Why I Ended My 13 Year Blogging Hiatus

The last time I had a blog the year was 2008. It was the golden age of blogging. And I miss it.

I remember discovering people like Design*Sponge (yes, she used an asterisk in her original form), Oh Joy, Fashion Is Spinach and a variety of other women that had cool shit to say on blogger or typepad.

The internet at that time was the wild west. You could start an anonymous tumblr and have 100,000 followers. There was no Instagram and the only people with Facebook accounts were college students. 

There was no algorithm.

At age 37, I feel fortunate to have grown up in the precipice of the internet. I can still hear the sound of AOL trying to connect, waiting to see if I had an email from my crush at laure1111@aol.com, which was a mashup of the way I spelled my name in French class (so chic) and Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday. 

And don't get me started on AIM. It was the original "slide into my DMs" on a late Friday night where you'd quickly put up an 'Away' message if the wrong dude wanted to know what bar you'd be headed to.

Sometimes I look at young women navigating their twenties and I feel so bad that they have to do it with Instagram. I know I sound like a yodel when I say this, but we existed in the days of grainy outfit photos on blogger, not FaceTune and filters. We weren't afraid to showcase our true selves to the world and the women we admired were doing cool shit. We didn't have to take photos in front of a mirror in a weird pose (the one where it looks like you're taking a poo with one leg extended.) The world in which young girls are growing up sucks. It sucks! 

As someone that loves digital mediums and social media, I've been struggling lately to find women I can connect with. Especially now that I am pushing 40.

There's all the Mom bloggers, but they all know how to embroider and sew clothes and fix their children's ailments with herbs they grow in their yard.

Then there's the 'I'm-so-beautiful-but-I'm-gonna-be-relatable-and-do-a-post-on-mental-health' ladies and while I appreciate their attempt to reach a broader audience, I ain't buying it. When I'm depressed I dig into a Ben & Jerry's and hide from the world. I don't post on Instagram.

Let us not forget the women who live sustainable and simple lives, but often repost crazy IG story chains about corporate hoaxes and who are anti-vaccine. It's like, if you love growing calendula so much, why do you not believe in science?

And now every fashion blogger doesn't seem to have a real point of view. Posts are sponsored or gifted. Or they contain affiliate links to an Amazon store. And I'm tired of swiping up to shit on Amazon. Let's see influencers who actually use their appeal to support small businesses.

This is not a blog about complaining. 

I am almost done.

I want to start writing more again for myself. And writing about things that interest me, since I can't seem to find them out there on the internet right now.

I'll probably cover all the key topics like fashion and home decor and organizing and feminism and saggy boobs and what to do about chin hairs.

I'm bringing the old school blog back, baby! And like my original blogs, my only readers will likely just be friends.