2-Year-Versary

“What are people going to say?”
“What are people going to think?”“How am III going to feel about all of this?”

Two years ago (on November 8, 2012 to be exact), at around 8 or 9 AM, these were the thoughts that were running through my mind as I was nervously putting together my first post announcing to my “closest” 2,000 (Facebook) friends this new venture I was starting in this so-called blogging world and introducing them to this new girl named “Fashionlaine”.

The first question people tend to ask (after “Who takes your photos ?” and “What do you do on a day-to-day?”) is “How did you get into blogging?” While this in itself has a few answers that involve factors including many people’s encouragement throughout the years to start a blog simply to share my unique style, I more importantly was inspired to pave a path, way, and voice for others in this world who possibly felt like me– stuck between wanting to live one’s life doing something they love that might be on an unbeaten path and living a life doing something that they can be guaranteed a stronger more stable success in. I went through a challenging phase in college of doing what I thought was right and going on the (extremely hard!) “safe” path of studying pre-med and eventually taking the LSAT to study law. Both of which were not only unsatisfying, but made me also extremely unhappy. I love pop culture, marketing, fashion, and events. The last thing I wanted in this world was to end up spending the rest of my life behind microscopes, chemicals, judges, or courtrooms. This deep inner battle and challenge of doing what you love and loving what you do lasted for me throughout all of college until I landed the job of my dreams working for a PR firm. Yet it was at this firm where one thing lead to another and through the continued encouragement of my friends to really get into this blogging thing did I finally listen and give in– and thus Fashionaline was born.

I remember the countless hours and all-nighters I spent for months after work, trying to perfect the vision of what I wanted my website to be and look like. And then I remember perfectly the morning of November 8th, 2012 when I was typing out my announcement post wondering what everyone would say when they saw the product of all my blood, sweat, and tears/fears that I had been working on. And then skip forward to last year, almost upon my one year anniversary, when I quit that PR job of my dreams to go and fulfill this new full-time dream of mine– being Fashionlaine.

It’s so crazy to see where these last two years have taken me both on my blog and off (even though I literally feel like I’ve been doing this for 35 years now). And it’s so crazy to see how I’ve grown both personally and professionally from this all. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be doing what I’m doing today. Starting anything (as I’ve come to fully understand now) is NOT easy. Especially starting a blog where everyday you’re not only posing for a camera (which is still the weirdest part of it all for me), writing little pieces about yourself, and giving thousands of people the inside personal happenings of your daily life through things like Instagram– you slowly come to accept, see, and understand that you are giving a little piece of yourself to everyone around you. And while this was a huge nerve-wracking factor as to why I put off the thought of blogging for so long, today, two years later, it’s not only NOT become frightening to do so, but it has also been the reason why I do all of this now– to be able to share it with all of you.

Two years ago, I was just Elaine. A girl who was simply trying to live her life and find out what she would need to do to be happy with it. But today, I’ve taken on the power, position, and responsibility of being Fashionlaine (insert “with great power comes great responsibility” quote). No, but seriously, all jokes aside, it means the world to me to believe that I could be encouraging, inspiring, or simply making someone’s day a little bit brighter through my actions, words, stories, pictures, or clothes. Feeling like I’m making some difference in this world whether it be to 1 person or 100,000 people means everything to me and I can’t wait to see where the rest of this journey takes me. The best part of this all though is that I know the best is still yet to come, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!

Be What You Want, Wear What You Want,
HAPPY FASHIONLAINEVERSARY!

xo Lainey

Dress: AMI ClubwearShoes: ShoeDazzle

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