Why I should blog the Look show..

This is my entry for a competition to blog for the Look Show. Wish me luck!


I could start this by boring you with stats- the number of readers of my blog, my daily and weekly views. I could tell you about the companies who have worked with me, and people who have sponsored me and all the free clothes I have received. I could tell you about the places I've been featured and the interviews I've done. But I won't. Because that's not interesting or important.

What I will tell you is how hard I've worked to get to this point. A year ago I didn't expect that people would want to send me free clothes to review, or that I would inspire other people to start blogs or embrace their personal style. Two years ago I was just a girl reading style blogs and wondering “could I do this?” and a year and a half ago I was a girl thinking “why not?” In the past 18 months I have given everything to my blog. The hours spent taking photos, editing, writing, drafting, plugging. The days when I really really didn't feel like blogging. The thousands of emails sent about advertising, replying to comments, arranging giveaways. The money spent on clothes and camera equipment. Going out in minus 20 weather during my year abroad in Minnesota to take pictures so my readers wouldn't be disappointed. Putting up with strange looks from American girls who lived in Uggs and jeans.

I live and breathe my blog. I've killed thousands of trees writing lists of outfit ideas. I'm always watching the world around me for inspiration- for colour combinations, patterns, and stylish people. The world is my inspiration.

I don't believe that you can have what you want if you want it enough. I believe in hard work, and it is only through hard work that I have gotten where I have. I started out writing for my own blog, and was rejected by a website I desperately wanted to intern at. I worked hard, writing as much as possible, working as much as I could on my blog. Three months later, I bagged the internship, beating off hundreds of other applicants. A year on and I'm still working for them. That summer, I applied for work experience at every magazine I could think of. I wasn't accepted by any of them. So I spent the last year working. Hard. I started writing five articles a week, for magazines, newspapers, blogs. Everything. I wrote a weekly fashion column on my year abroad for the student newspaper and was picked up by a local magazine and became their online fashion columnist. I now write freelance for them from the UK and have my column published in the magazine every month. This year, I got the work experience I wanted, and have spent 3 weeks of my summer travelling across the country doing unpaid work experience. But it's worth it for the buzz of working at a real magazine. And it's worth it to know that a year ago I wouldn't have got any of this experience.

I think my blog has done well because of my basic premise. My blog is called Girl Next Door Fashion, and that is because that pseudonym perfectly describes me. I am not a model and I am not rich. I don't wear Prada and Gucci and tote a Mulberry Alexa. I don't have legs up to my armpits and fit into a size 0. And as much as bloggers are marketting for being real girls, many bloggers fit that mould. I live the high street and I have short legs. I fit into a size 8 on a good day. I don't have a budget for a rainbow of Louboutins, and sometimes pass up Topshop for Primark. I have not always been stylish (you should have seen my emo teenage years!) and I'm prone to fashion mistakes just as everyone else is. I love following the latest trends, but I'm also realistic. I have my own style. My blog is about remixing- wearing my clothes in lots of different ways. I'm a student- I have to know something will work with my wardrobe. I love throwaway fashion. I am all about quantity over quality. A pair of Louboutins? Can I not have 10 pairs from River Island? I am inspired by the catwalks, but I am also inspired by the sidewalks.

My blog has also been successful because I like to think I'm easy to relate to. My blog has been a therapy for me. I studied abroad and documented my adventures. My blog, and my readers, have been there for me through everything. Through homesickness, through my career ups and downs, through my long distance relationship and through my recent break up. I love all kinds of blogs, but my favourite blogs are the ones where you feel as though you really know the person. And I feel as though my readers know me. I don't put on a facade, I don't pretend to be cooler or smarter or funnier than I am. I'm me, and what you see is what you get.

I think I would be good for the Look show because I know that nothing in life comes without hard work. And I always give my all. I am passionate, determined and full of ideas. Plus, the British High Street has a special place in my heart. I missed it terribly while I was abroad. Nothing compares to the British High Street. I had to get my Mum to send me clothes from New Look and Miss Selfridge. I was over the moon when I found out (much to the disappointment of my bank balance), that Boohoo delivered abroad. My blog, and my style, is about budget alternatives to high street fashion. Staying on top of the trends but still staying on top of rent. I am hard working, passionate and fun, but I am also the girl next door. And that is why I think I should blog for the Look show.