girl-ish
Happy Sunday! It's the time of the week when I struggle between clinging to the last of my weekend and actually facing the reality of another Monday. Weekends are just awesome, ya know? There's nothing I love more than free time to do as I please, whether that's going to Target (duh), walking my dog, or working on Girl-ish. The latter takes up a surprising amount of time and I couldn't love it more. I'm crossing my fingers that a day will come when my job will be Girl-ish. Ahhh, that would be the best! I've been really struggling the past few weeks with complacency at my Monday-Friday job and a general loss of direction. I have so many goals for this year and for my life and sometimes I get weighed down by the thought that my goals are unattainable. I think they're realistic and I think I'm capable of making these things happen for myself but sometimes, when fear and doubt and questions and reality sets in, I get really scared. I'm left with this lingering thought of, "I can do this, I can make these things happen- but what if I don't?" What if I don't do the things I want to do? What if my life takes a different path? What if I'm meant for something different than the grand picture in my head? I can be okay with that. But right now, as a young woman trying to figure out my life and where I'm going, that possibility of "different" throws open the door to uncertainty with every decision I make. Should I do this? What will it mean? I don't know and that's the part that scares me. I think at times I expect too much of myself and my life. I want to live in the best cities and travel the world and have my dream career. But I also want to have a family one day and be able to stay home with my kids when they're not in school. What does "dream career" look like then? I can't help but think that time is slowly being wasted away while I work a job that doesn't push me to my goals and I live in a city I don't love. This might be one of the hardest parts about being a woman in today's world: I've created so much pressure for myself to succeed and be awesome. I want all my dreams to come true. But don't want to be a "career mom" when the time comes for me to have children. I want to be home while they're young and make them snacks for when they come home from school. Where does that leave me? (Well, where does that leave me besides needing to make my millions prior to having children so I don't have to work, haha.) I don't have any answers. Right now I'm just taking things a day at a time and sharing my thoughts with you stream-of-consciously in hopes that someone else is feeling this way too. Maybe we can navigate it together. I read a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald last night that put some parts of this in perspective for me. He said, "The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." I have big dreams and huge goals and in doing that, I've created a very big world for myself. But maybe what's important is that I recognize that sometimes, it's okay for your world to be a little small. It's okay to take some time learning things at a job that isn't your end goal and it's okay to live in a tiny little town for the time being because your family lives there and you love them. The future is always uncertain but it's up to me to decide it. Love, P.S. I mention the struggle that many women feel regarding time, family, and career. I know Sheryl Sandberg addresses this in her book Lean In, which I got for my birthday, along with #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso and Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. I'm not sure which one I'm starting first, but if you'd like to read them together as a cool virtual book club, comment below and let me know!
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Lovelies, As I write this, it is Saturday night and I am perfectly content to stay in and watch The Office on Netflix instead of do ANYTHING in the frigid Winter weather. You feel me? I know you do. Looking through the schedule for the upcoming week's content, I am feeling particularly inspired by our contributors. They never fail to perfectly balance humor and fun, fluff and fashion, with the most real and thought-provoking pieces! In all the excitement and pride I feel for our ladies, I am reminded that this is precisely what Girl-ish is all about and the very reason it was created. This week marks the beginning of our 7th week online. Even though I always had confidence in this endeavor, my confidence is growing with each passing week. As a whole, Week 6 was our biggest and most successful week regarding analytics. We hit major marks and milestones on social media AND for views and hits on our site. I know our exceptional content is keeping the readers coming back time and time again, and garnering new readers all the time! Tonight, I am just bursting with pride. During Week 6, we welcomed two new members to the Girl-ish community, Mandy and Lyndsay! Week 7 will showcase two more new members of our growing family! Christie and I couldn't be happier to expand our list of contributors and bring new, different points of view and life experiences to the table. What a wonderful week we have in store! Hello and welcome to 2015! New year, new me, amirite?! Okay, so I don't buy into that but I do have to say that I love the freshness of a new year. There's something about having 365 days laid out before you, full of possibilities and newness. I think I like the new year even more than the average Josephine because my birthday falls so close to it. (Tomorrow!!) Because of this, I feel even more motivated