ANNOUNCEMENT | I'VE BEEN NOMINATED!

Hello my lovelies I hope you're all well and are having a good week. So today I've got some exciting news for you all! So last week I was kindly nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award from the absolutely lovely Mollie Westhead. I'd be so grateful if you could check out her blog guys! Click here. 

So before we actually get into this post, I'm firstly going to let all you lovely people know the rules: 

• Thank the blogger that nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Give a brief story as to how your blog started.
• Share two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
• Choose 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
• Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them, providing a link to the post you created.

So with step one done, let's move onto step two. How did I start my blog? 

Well for a long time, roughly 2011-2013, I used my Instagram as a place of where I'd do reviews of some products I tried out, nail tutorials, makeup tutorials etc. And during 2013 was around the time when influencers such as Zoella, Tanya Burr, Nikkie Tutorials etc really started to become popular with teenage girls as it became so easy to learn how to do a makeup look or a hairstyle with the help of YouTube. Which then lead to many other young people wanting to do the same. For the end months of 2013 I debated for a long time whether or not to start a blog and I really leaned towards it. Then one December night in 2013 I thought 'fuck it' let's just do it. And then 4 years later here we are today. 

As for advice for new bloggers, I would say create content that reflects who you are as a person. So for example, when I first made my blog I was mainly into makeup and nails at the time therefore I mainly did posts about that. Which was also what I posted on my Instagram at the time. But as I've grown up over these 4 years, so 16 to 20 I've changed so much and shaped into who I want to be. And even though 4 years doesn't seem like much, I do believe those last 4 years from teenager to young adult are definitely some of the most important years of a young persons life. And I feel as I've grown up, learned, developed, and changed that has reflected into my blog content now. My blog today, of course I still do makeup reviews and tutorials etc, I always will because I love makeup and you guys know that. But in the last year I created my Coffee Chats and Mindful Mondays series which I created to share my opinions and thoughts on things and to hopefully inspire you guys and make you think differently about things. And I created those as a way to talk to you guys, so you could actually get to know me and a place where I can get to know you. And a place where we can talk about real things, real opinions, real feelings, just about life. And I know you guys absolutely love those posts because they always do so well and get such great responses from you. And I love making them! They're by far some of my favourites posts to write for you guys even if they do take me a while. So yeah, create content that reflects you as a person - things you're passionate about because that way those posts you'll be proud of them. 

And another piece of advice kind of ties in with my first point. It's going to sound so obvious and self explanatory but just be yourself. There are so many bloggers out there and each one offers something different. For example, one of my blogging pals and I could do a review on a certain product but those two posts will be completely different because we aren't the same people. You know what I mean? But yeah, just be yourself because that way you'll see more engagement from people and you'll actually feel better about what you put out there with your blog and you'll feel proud of the content you create. 

And finally time to share with you guys 15 of my bloggers who 100% deserve this award. It was really hard to choose just 15 because there are so many that I love. But these guys' blogs I read all the time and I love their content and them to bits. And, these are in no particular order. 

1. Hannah, luxuryblush.co.uk 

2. Emma, tousledblonde.com 

3. Gina, petitefreckle.com 

4. Minding Anxiety 

5. Sophie, trafotoz.com 

6. Emma, beautybyemm.com 

7. Carrie, carried---away.blogspot.co.uk

8. Kelsey, imjustkels.blogspot.co.uk

9. Kirsty, hiitskirsty.com 

10. Bailey, baileyleah.blogspot.co.uk

11. Serena, serenabird.com 

12. Voluble Blogger 

13. Rachel and Lauren, theflowerthatblooms.com 

14. Frankie, frankieelizxo.weebly.com 

15. Abby, whatabbysaysblog.wordpress.com 

Honestly guys if you love my blog then you'll absolutely love theirs. Please, please, please go and check out all of the bloggers mentioned in this post. Their content is absolutely fantastic, they work so hard on their blogs, and they're all absolutely wonderful people who are some of my closest blogging pals and who I adore to bits. So yeah go and check them out and all links to their pages are on their blog names.  

Well my lovelies that is it for this post, I hope you enjoyed and discovered some more bloggers you can go and check out and enjoy. And once again, thank you so much to the lovely Mollie who nominated me as it means the absolute world to me. 

As always guys don't forget to follow me on all of my social media so you can keep up to date with everything I am doing. You can follow me on Twitter @katielouj0hnson, Instagram @katiej0hnson, Pinterest @katielouj0hnson, and Bloglovin' @ Katie Johnson.

Thank you guys so much for reading and I will be back here on Friday for another!

Love,

Katie