Since I graduated a few weeks ago, I’ve been reflecting on my time in college! One constant in my time at Auburn is that I’ve always been blogging at Sunny Side Cecilia. Today, I wanted to share WHY I started my blog—whether you’re new here or you need a refresher! Plus, as I’ve focusing more on growing my blog this summer, I wanted to write out my 2020 blog goals.
Why I Started Sunny Side Cecilia
As a senior in high school, I decided to finally start a blog after years of writing down my outfits & dreaming of being a YouTuber! I went to a private high school with uniforms, so blogging was my way of showing off the outfits I wore on the weekend. My blog actually started as The Broke Girl’s Closet because I loved affordable clothing… some things never change! Throughout that first year, I blogged and posted on Instagram pretty sporadically. I didn’t know how to edit photos, I only talked about clothes in my captions, and I generally just didn’t know what I was doing… But I’m so glad that I started when I did! That year, I collaborated with a few brands to share jewelry and beauty products.
When I started at Auburn, I “rebranded” my blog to what it is today! Changing the name to Sunny Side Cecilia also gave me the chance to really re-evaluate my WHY… aka why I blog and post on Instagram. I blog because I know how much our everyday choices can impact our days. Fashion might not seem like it could make a difference, but when I choose clothes that I feel confident in, I can love myself and others better. I truly believe that as small as these choices are, they make up our life. I share outfits that excite me, little ways that I try to make my days brighter, and how I try to look at the sunny side everyday!
My Blog Journey
Once I had rebranded, I felt much better about my blog’s purpose. However, I still had a long way to go to feel confident in my blog’s content! During my sophomore year of college, I took almost all of my blog photos at one outdoor shopping mall because I obsessed over having a consistent feed. Side note: Just use presets! Towards the end of sophomore year & junior year, I started branching out in where I took photos & what I wrote about.
Last summer, I started taking photos in front of murals for the first time & realized how much I love curating a colorful feed! 2019 was also a turning point (in my head) for brand collaborations. In May 2019, I started working with Express for the first time. This is still one of my favorite collaborations! Plus, my whole closet is basically Express at this point. That summer, I also took on my first real paid collaboration! (For my non-bloggy friends: a lot of collaborations are gifting, meaning a brand sends clothing or a gift card! For paid collaborations, I might be given some products, but I’m also paid a certain amount to share.) I haven’t taken on very many paid collaborations, but every time I do, I’m so excited that brands trust me with their messaging.
During 2019 and 2020, I made another change on my Instagram: I began sharing more personal & uplifting captions. Instead of only posting about good deals on clothing, I shared my struggles with comparison in my daily life. To be honest, I still feel nervous sharing captions like that, especially because people I know in real life follow my Instagram. I constantly have to remind myself that we all have words worth sharing, & people follow me because they want to read them!
My 2020 Blog Goals
For the past few weeks, I’ve been able to spend so much more time on my blog & I’m loving it. Since I don’t have homework and I don’t have too much freelance work, I can focus on creating more content. Since we’re almost halfway through the year, I wanted to share my blog goals for the rest of the year! Honestly, focusing on my blog helped with my positivity and productivity a ton at the beginning of social distancing times. When everything was stressful and I felt like I was only seeing bad news, I re-read my favorite bloggers’ old posts. I’ve struggled with feeling like I’m not making enough of an “impact”, but now I see that even style blog posts can give someone a sense of comfort in a time of uncertainty. With this new sense of purpose in my blog, I wanted to share my goals! Some of these are based in numbers, but I know that the goals that mean the most have nothing to do with numbers.
1. 3,500 Instagram followers
For some people, growing on Instagram is like a sprint with quick success. For me, it’s a lot more like a slow stroll, haha! Follower count doesn’t mean everything by any means, but this is a goal that I keep in mind. I gain followers and grow my engagement more consistently when I’m consistent about spending intentional time on Instagram, so I’m going to continue that!
2. Branch into video content
I have wanted to start a YouTube for SO long but never had the confidence! When summer began, I thought I’d use this time as an unemployed postgrad to finally get started. Then, my blog started picking up & I accepted my temporary job with Steel City Pops as a blog writer. Needless to say, my days have been busier than I expected. Even with that, I want to branch into video content. Whether that’s posting styling videos to TikTok (which terrifies me because teens are savage) or finally creating a YouTube, I want to at least try!
3. Work with 1 brand I love every month
Whenever a brand I love reaches out to me, I feel so much pride in the brand that I’m creating! In 2020, I want to continue to work with brands I love to share their products and messages.
4. Post on my blog twice a week for a month
If you’ve been following along on my blog for a while, you might have noticed I’m not the most consistent. I’ll go through a few weeks of feeling super inspired, then I’ll get major burnout and stop writing! This year, I want to go at least four weeks in a row with consistent posts. I truly do love taking time to write out my thoughts for the blog, so my goal is to get into a good routine now. Then, when I (hopefully!! finally!!) have a permanent postgrad job, I can keep working at this!
I had NO idea I would have so much to say about my blog, but it was so fun to reflect! Whether you have a blog or not, I think it’s so important to take some time to look at how much you’ve grown. A lot of times we don’t notice our personal progress, but by looking at where we were years ago, we can see how much has actually changed. I am so thankful for all of YOU for following along.