to make goals (I prefer "goals" to "resolutions" but whatev) for this year of my life. Some of them are fitness-oriented because let's be real, I can always improve in that area of my life. (#ihateworkingout) One of my main goals is to work on my flexibility, so I will attempt to do some yoga or Pilates every day. I mean, I need to be flexible for the future when I achieve my dream of being on Dancing With the Stars. This is important for my long-term goals, clearly. Other goals are related to Girl-ish. One is to move to one of my dream cities. Another is to write a screenplay. Some of my goals are simple and some are lofty but they are all things I want to strive to accomplish, which in itself is good enough for me. I just want to try. I was reading through one of my old journals and found my list of goals, resolutions, and reminders for 2013. The top two points have stuck with me until this day. 1. I am the only person in control of my happiness. 2. Do not let my happiness be a result of something I could lose. Success is great. Money is awesome. That stellar job? It's the coolest. But even if I find all of these things in life, they will never bring me the happiness that my family and friends do. That taking long walks with my dog does. That Netflix does. For me, even if I achieve my version of success, it will never be more important than the people I love. With that being said, my year of 26 will be spent trying to get closer to my dreamz and spending as much time with my family and friends as possible. I hope to travel to a few new places this year and see some new things and meet new people. This week on Girl-ish we have a bunch of cool stuff going on! I'm showing off my birthday nail art tomorrow (seriously, you guys, I'm so proud of it, so you need to check it out!) and we're going to feature two of our new contributors on our Facebook page. (If you haven't liked our page yet, please do! Once we reach 1,000 followers, we're going to do TWO sweet giveaways!!) We also have another Beauty "Fave Five" coming up from Kiley and a guide to college basketball by Amanda Paschal. (We have diverse interests over here at Girl-ish.) As always, thank you so much for reading. You all are THE BEST. Love, Dear Readers, I hope you had a lovely Christmas or Hanukkah. If you are celebrating Kwanzaa, I hope you are enjoying this time with your family. The Holiday Season can be a very joyous or sad time, depending on the gains or losses you and your family have faced this year. I wish you nothing but happiness as this year comes to a close. It never fails that I'm continually surprised when yet another year passes. Thinking about how quickly 2014 has come and gone, I have only one resolution: enjoy every moment. In an unexpected way, Girl-ish has helped me slow down. Whether it's taking the time to read and edit pieces, choose photos for each piece, or work on my own writing, I'm doing more thinking. And I like that. As for Girl-ish, goals for 2015 are to expand our readership here in the U.S. and across the globe. In order to make that happen, our contributors are going to continue creating thought-provoking pieces about topics relevant in today's society and especially relevant to our 20-something age group. But, we also need your help. If you see something you like, share it. You have no idea the power you wield by simply clicking a button and spreading information. We hope our readers will continue to reach out to us with ideas and suggestions for pieces they would like to read. This growing community thrives on sharing thoughts and ideas....without that, what would we be? Think about where you were a year ago and all that has happened since then. It may not feel like much, but I guarantee you are a different person in some way. Whether you've grown in your career, in your personal life, or in some small way only you could notice and appreciate, a year can do so much. I am so excited to see what happens in 2015! Afterall, Girl-ish wasn't even a thought in mine or Christie's head one year ago. Happy New Year! Hello, everyone! Weekends are pretty freaking awesome. That probably goes without saying but at the start and end of every weekend, I find myself so thankful that I have free days to spend the way I want to. This weekend was spent in Chicago at the Christkindlmarket and doing some last minute shopping. I love the holiday season in the city and that festivity has carried over to my lazy Sunday as I prepare to give myself a sweet holiday manicure. (After much deliberation, I have decided to go with "Twinkle Lights". As you can imagine, much thought and consideration went into that decision.) If you have some cute holiday-themed nail art going on, we'd love to see it! Tag Girl-ish on Facebook or @girl.ish on Instagram! We could not be more excited about Christmas and I am already looking forward to the posts we have coming up this week! I can't wait to share Amanda's piece about Christmas in New York City, complete with tons of beautiful, festive pictures of the Big Apple. We also have more Christmas-themed manicures for you, a fashion spotlight where you'll meet Seline Jung, and a book review from Marie-Claire! We finish up the week with an awesome Coffee Date piece from Alyssa that is a perfect reflection for the end of one year and the start of another. Be sure to check out our Facebook page as well as the site to read the latest! Thank you again for reading Girl-ish and for liking and commenting on our posts. It means the world to everyone who is working on the site! To our international readers, welcome and thank you for reading! In the last few days, we've