting, through the products they choose to feature on their blog or social media. Wearing accessories that closely resemble Native American headdresses in the name of ‘festival fashion’ is maintaining CA as a social phenomena. It is saying racism, is a-OK.

Of course, every blogger has complete creative discretion over the projects that they work on, and has the complete right to produce content without judgement. I’m just asking that we be a little more critical of the messages that we may be promoting.

We need to be stop being scared of the word ‘racist’. Racism comes in different shapes and forms. Let’s stop avoiding it. Let’s get to know, and understand why it may apply to certain actions/beliefs we may have, instead of covering our ears and running a mile every time we hear it. Let’s try to educate ourselves a little!

The mini essays above have scratched the surface of the perpetually important issue of cultural appropriation. The purpose of this post is not to outline what is and is not ok when it comes to the more fine-line specifics of borrowing from other cultures. Rather, its purpose is to inform and encourage everyone (but especially bloggers, brands and other social media influencers) to think twice about some of their sartorial decisions and where they are ‘borrowed’ from. TL;DR? If you’re a white girl wearing a bindi at a festival, just stop. 

Words by:
Hannah Farrington @hannahlouisef
Suki Deen @sukideen

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August 1, 2015 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays Life

I’m a Full Time Blogger?

I’m a Full Time Blogger?
full time blogger

I have finished my degree. I studied law at the University of Manchester for 3 years, and will be officially graduating with first class honours on July 17th. I couldn’t be more thrilled, but now as I enter the dreaded land of post-graduation and I wanted to write a bit of a frank and honest plan of action. So:

  1. Full-time blogger?
    During the final year of my degree, I decided that I don’t really want to be a lawyer (not in the very near future, at any rate). I have also thought a lot about the fact that I have been in education solidly since the age of 4. With that in mind, I’ve decided that I want to take a year out of sorts, but not really. I’m fortunate enough that I have been able to call my blog a ‘part-time job’ alongside my studies for the last year or so, and now my plan of action is to work extremely hard and make my blog my job, or there abouts.
    As far as the logistics of this go, going from being a supported student in Manchester to an unsupported graduate in London is an astronomical step financially. I have been somewhat sensible and saved up a lot of the money I have earned this year, so I have a little bit of a buffer to figure myself out in the first few months of moving down. I’m not ruling out part time or even full time work of a different nature and in some respects I think I would really enjoy and benefit from a ‘real job’ related to what I’m doing with my blog or writing, but this is getting into very hypothetical territory and I will be crossing that bridge when I come to it.

     

    The TLDR to all this is that, for now at least, I am a FULL TIME BLOGGER. 

     

     

    What this means, is that I’m going to be refining and working a lot harder on my content. Now, my satisfaction level with what I’m posting is at about 6/10. I love clothes and I love putting together outfits and don’t intend to stop photographing them for this blog, but what I’d really love to do is start writing more about what I am passionate about. I’ll make angry, socially and politically charged tweets, post pictures from gigs on Instagram, but none of that really translates here at the moment. You might have noticed a slight increase in music related posts, and this is definitely a step in the right direction for me. In essence, I want my blog to be more reflective of myself as a whole, rather than exclusively about what I’m wearing or the products I’m putting on my face. Ok? Ok.
  2. Moving to London!
    The second fairly huge post-graduation life decision I’ve made, which I’ve basically already given away above, is to pack up and move myself to the capital in September. Obviously this is somewhat related to being a ‘full time blogger’; sadly the industry (as with most things creative) is still very London-centric and so it makes a lot of sense for me to be there. I love Manchester to death and am already getting overwhelming waves of nostalgia whenever I walk around the city, but I have lived here for three years (and nearby all my life), and I am itching for a little change. This plan materialised earlier this year with my friend Lowri; she is going back to university in London, and I essentially invited myself along. Although I’m sad to leave a lot of people in Manchester, I couldn’t be more excited to move. I’ll be blogging as much of my moving experience as possible (and selling most of my worldly possessions on Depop), so I hope you’re going to be interested in hearing about that.
And that’s about it really. As you may already know, I have just returned from three and a half weeks in America and so now is the time for me to properly pull my finger out and start working my little socks off to make sure that all of the above comes into fruition.
The purpose of this post was partly cathartic, and partly to let you all know what I’m up to now I can no longer rely on the ‘student / blogger’ niche. I blog for myself and my own enjoyment but making sure I’m producing content that you lot enjoy reading is of absolute paramount importance to me too, so if there’s anything you’d like to see from me and my blog, or anything you like or dislike about how I’m doing things at the moment, please do let me know in the comments. I’ll sign off what feels like a weird diary entry by saying thank you all SO much for continuing to be bothered about my little life and my little blog! 

