Back in 2013 I started my first blog. It was a personal finance one entitled “me vs DEBT and its was a diary chronicling my journey to become debt free; side note I’m not yet debt free….thanks to Sallie Mae (insert eye roll emoji here). I totally forgot I even had that blog until I got a comment alert from a reader giving me props on a post I wrote about earning extra money. I went back and read every single post I wrote and really missed putting my journey out in the internet atmosphere and the community of support it created with others who were going through the same thing. It was encouraging to revisit that time in my life and though Sallie Mae is still kicking my ass, I was able to see just how far I’d come.
For a while I’ve been thinking about sharing more of my life via my blog. I even mapped out a bunch of content I wanted to share and everytime I go to write, I get nervous and the post ends up in the draft folder. Before writing this post, I went through that box and said “Shanna what are you so scared of?” And the answer was simple, I started this blog to talk about my personal style and how I achieve that on a budget. What if people don’t want to hear about my quest to climb out of debt or stories about my journey raising a teenager or about life in general. What if I start to share the other parts of my life and folks become uninterested? And so begins the content creator mind games, be like everyone else to grow and be an edited version of yourself to keep them coming back for more. Being like everyone else has gotten them far in this business, why can’t you just join the bandwagon? Buy the same clothes. Pose the same way. Use the same filter. Travel to the same places. Complain, just a bit, about the same things. Create this perfect image of yourself. Perfection sells. Imperfection does not. Life is good despite the fire raging in the background. No one wants to hear you’re broke or it’s a nerve racking raising a teen. No one wants to watch your journey to build a business. No one wants you to talk about your feelings about the world’s issues. Just blog about clothes, tell us where to find them and don’t forget to smile.
said link to buy my clothes:
But I don’t want to be like everyone else; I’ve always found it boring. So much so when I was younger, I went out of my way to be different. I would wear my dad’s suits to school and explore way out there theories about life. I would challenge the norms and try to get others to see it was more to life than this same cookie cutter crap we were being fed.
I’m more than just a person who talks about fashion.
I’m a mother. A friend. A budding business owner. A black woman trying to navigate in these streets. And these are things I want to share. I asked a few days ago on my insta stores if you all wanted to see me share more about my raising my son and I got a HUGE response, everyone was interested! I kept looking for that one person who was going to say “ummmm no please”, to validate that tiny voice in the back of my head that says “No one wants to hear all that Shanna”, but I didn’t get it, so I’ll be sharing funny and sometimes not so funny stories about raising the boy and it’s not stopping there. I’m going to talk about money, relationships, having candid conversations with you guys about what’s going on in our world and fashion will still be in the mix! If these new changes turn some of you guys off, you can just stop visiting my site because it’s happening! My hope is that by my sharing other parts of my life, some of you will feel less alone if you’re going through something similar. If you’re trying to get your budget in shape, we can share tips. If you’re a parent raising a teen and navigate those tricky streets, we can laugh together and with conversations about what’s going on in our world, we can have honest dialogue even if we don’t see eye to eye.
I’m excited for the new direction this space is going in and I hope you guys are ready for the ride!
XOXO,
I love this blog post!! And thank you for being so open about your journey. Can’t wait to see more posts from you about your son and budgeting. xo
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Thank you so much girl!!