Oh, hi. That’s me on the right in curlers with a coffee mug because that’s real life. I actually wear cute clothes & have pretty hair, but you’d never know it because 99.9% of mornings, I’m rushing out the door to make my 9am meeting with a cereal bar & a 3-year-old. I’m also moderately sweating from dressing said 3-year-old. Also, my nails are chipped. So if you’re looking for pretty DSLR photos of me in darling work-inspired outfits standing in front of a waterfall then you’ve come to the wrong place, sister. Mostly because that means I haven’t taken my Nikon over to the fancy camera store so they can clean it & put a new battery in the remote. So sometime around 2pm I think, “Hey! Let’s go take a selfie in the bathroom mirror!” It ends up on Instagram with a few likes, but it rarely ends up on my blog because it’s a selfie in a mirror in the same room where half of my coworkers take their post-coffee poops.
In short? I’m never going to be a Pinterest sensation.
The worst & most embarrassing part of it all is that it used to bother me. I saw my blogging peers creating fantastic content that was exploding visually & this little green monster welled up inside of me & I got all bitter that I don’t have time or skills or patience to be that artistic. Can I be honest? I hate what Pinterest has done to blogging & our stress levels as bloggers. It used to be that if you could tell stories, that was enough. Every so often you tossed up a picture to make it a little more interesting, but the focus was the story, not the stats. You didn’t worry about “going viral.”
I think it’s an incredible thing when things go naturally viral. It’s only happened to me a few times, mostly when I was least expecting it, like when I wrote about my former life as a bitch on the internet & when I broke down the amount your toddler should be eating. One was a delicious confessional & the other was a stick-in-the-mud-FYI but they both had their place on the internet. Like recipes, even the ones that are basic because dude, you can laugh all you want but I honestly didn’t know how to make French Toast correctly until this summer, which is why I posted the French Toast recipe we use a few weeks ago.
But now I see so many of my blogging friends gnawing on fingernails & wondering “where to go” with their blog. More times than not, I think the roadblocks to blogging are created when we get so concerned with being awesome that we forget to be authentic. Hey, I’ve been there. There’s a glamorous halo around Pinterest & wanting a slice of that gorgeous, sparkly pie. There is zero shame in trying something new creatively, even if others think it’s dumb.
But I want to tell you that I think you are enough & I think your blog is perfect just the way it is.
I want you to know that I’m going to read your story even if it doesn’t have a pin-worthy quote at the bottom or if it doesn’t include the 10 ten ways to bond with my toddler when he’s acting like he has a meth addiction.
Scratch that. I really want to read that one about the toddler on fake meth.
But you are funny & creative & I love you & the words you choose to share with the world. Keep telling stories, friends. They matter far more than a pin-worthy craft.
& here. Have a selfie in the bathroom mirror.
{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }
ok but serious, your hair looks gorgeous in the selfie.
I am totally pinning this.
me too
me three!
Always tell your stories. Your words are a light in my day.
Also I am now considering car curlers if they will make my hair pretty like the selfie!
My blog? You even love MY blog?!
I am favoriting this post in my Reader so I can remember what’s important in blogging: being authentic. That is what I’m striving to do. And you’re right, it is easy to forget that’s the point.
Thank you for writing this! I have been turned off by so many blogs lately because I can tell they are just trying to get me to pin something. Not gonna happen, sister. Such a good reminder!
This post is awesomesauce! You hit the nail right on the head & probably one of the main reasons I shut down my blog was I just got so sick & tired of trying to be “creative” all the time. I can’t write when I’m constantly trying to be someone else. I however love your blog & I believe I may have already pinned it a long time ago!
And also on a totally different Pinterest note; I love it but it totally makes me feel like the most inadequate mom ever! I see all these pins my friends have of crafty things they’ve made & all it does is make me think “oh God; am I totally screwing up my child b/c I don’t make homemade granola every day & haven’t changed some random closet into a “reading space” for her???”
Then I find a wickedly funny ecard & my day is complete.
hehe… I’m going to pin this too!
BA likes my blog! WOOHOO! She said so, right here.
Ok, maybe this is part of why I’ll never make it “big” (or even medium) as a blogger, but I just don’t read Pinterest the same way I read blogs. I love them both, for sure… but I read blogs for content, cute kids and fun women. I read (browse, really) Pinterest for ideas to serve me in my life. It’s more of a tool… But then I’m not trying to get people to come to my blog through Pinterest, so I’m doing it all wrong! Ha.
“BA likes my blog! WOOHOO! She said so, right here.”
I was just thinking the exact same thing!
Yep, same thought here. Felt like a total loser for thinking it so I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Word.
Can I also say that this applies to real life? Everywhere? Facebook. Twitter. In real conversations. And it’s a lesson we should be teaching our children.