Shop photo:
Round Sunglasses – Primark
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July 12, 2015 TAGS: BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays Life

How to Balance Blogging and University

How to Balance Blogging and University

There’s some twisted irony in the fact that at the time of writing this post, my stress levels are at a record high and I have a negligible amount of time remaining to bash out the final few thousand words of my dissertation… HELP.

Anyway, I digress. One of the questions I’m most frequently asked when people find out that I am a full time student as well as a blogger, is ‘how do you manage your time?‘. I usually give a relatively vague answer about knowing when to prioritise one over the other, but as I’m at the very peak of my busiest ever time at university (specifically, the end of my final year) I thought it appropriate to give my time management techniques, both conscious and subconscious, a little more thought. In doing so I hope to both help myself in this final stretch, and help others who are perhaps struggling to manage blogging (or another hobby or flexible job) alongside university, college or school. 

Tip #1 – know when to prioritise one over the other
Although I said this was my usual vague answer, I do think that it is really the crux of the issue. Over summer, as I’m lucky enough to count my blog as the equivalent of a part time job and so don’t have to work another one, I blogged at least 5 days per week with no trouble at all, during term time I reduce this to every other day (or there abouts), and at the moment with deadlines and exams approaching I am blogging more like once every three days, or twice per week. Naturally I am noticing a decrease in traffic on those consecutive days where I am not posting, but I also know that this is not the end of the world, and if anything it motivates me more to build back up to more regular posting when I’m not so busy.
Tip #2 – don’t take on more than you can manage

This one is particularly important if your blog (or whatever other project) allows or requires you to work with other people, be that brands, PR companies or customers (let’s call them ‘clients’ here). Whilst blogging as a job allows for a great degree of flexibility as you are not subject to actual concrete deadlines by your readers, if you are working with a client to a deadline it is extremely important that you don’t break this deadline. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take on work when you’re in a period where you need to prioritise university more, but it does mean that you need to think realistically about what you’re going to be able to achieve without letting school suffer. If you are doing paid work this will likely have a deadline attached to it; make sure you let your client know what your situation is, and if you think that the proposed deadline is unachievable there is no harm in asking for an extension. If this isn’t possible, there is also no harm in not taking on the job, unless you’re desperately reliant on the money then it usually is not worth the stress. If the work is unpaid, make it abundantly clear that you will not be able to work within a deadline (or perhaps, at your discretion, propose a lengthy deadline, but don’t feel like you are under any obligation). TLDR:  take time to explain to your client exactly what they can expect of you, and of course maintain personability and professionally whilst doing so, and only take on something with a deadline that you’re sure you’ll be able to make. 
Tip #3 – get clever with your content creation

My blog is predominantly focused on my outfits, and gone are the days where I feel I can get away with a bedroom or living room series of snaps, so I am constantly thinking about when and where I can photograph what I’m wearing. This is an especially pressing issue during the winter when daylight is scarce, or around exam or deadline time when you’re holed up in the library (or if you’re like me, at home in your PJs), but I actually find myself thinking like this 100% of the time. Some people prefer to tackle this by taking photos of 4 or 5 outfits over the space of a couple of hours in one day. The way I manage it is by always carrying around my camera – not entirely practical depending on the size of your camera, but my Canon 700D with a 50mm  lens is comparatively quite compact and I have no problem fitting it into a medium sized bag. Alternatively, you might think about investing in a more compact camera, or even just shooting on your smartphone. If I have my camera on me then, providing I’m with a friend, shooting an outfit only takes up 10 or 15 minutes of my day. I also think that this is a much more organic way of translating what I’m actually wearing on a day-to-day basis onto my blog. 
This tip also extends to lifestyle posts: the question ‘can I blog this?’ is always on my mind. Granted, I don’t blog everything in my life that I could, but taking 5 minutes to take some photos of your meal out, your favourite café, in a new bar you’ve visited, or even a few snaps in the library for a post about your studying tips, is a very time efficient way of getting the basics for your content under your belt.

