Hello everyone! It took me quite a while to decide what to do about linking my blog and my website together. Honestly, it would have been a lot more difficult if you guys on instagram didn't vote (thank you!), and if I didn't seek professional opinions as well. I'm happy with the choice I made and I'm grateful to whoever has helped me on making my decision! This whole 'merge the blog into the website' project has been in my mind for a long time, but I never really thought about how I should actually go about doing it, or honestly, the reason to do it in the first place. I'm not going to go into the nitty-gritty about why I eventually decided to spend the last few months of 2018 trying to get this all done together. But if you've read my reflection of 2018 on my old blog (I won't be deleting it, all the blogposts are still there and linked below if you scroll down!), you'd know that 2018 was a year of adult decision-making and really finding my footing and direction in life. I'll admit I still haven't found that just yet, but I'm definitely having a clearer picture right now.
I can only strive to be better in 2019, and hope that I just keep improving and not fall back into a hole of confusion. I'm turning 26 this year, and honestly that's not a good time to be constantly confused about my direction in life. I'm just glad that I kicked myself in the butt and got myself to start moving towards the right direction.
I couldn't be more excited to share these new things with you guys! To everyone who was a part of this change, thank you very much for being there for me, and for giving me your inputs! Learning to hear what people have to say and learning to value certain opinions was also something that I learnt to improve on in 2018, and I want to continue to improve on that in 2019.
Speaking of opinions, one thing that I've been hoping to change would be the opinion on pageants. I've not been in the pageant scene very long, I'm not even a queen myself, but from the events that I've been very kindly invited to, I realised that people just care about how the contestants look and nothing else. I think it's so much more than having a pretty face, honestly, if a pretty face is all you have, you're pretty much doomed because what happens if you don't age properly, right? But that's my thoughts on beauty..
I decided to focus a little more on pageants now, not only because I'm suddenly a pageant blogger instead of a lifestyle blogger. Initially, I didn't like because I identified myself as a lifestyle or beauty blogger, but as time went by I realised that it was something I had interest in and honestly, why not? I could still blog about lifestyle and beauty, and I could possibly do a part in changing the thoughts about beauty pageants. Seems small and probably pointless to some people, but to me, I think it's important to remind people that you can be more than a pretty face and the queens have put in hard work during their competitions and reign as well.
Which brings me to this new thing I'd like to work on!
I wasn't always sure about how I wanted to start changing people's mind, or opening their eyes to the different pageants and its benefits, until one day, when I was chatting with one of the queens and she suggested writing about her pageant journey. I was also approached to do another sort of 'interview' with another queen from a different pageant and it made me realise that actually speaking to different queens about their various lives and reason behind joining their respective pageants could be a great starting point.
I have been inspired by some queens myself, and I figured, this could also be a good way to share their story, and hopefully they could inspire others as well. I may not be some amazing magazine or newspaper, but I suppose it's better than not doing anything at all and being sour about people having one-track-minded thoughts of pageants and queens.
So introducing: Tea with Queens!
I decided to give this little series a go. I am looking into doing this on my channel, and making it into a fun series, but for now, I'd like to stick to my blogposts. I should definitely explain a little more about the title too, huh?
Tea is a beverage that comes in different flavours, origins and can be drank in different ways (iced/hot/with or without milk and sugar). It's basically a very versatile drink, which is also commonly associated with queens/royalty. Tea, or in this case: 'T', is also a slang (I'm assuming it's been popularised by RuPaul's Drag Race because that's where I learnt it from) for 'Truth' or the inside information about a certain topic. I think it's borderlining on gossip, but that's not the whole point about this series. My intension, is to speak to the queens, and find out more about them and share it with everyone and hopefully, inspire someone as well.
With that, I think it's relatively straight forward, isn't it? Or I'm hoping it is.. The first post for this series will be up next week and I'm really excited for you guys to read it!
Again, I'd like to thank everyone who has given their input for this little series, I can only hope that I'll be able to do something great with this! With that being said, I'd like to end my very first post on this blog here! I hope you guys are having a great start to 2019! I'll see you in my next post!
xx
Shayne