the shape of things to come...
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Category
Fashion & Style
What a year this one has been. I honestly cannot believe it's December already. As this year draws to a close, I've found myself thinking a lot about this blog, its place in my life, and what blogging means to me.
This blog has been a huge part of my life for almost a decade. Over the life of this site, Sugarlaws has received 9.8 million pageviews. It will hit ten million in a few weeks. I can hardly wrap my mind around that number. To the millions of readers who have helped this blog grow: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I could say it ten million times, and it wouldn't be enough. It has never escaped me for one minute that blogging is a privilege; one that my readers give me every day.
But lately, my focus hasn't been on this website. It took me a while to put my finger on the problem, but when I really thought about it, it was right in front of me.
In the eight years that I've run this blog, it's been many things. For the first two years, it was a food blog, detailing how I learned to cook in my first years out of school. In 2009, I added fashion posts to this site, and suddenly found myself invited to New York Fashion Week, meeting celebrities, doing television appearances, and opening my mailbox almost every day to find new clothes, makeup, and other products. It went from zero to sixty so quickly that I could barely keep up.
It was a wild ride. I got an incredible glimpse into the fashion and beauty industry: an insider's view. In the space of a few years, I went from gazing at fashion magazines to watching the shows, meeting the designers, and being part of the narrative that forms the industry. What an incredible opportunity that was. It was a dream come true.
But like everything in life, things started to change. I moved away from New York, had a baby, started my law practice, and watched the world change over the course of a decade. Fashion is still a passion of mine, but lately, that passion has ebbed. I love blogging, but I don't want to be a fashion blogger anymore. And in realizing that, I've found myself at a bit of a crossroads. If this blog isn't a fashion blog, then what is it?
I'm not sure I have an answer for that question yet.
Nearly a year ago, I wrote an essay in response to a reader question about my career. My advice was simple: Find something challenging that matters. Since then, I've thought about how that applies to other areas of my life, and the one that I kept coming back to was this site.
I want this blog to be my small corner of the internet, where I can share my thoughts and stories and ideas. That's all I've ever wanted from this blog. It just took me a while to realize it.
2016 is going to bring a lot of changes to this website. I want to strip everything away from this site until I get back to why I started blogging in the first place. The layout is going to change. The topics I write about will change. The name may even change. And, starting January 1st, I won't be taking on any more sponsored posts. No advertising at all. I don't want you guys to buy anything. I just want you to read.
2016 is the year I slow down. It's the year that I think carefully about this blog and what I want it to be.
I'm proud of this. I'm excited for it. And I hope you are too.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. 2016 is almost here. I, for one, can't wait.