Tip #4 – don’t compare your blog to a full time blogger’s blog


Finally I think it’s important to avoid comparing yourself and your work to others generally, but sometimes it is helpful to gauge where you are at in comparison to your peers. This becomes less helpful, however, when you start comparing your blog to a full time blogger’s blog. Blogging is very time consuming, and naturally those who are fortunate enough to call it a career have a lot more time to put into it. Whenever I’m getting a bit stressed about the quality and frequency of my posts, I just remember that many of my friends and others who I admire simply have a lot more hours in the day to dedicate to blogging than I do.

***

In conclusion, balancing blogging and university is about just that: balance. Sometimes I give university work a little more weight, sometimes I prioritise blogging, and of course don’t forget to add having an actual social life into that mix too. I hope that these tips are helpful or at least in some way cathartic if you’re in the same position as me; don’t stress too much, it’s not that hard and you’re doing great!

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May 10, 2015 TAGS: , , BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays Life

2015: Blogging Resolutions

2015: Blogging Resolutions
(another wildly irrelevant image, taken from a plane en route to Gainesville, FL)

Ok, one last ‘resolutions’ post then we can all get on with our lives for another 12 months. As we enter the second full week of 2015, 2014 seems practically prehistoric and I’m keen to collect my plans, ideas and motivations for hannahlouisef in one place.

  1. Take better photosI’m really, really keen to improve my photography this year. Because my content is predominantly my own outfit photos, I don’t get to take them and so I just don’t get much practice behind the camera as I would like. I bought myself a Canon 700D a few months ago and am definitely getting to grips with it now, but I’m nowhere near confident as I want to be and need a lot of time to play around before I feel even a little satisfied with photos I take. Once I start feeling happier with my own photos, I think I’ll feel happier creating more varied content, which is another goal for 2015! 
  2. Document more of my life
    I think this one goes hand in hand with wanting to take better photographs, and is particularly applicable to travel. Despite travelling quite a lot in 2014, I blogged none of it aside from taking advantage of some different locations to shoot outfits in. I think it’s important to take some time off from blogging every now and again and I don’t want to feel pressure to create and record at all times (especially when on holiday), but in hindsight it would have been nice to write a little more about my trips, and I find it much easier to do this when I can illustrate with lovely photographs. If you read my other life resolutions post, you’ll know that I intend to travel more in 2015 – I hope that I can talk about and document this on my blog in the coming 12 months.
    I also want to talk more about music, as I discussed here, as it really is quite a defining part of my character and is what I spend much of my free time preoccupied with, but I just don’t think this comes across in any way except for the odd Instagram post from a show. I don’t think my blog is the right place for music journalist style album or live reviews and there are already a plethora of great music magazines and blogs, but I’m busy brainstorming ways to incorporate my own musical preferences into my fashion and lifestyle posts – if you have any ideas, please do let me know in a comment!
  3. YouTube?
    This is the most unambiguous of my 2015 blogging goals, in that I will either succeed or fail definitively. If I am going to actually make videos, it’s going to be now or never. I’m still extremely dubious and nervous about this, and have been putting it off throughout 2014 because even the thought of myself on camera makes me cringe. However, as I get more into YouTube as a viewer, I’m feeling more inspired by some of my favourite bloggers who started YouTube in the past year (like Olivia, Amy, and Arabella), and I really want to be able to create videos that I’m not painfully embarrassed by. Watch this space, and please send your words of encouragement (and any specific video requests) if you would actually like to see me on YouTube.

I don’t want to set numerical goals based on stats, I just want to become a better creator; vary my content whilst refining my skills, and try to encapsulate and represent myself in a more well-rounded manner. Do you share any of these blogging resolutions? Have a wonderful year everyone!

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January 12, 2015 TAGS: , , BY: hannahlouisef
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Essays Life

2015

2015
(tried and failed to find a picture that appropriately represented the sentiments expressed below)

I have never actually made a new year’s resolution in my life (aside from trying to con my way out of vegetables as a child – ‘no mum I can’t eat broccoli it’s my new year’s resolution’), but this year the change in the calendar seems to have coincided with a general feeling of personal evolution for me. 2015 is inevitably going to be a year of quite vast change; right now I’m half way through my final year of university meaning that, provided all goes to plan, I will be graduating this summer. I almost feel that writing this now, in January, is premature, because little will change for me in the next 5 or 6 months, but with the new year coming in one can’t help but get a bit swept up in resolutions and dramatic life change proposals and all those other rather silly things.