gained followers in India, the Philippines. and Algeria and we're excited that they have joined the Girl-ish community. We hope that you all feel the joy and magic of this season. Whether you're celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, everyone here at Girl-ish wishes you the happiest of holidays. Love, And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord." Luke 2:8-11 Dear Girl-ish-ers, This week, we give you Christmas! Christmas music, Christmas nails, Christmas presents, and Christmas movies. You can’t say we didn’t prepare you with everything you need to survive the holidays and then some! It’s Girl-ish’s first Christmas and we’ve already received the best gift yet....your readership! [Insert warm smile here] Because we can’t celebrate Christmas every second of the week (although we definitely tried), our fantastic contributors have done it again and given us an array of thought-provoking pieces with a common theme: challenging the norm. I think you’ll find this week to be an odd counterbalance of Christmas Cheer and Retrospection. Only our contributors could pull something like that off. To quote the beautiful, brilliant, beautifully brilliant Christie in last week’s letter from the editor: “...the fact that we're here right now and you all are reading what we're putting out there is nothing short of amazing. We wouldn't be anywhere without each other and our awesome contributors who share so many heartfelt, fun, and beautifully-written things with us. You all are awesome and I can't thank you enough.” That quote could be a recurring disclaimer. Each week, each day, each hour is a group effort and we will never stop working together to bring you the heartfelt, the fun, and the beautifully-written. This week is no different than any other...except, CHRISTMAS STUFF. Love, Hello angels! Here we are, seven days into Girl-ish. It was mere months ago that Kiley and I had the initial brainstorming session for this site and the fact that we're here right now and you all are reading what we're putting out there is nothing short of amazing. We wouldn't be anywhere without each other and our awesome contributors who share so many heartfelt, fun, and beautifully-written things with us. You all are awesome and I can't thank you enough. If you can believe it, I've actually learned a lot this past week. I've learned that people can be so wonderfully supportive and encouraging. A huge thank you to the people who have liked and shared our Facebook page, the Girl-ish link, and the pieces featured here. You all are the reason that we have the number of viewers we have right now. To the friends and family who have sent texts of support and congratulations- you have no idea how much that meant to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I learned that being in charge of a website is HARD. It can be really hard, guys. We barely know how to code (but we're learning!) and sometimes I get so frustrated at my lack of skills that I want to drive my car off the side of a cliff. (Over-dramatic? Never!) But let me tell you that every font I can't change and every tag I can't link is TOTALLY worth it because I am so passionate about what we're doing here. Girl-ish is all I think about and I'm willing to take on the occasional frustrations because we want to continually make this site better for you. Most importantly, I learned that your passion doesn't feel like work. We have poured hours into this site and I have loved every second of it. I am obsessed with our organizational calendars, getting Girl-ish-related emails, and writing my pieces for the site. I love being in constant contact with Kiley throughout the day because we just can't stop talking about the future and how to change things, make things better. The frustrations I mentioned above? Those mean next to nothing in the grand scheme of things. They are wiped away by the excitement I feel when I think about Girl-ish, our team, our readers, and how we're going to evolve and change together. So, with one week down, I'm looking forward to what this season holds. Thank you for reading. We are so happy you're here. xoxo, Welcome to Girl-ish, a creative community for women in their twenties! We are so happy that you're here. Girl-ish has been created especially for you as an escape from negativity and the prevalent "perfect life" facade that is projected by many blogs and websites today. This is a place to be real and honest about life and where we're all at. Our twenties are such a transitional stage of life and we want to be real about the struggles that come along with life, love, and career while still remaining optimistic and positive. We want to keep you informed on what's going on in our world and how women are working to make it a better place. This is a site where we can talk about our passions, whether that passion is a particular cause or fashion or pop culture. This is a place to learn and have fun, to inspire and empower. This site wouldn't be possible without our wonderful contributors who have helped us create a collection of relevant and real commentary. They are all intelligent, strong, and beautiful women who have graciously shared their bold hearts and minds with us and we couldn't be more grateful to work with this incredible team of women. (Read more about these awesome ladies here.) Grab a glass of your favorite beverage and escape for a little while. Engage with our contributors and join the conversation. We'd love to hear from you. (Link that to contact page) *Do you get the reference? Best. Movie. Ever. Love, |
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