Inside Scoop

In my previous post, I admitted that I wasn’t born with the fashionista gene, but my style as come a long way. No, I didn’t end up on some makeover show and have my entire wardrobe replaced all at once. Instead, I improved my style piece by piece as I learned what looked good on me and reflected how I felt inside. Some things certainly made it easier, and even inspired my makeover.

About seven years ago I left my family home in the middle of nowhere to go to college in “the big city”. (OK, it’s only big for this area.) I also got married to a wonderful, supportive guy who paid the bills while I finished college and decided to try out an unplanned career.

While that gave me greater access to fashion, things really didn’t change until I had a breast reduction a few years ago to alleviate back pain. Since I had to buy a new wardrobe anyhow, I decided it was time to dress with more style.

Shopping for clothes was certainly easier, though not perfect. I hit the discount stores but still ended up spending more than I’d like. There was a lot of trial-and-error and returns. I didn’t really know what was flattering but I was determined to find out. So I kept trying. I looked to others to see what worked for them, and also did what I always do when I have a new interest: I read about it a lot.

Fortunately, there was great style advice available online for free, though there was also a lot of mediocre material to dig through to find it.

Eventually, I felt confident with my own style. It was a great because I also became more confident in general and people started to treat me differently. I felt noticed in a good way. It was something I wanted to share, so I started writing about it online and commenting on the blogs I was reading.

I didn’t dream of making a living writing about style or fashion though; I had other plans for the future.

A few months earlier, as I finished my final semester of college, the only writing on my mind was my senior honors thesis about mediopassive morphology and reflexive syntax in late Latin. After that, my plan was to have a short break, then investigate a few career paths. It was during that post-college break that I started writing about what I learned during my makeover at my first blog, just for fun.

I had been blogging for about two weeks when I saw a post at The Bargain Queen (one of my favorite blogs), where Sara asked if anyone was interested in writing there. I knew I didn’t have much in the way of experience, but I thought it was worth investigating. It seemed like a really great opportunity.

Sara gave me a shot and I’ve been working with her ever since — and it has turned out to be an opportunity even greater than I could have imagined.