Anyway I digress, the main point is that 2015 will be the first year in my living memory that I won’t be in education, which is frankly terrifying. I will certainly be sad to leave university but I am looking forward to finishing my degree (I have considered post-graduate study, I think I’m going to at least have a year off first), however I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to (or even what I want to) do come the summer. This combined with being consciously aware that I am changing and evolving as a person at the moment is just the strangest feeling, and I think writing this post is a way for me to get my head around that, and to have some evidence of how I thought or hoped my year might go to look back on come the end of it. I also hope it might give some of you some ideas or inspiration, if you’re feeling a little stuck in limbo like I am! Here are my life resolutions for 2015:

  1. Travel
    I’m starting with this because it’s all I’ve been thinking about as of late. I’m not sure I’ll get the opportunity to travel until the summer (although fingers crossed a European trip around spring could be on the cards), but I just want to experience as many different places as I possibly can whilst still young and lacking in responsibilities. I was incredibly lucky with travel in 2014; in May I had a weekend in Belgium seeing Title Fight and visiting Antwerp and Brussels, I went to France (specifically Paris and Lyon) and briefly Switzerland (a day in Geneva before flying home) with my family, to Florida for Fest with my friends in October/November, and then back to Paris again at the end of November. 2014 has cemented the idea that travelling isn’t as big a deal as I had previously thought. Before visiting the US alone (I was with friends not entirely by myself, but by this I mean that I was in a position of responsibility when travelling whereas previously I had left everything to my parents) I built it up to be a much bigger and scarier thing than it really is. A long flight isn’t exactly fun, but it really isn’t that bad either, and flying alone (we all flew alone due to having other things going on both at home and in America) is actually quite pleasant. By the end of 2015 I’m hoping to have done at least one European trip and gone back to the US twice: I have rough plans to travel around it (or at least the east coast) for as long as I can afford to as soon as I finish my exams in the summer; and my friends and I will almost certainly go back to Florida in October/November for Fest as we honestly had the best time.
  2. Stop eating meat
    This is an easy one – I have been eating ‘less’ meat for some weeks now, but as of a few days after Christmas I haven’t eaten any, and so I guess it’s an obvious thing to ‘resolve’ to continue with throughout 2015. I’ve never really made a commitment like this before, but it is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. The majority of my friends are either vegetarian or vegan, and there’s no question in my mind that they (particularly those who are vegan) are the ones who are morally in the right both with regards to animal rights and the planet in general, I’ve just never had the inclination or selflessness to make steps towards that myself. I hope I can keep this up!
  3. Read more for fun
    Another relatively straightforward and more typical new years resolution – save for a few books read on holidays, I’ve hardly read for fun since school and that is really sad. I’d mainly like to explore more classic authors (of all kinds – novels, short stories and poetry) because I have read shamefully few. I think this one is quite achievable, and alongside it I’m going to make a conscious effort to improve my writing too (perhaps with some more posts of this nature, rather than a constant stream of ‘I like this outfit because it is nice’).
  4. Enjoy life
    I guess this is the big one. I think that travel is part and parcel of this and is the main means by which I intend to enjoy myself this year, but I don’t really want to ‘go travelling’ in the *gap yah* sense for months on end and so I would like to enjoy myself when at home too. Thus, I am very concerned with not spending my time fretting about what to do with my life. As you may or may not know prior to reading this post, my degree is in law, and whilst I absolutely have not written off a career in that field as it is still one that interests me deeply, I want to focus on my blog and the more fashion and writing related sphere of my interests whilst I am still mildly relevant (ha). On a side-note, I’m in the process of writing a (less feels-y, you might be pleased to hear) ‘blogging resolutions’ post in which I’ll talk more specifically about what I’m hoping to do with my blog this year! In summary, once I’ve finished university I want to spend some time learning and doing for the pure fun of it, not because I have to or because I’m working towards another goal, or because it will look good on my CV. If I can successfully balance the practical need to earn money with this in 2015, then I think I will be happy. 
There are a thousand other smaller things I’d like to do to but it is futile writing them down, and I think that this is a solid and achievable list. I could also redraft this post a thousand times, but as it’s already January 6th I’m going ahead and accepting this as my best effort. I’m going to bookmark it and keep referring back to it, in particular point 4, whenever I’m panicking and watching my friends get mortgages and my university peers start high flying actual adult careers. I’d love to know your thoughts – if you’re feeling similar or have similar goals for this year, and if you enjoyed reading this post and would like some more wordy pieces from me from time to time. Happy 2015!

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January 6, 2015 TAGS: , , BY: hannahlouisef
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