Why I Do What I Do

Recently, I’ve been looking internally for the reasons why I started a blog. I’ll save you the existential crisis and go for a more literal perspective. I started “Stay Gold” back in 2011, a couple days after the New Year began. I’d always loved reading blogs of my favorite online celebrities and gurus, so I decided to bite the bullet and start my own. Inspiration came from Zoe Sugg with her blog and YouTube channel personality- Zoella. This branched out to the blogging community and eventually I found one of my favorite blog named Pink Peonies by Rachel Parcell. She has a fabulous sense of style along with a gorgeously decorated house and fun family camaraderie.

I obviously idolized these bloggers and wanted to follow suit with my own passion for beauty and fashion. I wanted everything to start out perfect with quality photos and extensive content. I quickly realized that was a bit of a pipe dream as I was just a teenager and I attempted to hide this blog from anyone I knew.

Fast forward to now. I have a smattering of blog posts in all different categories. Once or twice I actually do a little photo shoot and post it. It’s extremely rare that the pictures are uploaded within the month that I originally shot them and posted to my blog. So why do I do it?

1.     I have a ridiculous obsession with cataloguing anything and everything. I’ve always been a little bit of a hoarder with things here and there. Photos are no exception. I often keep multiples of the same pictures on my phone just for the fear that it may go missing unexpectedly.

2.     This reason goes along with the first one as I try to grasp moments and memories for all that they were with extensive documentation. Senior year of high school one of my best friends passed away. There’s no amount of pictures from the past that can compensate for the ones that we missed out on together in the future. Therefore, I love the silly, ugly, unexplainable pictures just as much as the perfectly calculated angles and outfits.

3.     I’ve always been interested in beauty and fashion. Most of the time it “goes to waste” as I do a fun makeup look right before going to bed or wear an intriguing outfit for a night out where no one pays attention. It’s a fun creative outlet that allows me to put my talents to use for more of a purpose and intention than just “doing it”.

4.     Lastly, I respect the heck out of other people when they truthfully blog about an item, product, or service. I’ve seen the comments where people accuse bloggers of posting a positive review because they were given the product or experience for free. While that may be tempting to encourage more complimentary things, I wouldn’t want to lead anyone to that deception. Give me the cold, hard truth about what you thought and I’ll do the same in return.

I often like to make sure I’m doing things for the right reasons, otherwise there’s no point in me doing them at all. It’s not like I’m out here trying to get free stuff. Let’s not kid ourselves, I might be the only one who ever reads this!