Life Lesson Learned

me.

This Friday marks the third year I've had this blog--I hope you stop by then. I made you something! Today I'm sharing an important lesson I've learned that applies not only to blogging, but to life. Enjoy.

Trust Your Gut

We all love to give advice, don't we? I do, and it's one of the reasons I started this blog. I love to get advice as well. I work hard on ElleSees, but I welcome constructive criticism, especially for things that I need to improve upon, or things I might have missed. But I finally learned to listen to advice, and to trust my gut.

I always intended ElleSees to be a beauty blog, but when I told bloggers/ friends I was starting a blog, I was surprised at their responses. They ranged from "don't start a blog" to "only blog about your life" to "be a style blogger." And so I took everyone's advice, and my blog had a little of everything at first. This is true for many beginning bloggers; we post random topics to find our blog niche. But I knew what mine was: quick, easy, and on-budget beauty. My first beauty post sat in the draft folder for months; I was too nervous to post it. Random: I also learned no one wants to see what you cooked for dinner unless (a) the photos are amazing or (b) your recipe is something original. Yeah.

So slowly I started incorporating more beauty posts into my blog and retracting the topics that didn't hold my passion. My stats went down, the comments and emails arrived, with threats to unfollow/not view my blog because it changed. But you know what? ALL of those former followers either started a beauty blog or now blog beauty regularly. I should've just listened to my gut and blogged what holds my passion, not what is popular.

But still, I had not learned my lesson. Here's another example: my blog used to be more personal, but an email changed that: "Stop talking about yourself so much. Just get on with the tutorial. You use too many words." And so I stopped mentioning myself. But I felt like my blog was becoming more of a resource, less me. Knowing there's a person there, that you can trust, that could be a friend, is what makes blogging different, from say, a magazine. I admit, it can be a challenge to blend personal with beauty information, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I want you to know there's an intelligent, funny, and shy girl, who adores her dog, loves her family, is drawn to anything coconut-scented, and has a constant state of wanderlust behind this blog.

And she's finally learned her lesson.


PS: Ask Me Anything time is here! Ask your personal (or beauty) questions and I'll post my answers next week. Thanks.