Don’t worry about being popular. Be yourself.
That is what I love about your blog. You keep it honest and real. So many blogs are written by SAHMs who have the time to make pillow case dresses and nifty crafts- all of which make me feel like I’m not doing enough. I love your blog because you can speak to working moms who are awesome for even getting dinner on the table even if no one is ever going to repin that grilled chicken and broccoli masterpiece.
Theta Mom reflected on this just last week – on how the trend in blogging as turned toward Pinterest and micro-blogging via social media. I agree with her take and yours. What’s happened to good old-fashioned blogging for the sake of storytelling? Where have all the bloggers gone?
I’ve gone through various phases of blogging in the 2+ years I’ve been at it. I’ve wanted to be the next big thing and secretly wished to go viral (hasn’t happened). I’ve tried my hand at sponsored posts (hated it) and created Pinterest-worthy quotes and graphics (contrived). And late last year I finally came to a realization – I just want to write. I like to tell stories. And for whatever reason, some people want to read them. So, when it comes to “where I’m going” with my blog, I guess that’s it. Just keep on keeping on.
Beautifully stated! Agree 100%
Yeah. I started my blog as a new blog for sharing books. Then I got addicted to other blogs and left beyond my livejournal account and started adding randoms into my blog. But, it is still about books, mainly. I don’t get blogging for the sake of pinterest.
This post is pure awesome. I feel the same way when it comes to blogging. Sure, it’s nice to post a decent pic or two, but I dig the actual stories, too. So glad you put this out there!
Truth. So much truth.
I like pinning things, but I don’t worry so much about BEING pinned. Now and then I pin some of my own stuff, but minimally. And I have no clue how to get that pin button ON my blog, so whatevs.
Thanks for writing this. And your hair seems to have gotten really long. Not that I’ve seen you [or really even know you] enough to know – and maybe it’s just the angle in the bathroom mirror?
Can I be honest right now?
Please stop taking selfies with that side-scrunched-smile. It’s not quirky, cute, or endearing.
You’re so much prettier with a natural smile!
Agreed! Pretty with a normal smile! But the side-smirk looks ridiculous.
I think the side smile is cute.
Agreed.
It was cute the first couple of pictures, but now it is tiring and right up there with duck lips.
Oh! I just remembered….. this is why I don’t read comments on blogs.
Seriously?! Telling someone how to smile? Wow.
You can’t be serious right now. “Smile this way because that’s how I like people to smile”?
Yeah. Eff that.
BA, Love you. Love this post. It really hits home to a blogger like me who has been struggling to put out ANY decent material lately.
oh girl — I fight that green monster all too often! So when you said this — “But I want to tell you that I think you are enough & I think your blog is perfect just the way it is.” — my heart just swelled. Thanks for the love, friend!!
I totally read you for the stories! Way to be authentic BA
Confession: I’m not on Pinterest. I may be the last female who’s not. I am busy enough without having to feel like I’m not measuring up in fashion, food, & design
Love the hair.
I wish I knew how to use curlers! Wise words… You have made quite the journey, and I find it very relevant to my fledging blogging career! Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Word. The only camera I have is my iPhone, and I’m a horrible photographer. I worry sometimes about my posts being text heavy, but you know what? I’ve decided I don’t care. That’s who I am. I want to read your stories & if you never posted another picture or graphic, I’d still come around.
LOVE your hair!! Seriously. Gorgeous!! I agree with you. I love me some pinterest and all, but I don’t read blogs specifically to find “pin worthy” material, if that makes sense. I read blogs because I like to read! I want to hear what’s going on with the author. I follow them for a reason, their words. Simple as that
You speak the truth, my friend! It can be so overwhelming to keep up with everyone else in the blog world and make my little blog something share-worthy. All the while, I get totally burnt out on editing pictures and making little pinnable pictures in Photoshop. That’s why I totally quit! I just don’t care any more about making my blog or myself something that isn’t real. I blog because I love it, not because other people think they should pin my stuff! Love you and your bathroom self-portraits! Keep on keeping it real, BA!
I’ve been following your blog for years. I’ve followed others’ blogs, but yours is the only one I consistently keep reading. I almost don’t want to see some of your posts on Pinterest, if that makes any sense. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean that the ones I see on Pinterest, they’re from bloggers that are so “famous” that are almost household names. I don’t like to read their blogs. Because they’ve published books and some even have TV shows now, and they aren’t real people anymore. I can’t relate to them when they are going on about publicists and agents. I read your blog because you keep it real, and your posts are so achingly honest that some have even brought me to tears. You are real and honest, and most importantly, you haven’t sold out. So you’re doing a whole heck of a lot better than those bloggers and their recycled posts that you see pinned every few seconds, and their so called “fame”. You have so much more than them.
