Okay, hi for real this time! I always get disappointed in myself when my blog posts don’t make it up in time and I was doing suchhh a great job of not missing a M/W/F for the past few months now, but oh well! Time for me to brush it off. On a same, but different note- I’ve been dying to write this blog post for a while now, so here it goes! Disclaimer: you might not agree with what I have to say, in fact, I think most people WONT agree with what I have to say (hmm, okay, maybe bloggers won’t agree with what I have to say, but if you’re not a blogger maybe you’ll be less opinionated). Who knows!

Blogging as a hobby and getting paid for blogging are two areas that have so much overlap, but are vastly different. If you’re wondering if I get paid to blog my answer is, well kind of… Here’s the full truth behind my blog, no secrets: technically speaking yes, in a way, I get paid to blog. Right now you’re probably wondering, how considering I have so few followers on Instagram. Okay here’s my logic behind this– for those who don’t know I do (more than a) few part-time gigs, which allows me to have a super flexible schedule so I can travel whenever I want. This might be the only thing about me that indicates I’m a millennial. Anyway, besides the point! One of my part-time gigs is nannying. The children I nanny for are very independent, so most of the time I have to myself. When I’m getting paid $$/hour nannying, I’m spending some of that time working on my blog. What else would I be doing? On Instagram? Watching TV? Reading a book? Sometimes I don’t get all my blogging done while I’m nannying and that’s fine, I’ll just work on it at night, and obviously then I’m not getting paid to do it!

Okay, so in a way I’ve figured it all out. I get to do what I LOVE (blogging), while doing something else I LOVE (nannying/watching kids). But with all that being said, blogging to me is still a hobby. Sure it’s my dream job, but here’s the thing, I’m not expecting to actually get paid to blog. What?! Did I just say that? Yes…

Here’s the thing. I LOVE writing, I LOVE snapping pictures of cute outfits to share with you guys, and well, I also just LOVE sharing my life with you guys in general. I think it’s fun! (Hopefully you do too!). There are few things I’d rather be doing more than sitting at my desk typing away at another blog post. Remember, I was a creative writing major in college. This is my jam!

There are soooo many bloggers who are constantly complaining about brands not paying them for the work they do and while I get that us bloggers spend a lot of hours working to create the content we share, we’re all in the same boat: we’re all just doing what we love to do. 

I’m going to keep blogging whether I get paid to help promote a brand or not, and I get why brands don’t want to pay bloggers. This is fun for us, well, at least it’s fun for me and brands get that! Being an influencer is pretty competitive and brands get that too. Why should they have to pay blogger A to promote their nail polish, when bloggers X, Y & Z are wiling to do it free? Hmm yeah so that’s where this all gets complicated. See, I get that I’m a really itty, bitty micro influencer. I have approx. 1,500 blog views/month, which is something I’m really proud of, but also realize I have a long way to climb before getting on most brand’s radars. There are so many girls out there doing exactly what I’m doing (although I would like to argue here that maybe I do it a little differently? I think I’m a bit more transparent than your average blogger? Or try to be at least!). We all want to score it big and get a great brand deal, and yes I want that too! Even though I’m totally fine with not getting paid to blog right now (aside from my hourly salary I’ve finagled), realllyyy getting paid to blog is a dream! It’s just a dream I can look at objectively and understand why it’s so hard to obtain.

So with all that being said, I’m going to wrap this post up with one of my favorite words, and a word that’s used to describe me quite often: optimist. If you’re blogging, you’re probably an optimist. At least, I can’t imagine a blogger having a pessimistic attitude. So many times I send emails to brands and never even hear back from them! The emails I do receive a reply to are usually passing on the chance to partner, but every once in a while I get an email saying that a brand would love to work with me! And you know what? I knew I would! How? Because I’m an optimist. I know blogging is going to work out for me some way or another because I love it. A lot. What I love most about blogging is how it allows me to continue to exercise my creativity and my writing skills. Although sure, sometimes I look at my blog and think oh no! My professors would roll their eyes at me right now with what I’m doing! But then I reminded myself that actually, I’m making all my creative writing professors proud by writing almost every day. I’m sticking to a schedule (aside from this morning!) and most importantly, I’m doing what I love and kind of getting paid for it.

Alright, that’s all! Outfit details below!   

shirt: J.Crew • shorts: Club Monaco • bag: Longchamp • sneakers: Adidas • sweater: Lou & Grey, Similar (oldie but a goodie!) • hair ties: Tele Ties

You should know: My shirt is size XS // shorts are 00 // sneakers I sized down a smidge to 6.5 (what I mean by this is I usually wear a size 6.5 or 7 in sneakers, but typically will get size 7 so I don’t get blisters. I didn’t feel like I had to with these though) // and finally, Lou and Grey sweaters are my favorite sweaters! I’ve had this one for years, actually originally stolen from my mom! It’s so soft and so comfy! It’s a size small.