I have had this on my mind for a while, and it’s one of the reasons why I needed to take a big, long, step back out of the world of being an influencer. After I lost my siblings, I looked at life very different, and I really took a good look at my life as an online influencer. What I found was that I wan’t being my true authentic self, and that most other bloggers weren’t doing the same. I was just so tired of showing off material things and ideas, and trying to get people to like what I was showing off just so I could make a couple of dollars. It all seemed so stupid to me! I also had to take a big step away from Instagram, because everything I was seeing was making me sick. So many fake girls, showing off fake lives, and showing love for products they didn’t really love. All in the name of money!! That was and is SO NOT ME! So I took a step back, I took a year break, focused on building my now million dollar business, and enjoyed my time away from it all. It was the true vacation I needed from this world.
These last few months, I’ve really started to dive into my inner thoughts and desires as to what I really like about blogging and being an influencer. What was it that attracted me to this world in the first place. My answer was that I just like talking about things that I love! I love pointing friends in the direction of things that I was loving at the moment, projects that I had going on, books and websites I was enjoying, and favorite fashion items. That’s why I started this blog in the first place…to show off REAL life! Somewhere along the way I got caught up in the fact that yes, you can make money as a blogger, and I set out to make that my only goal. In that time, I lost the love for blogging and focused on the lust of money. Again…so NOT me.
It seems that the world of being an influencer has taken a turn for the worst, and I hate that (and I’m sure a lot of you do too). I can’t read most blogs anymore, because most blogs feel so fake and unauthentic! I miss the days when real life was talked about, everyday pictures were taken, fun, practical beauty looks were shared, and nothing revolved around having every dang thing be a sponsored post. I am determined to bring the real-ness back to my little spot on the internet and talk about things that matter, and show who I really am now. I’m just so tired of the blogging world being fake as faux fur. I’m tired of scrolling through my Instagram feed and only seeing sponsored content after fake poses in fancy places after overly staged photoshoots. It is time to end this inauthentic world influencers have created and start showing real life, real problems, real struggles, and of course, real life fashion and beauty. Who’s with me?!
I’m excited to dive back into this blog of mine, and make it a fun place to be. Dressing Dallas was created as my release and my therapy from everyday life, and I am determined to get that back into these posts. I’m excited for this new world of influence I am trying to bring about, and I hope all of you stay along for the ride! Please let me know what you guys like seeing and reading about in blogs! I’m curious how all of you feel about digital influence these days!
I was literally just thinking that and I was about to write my own blog post on it! I’m still a newbie blog writer, and I only have like an average of 20 views a week. But, even looking at instagram or other blogs, I feel like everyone is putting up a front. I get that some people have blogs that are about other topics besides their personal life and I’m cool with that, but when you put up a front and fake people out like that, it just seems wrong. These people are the influencers and I think that comes with a big responsibility! Thank you for writing this.
I’ve seen a lot of posts recently along these lines, people feeling like they want to return to the authentic. But I’m a little skeptical that it is actually what people want.. I’m the blogger who has never “influenced” – after seven or eight years of blogging it’s still posts about what I do, what I care about, and photos that are true to where I was or what the outfit looked like. I’ve turned my back on any tends that I could capitalize on for SEO but don’t actually feel inspired by and ignored any “get more views/followers” advice that takes me further from the way I want to write.
And I’m here to tell you, the viewer count does not reflect that non-glossy authenticity is what people want. Maybe it is different if you have already done everything that that an influencer needs to do to have an audience already and THEN you change back to something more raw, but it’s very hard to have an audience never having ventured into that territory. I want to read more less manicured blogs too, as much as I want to keep writing them.. but they are hard to find, I suspect because it’s hard for them to thrive and hard to keep doing it with only a tiny audience, which makes me wonder if authenticity is only a thing that people think they want from blogs but in practice they aren’t actually attracted to it.