I love this post! I couldn’t agree more on where blogging has been going lately. I’m totally guilty of it too, but I miss the days of just writing for the sake of getting it out. I hope to do more of that kind of blogging this year.
Hey Pretty –
Your hair looks amaze-balls.
And for the record…I fucking HATE pinterest. So there.
xoxo-
Tonya
I totally agree! However I’ve noticed a few spikes recently on LWM from Pinterest, but most of our posts aren’t pin worthy.I appreciate the extra traffic from Pinterest, but it’s not where it all comes from. But when LWM posts are pinnable…tips or recipes…I do create a pinnable image. BUT I don’t go out of my way to only create piinterest posts. I notice so many blogs these days that used to have content and tell stories are just all about pinterest posts. Like HELLO! I know how to braid my hair and pin it up. I don’t need a tutorial on that shit. And a fishtail braid, I rocked that shit in middle school and can still do it.Thank you very much. I think at it’s best Pinterest can be great for bloggers, but now all some bloggers think about is coming up with pinnable ideas instead of having the content and the story telling come first. Content and telling good stories should come first.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph THANK YOU for writing this! Pinterest was fun, but now it stresses me out because I’m not “utilizing it” Fuck it. I’m writing a blog, not pinning everything.
I agree. I think for recipe blogs its not such a big deal, but aspiring to be pinned is cheapening the writing, at least from my reader’s persepctive.
And it’s not just visually that I think it’s wrecking blogging. I see posts (sometimes even from blogs I like) where at the end of it is a pretty little square graphic, and a quote from the post, and the name of the blog. Screaming “pin me pin me I’m pretty and this is the sum of my whole post!” It starts to feel like the entire post I just read was a waste of my time, if all they really wanted was for people to know they said that one sentence and for me to spread it around to get them more readers.
Amen. I used to read blogs and wrote a blog a looong time ago. The stories got me through not being able to have a baby and the destruction of my marriage and the divorce that followed. I felt a little bit not so alone. I made some amazing friends.
After my life was rebuilt, I came back to the internet, found new friends and mothers on Twitter (including your blog – giving me a glimpse of what being a mother to a toddler might hold) and decided to blog again. I had stories to tell and wanted new friends. I am absolute crap at making friends in these mommy & classes, etc. ABSOLUTE CRAP. Maybe the internet is a better option, I thought.
The trend towards making pinable posts and ridiculous crafts is just not me. 1. I have a shitty camera and no time or money to get a better one and to learn how to use it 2. I used to do ridiculous crafts but have no time because my toddler is insane and never sleeps. I’d really appreciate it if bloggers would stop reminding me that I get no sleep and therefore have no energy to enrich my child’s life with homemade granola and handsewn crib sheets.
I was glad to read this post over my morning coffee – a post written by a writer whose stories I like. Thanks for reminding me to tell more stories, read more stories and to express my gratitude for them. (must. comment. more.)
Thank you.
“I’d really appreciate it if bloggers would stop reminding me that I get no sleep and therefore have no energy to enrich my child’s life with homemade granola and handsewn crib sheets.” Love it…and I would be your friend if I had time to ever go to a mommy and me class:).
Thank you for this! The fact that you are 100% real the majority of the time is what sucked me into your blog in the first place. I have followed a lot of phony-bologna people in my time & often just end up deleting them from my reader after a while. I much prefer reading something I can relate to then reading just FLUFF. And honestly, as far as the “perfect” pictures in posts go….no one looks that good ALL THE TIME! lol =) I appreciate a good picture on the occasion, but some people are just trying way too hard.
love this. totally want to pin it and make it go viral.
Dude, you read my mind. I wrote about how I hated what pinterest has done to blogging awhile ago. http://www.adayinmollywood.com/2012/09/when-it-comes-to-pinterest-im-screwed/
It’s really how I feel. Nothing I do ever gets pinned. Then I think I’m a failure as a blogger. But really, I’m there to write and that rarely ever gets pinned because it doesn’t have a pretty picture with it. I’m okay with it now. But I still get a little bit jealous when things go viral and I’m left in the dust.
Honestly, I find it off-putting when people blog for popularity rather than authenticity. You can smell it from a mile away!
Now all I can think about is that someone pooped in the stall behind your selfie.
Oh, and that you’re awesomesauce.
I love your blog, it is one of the first I started reading a few years ago. Your real, and that’s what makes you special. Don’t change a thing! Oh and I like your instagram pics
I’ve actually been simplifying life recently (took Facebook off my iPhone) and cleaning out the blogs that really just make me feel like a crappy mom and “not good enough”, but I haven’t unsubscribed to your blog and this post only reaffirms that decision. Thanks for always keeping it real and sharing from your heart what many of us don’t know how to put into words. This post also makes me want to write more on my family blog, because why do I care what others think? I just want a place to write and reflect on the blessings (and trials) in our little life. Thanks for being you!
