Blogging advice #1- Being friends with friends who don't blog

I would normally have my very average, very mundane weekend to share with you today but to be blunt, last week was pooey, I intended to do work at the weekend and then spent majority of it curled up in bed, wishing the Christmas holidays had started already. I didn't want to scare you with a photo of that so I thought I'd impart some of my worldy wisdom.



 Being friends with friends who don't blog

Now it's likely that this is the norm. It's not a problem at all, but there may be the need for some adjustment/ understanding. Obviously majority of people don't blog but what I've found is, some people find it weird that YOU do. When I first started blogging, I shared it with my family only; I was proud of it and wanted to share the little achievements with them. They accepted it without question. I also told a couple of friends, if it happened to come up. The people I was most worried about finding out about it were my two oldest friends. I could imagine their reaction and although I (eventually) intended to share it with them, I was going to wait until it was a little more than just a fledgling blog.

Of course, these things never go to plan and one evening, they bought it up. I expected a bit of teasing; I am probably the least expected beauty blogger ever! I never wore make up until I was about 16 and showed very little interest in how I looked. Now of course, the teasing was in jest and my blog was still "young" so I was a quite sensitive about it, but that night I went home to my mum and told her I was going to delete it/ give it up. My mother gave me some stern words including that if I enjoyed it then for what reason am I giving it up? She was, as always, right. I love blogging, it gives me something outside of academic work and I love photographing, talking about the products and engaging with you lovely lot in the comment section.

However I think beauty blogging has a horrible stigma attached to it that it's trivial, easy and not a "real job" (for those who do it for a living). This baffles me as 1. it's anything but easy! and 2. if someone ran a food blog for a living, there wouldn't be the same reaction at all. Weird! I can understand the point that make up is hardly up there with the news but if people are interested in it, who are others to knock it?

I seem to have turned this advice post into an anecdote of my life and a rant! Bringing it back, my advice for those in a similar position to me is to talk to your friends about your blog, drop it into conversation every now and then and get them used to it. Currently, if my friends asked about my baby blog, I'd no doubt gush but apart from that, I keep it to a minimum. I can understand it's a weird thing to understand, however they're totally fine with it now they've had time to get their head around it. We all have different interests in life, blogging just happens to be mine.

I'd also like to say if you have recently started a blog but are unsure how people will react or feel disheartened, please persevere! It is so worth it when you get your blog just how you want it and people are interested in what you have to say! The time you put it in pays off!

I hope that this tiny bit of advice helps people or at least highlights that you're not alone if you've had worries about "real life" friends finding out about your blog. What advice would you give? Do you have similar worries?