One Year Blogversary!

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year!

Blogging is definitely one of my favorite hobbies now and I love the people that I have (virtually) met through it.

I want to do a few things today which will include:

Talking about why I started this blog and that purpose has changed over the course of the year.
Acknowledging some of the awesome bloggers that I follow
Listing some of the things that I feel are my accomplishments as a blogger
Q&A (if I get enough questions)
Plans for the future

I originally started my blog just to talk about books. I love reading, and I love being able to talk to other people about books. However, that wasn’t enough. I started talking about what it’s like to be a feminist, why intersectionality is important and social justice overall. So while I do consider my blog to be fun at times, it can also be serious when necessary.

There are a ton of people win the blogging community that I admire. If I were to name and tag every single one of them, we would be here all day but there are some people who I believe deserve honorable mention.

Nicole – Away in Neverland

I will never forget that Nicole was my very first follower when I started my blog. All of her posts are fun, she does really great book discussions that I love and she takes really artsy pictures of her books to post (I’m jealous of her bookshelf). If you don’t know Nicole, you should. So follow her cause she’s awesome.

Carla – The Melodramatic Confessions of Carla Louise

Carla is definitely one of my favorites not only as a blogger but as a person. We have so much in common and I love that she offers her blog as a platform for people to openly share their stories. Carla talks a lot about social justice and feminism and all of her posts are fact-based (facts don’t lie), so she’s started doing Carla’s Facts to Consider and its the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Lauren – Lolsy’s Library

Lauren is one of my This or That? companians and I always look forward to what she has to say each week. She also has some great blog features including “Magical Monday” and “Funny Fact Friday” and we’re both huge Jodi Picoult fans which is wonderful because she’s my favorite author. So if you’re looking for a really fun blogger, give her a follow!

Jo – Book Lover’s Blog

My favorite thing about Jo’s blog is her series “Jo Talks Books.” She’s tackled some really important issue that a lot of people don’t consider when their reading including feminism, the gender divide in reading, parent censorship and more. It’s really a wonderful series and something that everyone should read.

I’ve been pretty active on my blog from the start but I’m kind of surprised at how much I’ve posted lol

400 posts (including this one)
254 followers (I guess that’s good for a year?)
Unique blog features – This or That? (weekly meme which I’ve done 45 times so far) and Rae’s Rules to Remember (rants, life lessons, and such which has 35 posts so far).
I’ve also created my own book tag for New Year’s (look out for that coming December 1st)
Joined a group blog – Coalition of the Brave was created by Ben @ Meerkat Musings. The other bloggers in this group are Carla (link above), B.G. @ Getting Through Anxiety, and Josh @ My Friday Blog; I love this group and everyone posts such wonderful and insightful things on our shared page.

Q&A

If you are interested in submitting questions for the Q&A you can click this link and submit your question there! This form will be open until Friday at 9pm (EST) and the answers to question will go up on Saturday if enough people ask anything.

Future Plans

I definitely think that blogging is something that I will continue to do for awhile. I’ve found that it is a good outlet for ideas and sometimes stress. I would love to get more people to participate in This or That? but I also love the small group that has pretty much stuck with me from the beginning. I also want to get more guest posts too. B.G. wrote the first one and it was awesome, so hopefully I can get more within the next year.

I think that’s about it. I mean I really can’t complain. I’m glad that I added this to my list of hobbies! 🙂

~Rae