Awesome sauce. Lately, Pinterest has been making me feel like I live in a dump and that my grilled cheese isn’t fancy enough, ha! Love ya, girl!
I think you know I’m one of those who tend to fret
I love this. Such a beautiful reminder to focus on the stories.
I’m not on pinterest – never have been and most likely never will be. I have no interest in it
Talk away girl; I love reading your blog!
I fret. And then I yell at myself to stop fretting. I didn’t start my blog to be “popular” or make friends. I did it as a type of therapy for me. I need to constantly remind myself of that every time that big green monster comes a knocking. Great post!
have i told you, lately, that i love you? cuz i do.
I just have to say–I love your blog for the REAL stories you share. And the adorable photos of H. I do love Pinterest, but I don’t really associated it with blogs and very rarely pin anything from the blogs I read. I use it to find recipes/workouts/DIY projects that I want to do but then forget about 5 seconds after pinning so never get to them. Granted, I do have to admit that I got pretty excited when I saw that one of my home projects was pinned… but just the one. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that you are a blogging inspiration to ME–to share my real stories without feeling the need to have awesome (or any) pictures to go with it. It is something I want to focus on but haven’t had the guts to yet. Thanks for being you.
I started adding crafts to my blog because it’s something I liked to do as a hobby, and then Pinterest turned my hobby and my blogging into a chore. It’s become a contest, where only the ones who can get the “right people” to pin or feature their crafts win.
I have 3 kids under the age of 4, and I can’t tell you how many mornings I’ve have gotten up at “way too freaking early” to finish one of the 10 plus crafts sitting on the breakfast table. I have gotten to the point where I barely post because it feels like my words and a kid picture or two aren’t enough. It sucks. And so do some of the crafts people are making, because they have to come up with more and more “pin-able content.”
I hope that more and more bloggers start realizing that going viral isn’t everything. I think I finally have. Thanks Beth Anne.
Just found your blog today. Loving it, will have a good look through. I had post partum psychosis with both my kids, just working out how to blog it…
So well said. The stories are much more important, and I love reading yours
I love your blog BA
Forget Pinterest!
Write a post about how you do the roller gig in the am’s as a quickie ‘do and I’ll pin the bejeezes out of it. I need that kind of help and yours looks great!
Love the post, btw. The side smile is YOU and that is why I like it.
This is SPOT ON! And it totally struck a chord in the blogosphere today
thanks so much for reminding us all that it’s about our lives and hearts and words. Not just “pinnable” pictures.
Also? You’re gonna need to do a post about achieving amazing hair after 29.5 years
Amen, sister friend! I read all the blogs of my Twitter friends regardless of their Pinterest worthiness. A friends a friend.
Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one who leaves the house a sweaty mess after toddler wrangling. Ugh! I walk in his room and start sweating bullets.
Bad pictures? Are you kidding? That bathroom has an awesome hair light!!
I agree with the others, I’m pinning this to my Help Me Be A Better Blogger board!
Yes! I love this!
One of the MANY reasons you are loved by so many is because you are genuine. (Albeit still seemingly more perfect than me…)
It is so refreshing to read about real life!!
I’m convinced Pinterest was invented to make us all feel inadequate. I know you don’t know me, but I love your blog – you’re one of the few “mommy bloggers” that I can actually stand, lol
I love your blog more than Pinterest, too, BA. Thank you for this awesome post!
oh shit – I supposed to use my DSLR to take fancy photos of my bloggy things? Whoops – I failed. I’m an iPhone/Instagram blogger who sometimes uses photoshop to crop an image or add a watermark. Yay for sub-par non-viral going images
Oh and also…I often take selfies in the sauna or in my front hallway mirror that has kid fingerprints all over it that I can’t be bothered to clean before I snap said selfie 
I just love this little nugget. Bravo.
Love this. Love you. Needed this.
i agree there’s way too much pressure to be “pinnable.” i’m lucky if i get a project finished in the daylight & snap a phone photo in time to blog about it at all. also- i went to a craft show last year where out of about 50 booths, there were only about 3 that weren’t full of super-over-pinned projects everyone has seen before. i think it’s killing creativity by encouraging us all to emulate each other’s ideas rather than come up with our own! & yeah, no hand sewn crib sheets here. some things are worth the $10 at target, you know?
Awesome pics – so natural and absolutely charming))
They say that a picture can be worth a thousand of words. Yet, I dare to disagree with that – photos cannot replace the words we use for expressing our feelings and sharing what’s on our minds.
Dropping by to say awesome post. This needed to be said!