Girl Talk

Over the Easter Holiday, I had a nice but long chat with my mom (and sister) about lifestyle bloggers, their very glossy websites and their Instagram feed. My mom was more than irritated and definitely needed to blow off steam. So I let her tell me exactly how she felt about some of the blogs I have introduced to her over the years. She even felt the need to tell me that my blog needed more love but thankfully excused my lagging and reminded me of what my priorities should be--work and school first, blog second!

But here is the deal, my blog is important to me, I may start researching and writing posts the week before (or even at eleven the night before) but I love being here and establishing  connections and relationships with fellow bloggers and my audience. I consider myself a blogaholic, work breaks are for donning over outfit posts, monthly beauty hauls and home renovations, I can’t help but think about rearranging my living room. While the blog is a part of me, the job and school come first, they have too. I often feel I don’t have the time, energy or funds to curate this space into the polished and perfect website you see with other blogs. Then again, I am more about the content and listening to what my followers want to read. I love promoting my favorite lipsticks (from Maybelline to Tom Ford), the perfect white tank top and marketing brands that I actually wear and like. Above all else I especially love indulging in girl talk, I try to portray the real and flawed person that I am. When my mom felt the need to explode and go off on women I really like, she told me she was tired of the inauthentic posts, the fact that these bloggers think they can relate with their audience and the assumed entitlement. Honestly, I am too! I often have feelings of inadequacy for not having an apartment in a big city with high end furniture, traveling every other month, housing the most impressive library you have ever seen or sporting around in head to toe Lululemon sportswear and maintaining a wardrobe that includes two or three pairs of Valentino shoes and Chanel purses galore. I am not tiny, I can barely cook and my home space is far from picture perfect.  

Aspirations and expectations have become exhausting, why in the world do I hold myself to other people’s expectations and not my own? When and why did I set my rule book aside and turn to others? The bloggers, who have remained true from the beginning, continue to inspire and motivate me but at the end of the day I am who I am, and they are who they are. Their blogs are surely pretty (and successful) but that’s all you get, what about the flaws, the truth, the hard work, the reality behind those pictures. I want to see and learn about the real you and the mess you hide behind the camera! I definitely appreciate all these things (the fashion, the homes and the overpriced nail polish as any other girl) and still look up to those who have certainly earned their success. I am done with those who complain for no reason (hello you live in Manhattan, travel the world, have created your own job and seem healthy. I would certainly like to go to yoga and meet with friends for lunch everyday), feel entitled just because of who you are and those who lie about being self-made.  

Here at Sit and Stay Awhile, I believe in honesty and being real with my readers. I define flawless as being ok with who I am and where I am at in my life right now. And at this moment, I’m a twenty seven years old, not married and live with a roommate. I finally landed a full time job that I love, creativity in the kitchen is a fail more often than not so a salad or soup is dinner most nights and two weeks ago I went home and kind of broke down to my parents because I am exhausted from being a grad student and working full time. If you have made it this far, I applaud you for reading the novel this post has turned into, thank you for listening and sticking around. What are your feeling with lifestyle bloggers ? Who are you favorites and why? Who do you despise and why?    

   

(image via style)