Happy International Women’s Day.This year I’m celebrating IWD with my Style Collective sisters so I hope when you’re done reading here you’ll go check them out.
If you’re new here – Welcome! My name is Amanda and I’m a 34 year old working professional living in the Memphis suburbs with my husband and three dogs. I blogged on and off in my 20s and revamped the blog in its current form about two years ago with two objectives – 1. to hold myself accountable to clearing out my closet and make better purchases and 2. to provide representation in the online and social media world to plus size women.
I distinctly remember looking at a top at Old Navy online but doubting how it would look on me so I went on Instagram to look for other plus size women wearing it (because in 2017 Old Navy did not sell Plus Sizes in store to allow me to just try it on) – I spent an hour searching through pics tagged with Old Navy and various tags but barely saw any plus size women and that felt so wrong to me.
I personally believe that style is not limited by body type or budget but I felt like by not being represented in store or online society was saying that plus size women weren’t worthy of fashion; which to me isn’t just about clothes. Fashion is about personal expression , it’s about feeling good about yourself and facing the world with confidence so to me when it felt like the world was saying that I wasn’t worthy of fashion it was saying I don’t get to express myself, I have to live with society’s label, that I don’t get to feel good about myself or have confidence because I’m plus size.
A lot of bloggers base their goals on their page views, social following and engagement, and brand collaborations and I’d be full of it if I said those aren’t things I think about but my real goal is simply to put the kind of content into the world that I myself wanted. I’ve been so blessed to have a wonderful support system my whole life and while like a lot of women I have my days where my confidence is lacking overall I feel pretty happy in my life but I understand that there are many women who struggle in this area regardless of their body size. My personal life philosophy is that we all have our own strengths and weaknesses and while there’s nothing wrong with making a living with our strengths we also have a responsibility to share those strengths with the world. My goal each time I post is simply to reach one women who might need to feel a little bit better about herself that day.
Although the world is changing for the better – for example, plus size representation has come a loooooong way in the past two years (hey, Old navy now sells plus sizes in store) – I still think women face struggles simply because we are women. Honestly y’all I think sometimes we create those struggles and conflict ourselves. I think International Women’s Day is about taking time to come together and think about lifting each other up instead of stepping over each other on our way to the top. To me personally I think that it’s women who view plus size women more negatively but I see women judging women all the time – working mothers, stay at home mothers, women who are ambitious, women who aren’t ambitious enough , single women, married women, women who put a lot of time into their appearance, women who thing fashion and beauty products are dumb . . . I think you get the point. Overall I do see women lifting each other up more but I think the judgment, jealously and competition is still going strong.
So back to Style Collective – I’m super lucky to be a part of this group because I get to have a tribe of women collaborating and lifting each other up everyday. Style Collective is a membership based resource for bloggers that not only provides training and templates for bloggers but a group for networking and support. I’ve made some wonderful online friends through the style collective sisterhood and these ladies have become not only a sounding board and support system but my biggest cheerleaders. If you’re a blogger you should definitely check it out!
Since it is International Women’s Day and we are a group that lifts each other up I’ve linked to some of my SC Sisters below – be sure to check them out, you might find your new favorite blogger!
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!