Black Lives Really Do Matter

I have not really been on this blog much for the last few months, I have been trying to get my new blog up and running. Today I wanted to share a post on the awful world we live in today. If I have a platform I might as well use it and teach all my readers about the racist world we will live in today.

Black deaths are not a flaw in the system they are the system. This was a writing by a black man in America. This quote has hurt me so much. I never thought that our world was letting these people down so badly. I thought all the work Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Michael Jackson and Barack Obama did for black rights was making things better. Clearly I was very wrong. The words that Michael Jackson used in his song they dont really care about us still ring true today Beat me, hate meYou can never break meWill me, thrill meYou can never kill meSue me, Sue meEverybody do me
Kick me, kick meDon't you black or white me) these words still ring true today. Those three black deaths in America last week is a long lie of deaths that this world will continue to see until us white people take action. We are the help they need. If we keep sitting back and doing nothing this minority group as horrible as it is to say has no way to live a happy life, they truly deserve.

We all need to educate ourselves in their struggles. My first encounter with the blight of black people was a book I read in school call Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. This book tells the tell of a black girl and her blight against being racially abused everyday of her life. This girl told a fascinating story of how she was abused everyday cause she was black. I took so much from this book and my love of equality and human rights stemmed from there. Through college and doing American histrory and politics, I learned all about Abraham Lincoln and his plot against racism in America. I always took a sense of wanting to do more. Of always wanting to educate myself more on this terrible issue. I want to be able to tell my kids and grandkids it doesnt matter the colour of your skin or religion. You are your own person and you are free to live the way you want to live. You will not be punished because you were born a certain colour or gender. You were born you and you can do whatever you like. I hope that this will be my story in a few decades time where all black people are not punished or persecuted for having black skin.

I hope we can all stand together and be there for one another. No one deserves this. We all came into the world as a human being just wanting to be loved and accepted and I hope everyone gets to feel this one day

Make a change

Take a stand

Work Together

Educate 

Coronavirus: Stay safe and well at home

Since the Coronavirus virus started about 2 months ago, the world has slowly come to terms with finding way to control this infectious disease. Schools, pubs and most businesses have been closed and most people are in quarantine working from home. We are talking about staying safe now from the disease but I want to talk about the safety of peoples mental health through this crisis.

Most people are like me and are working from home or their business has been closed down by the virus. Being at home for a considerable period of time and not leaving could have a detrimental effect on our mental health. I just hope that it does not push up the suicide rate as well.

People should try different measures to keep positive during the crisis. I have tried meditation on you tube each day. This has provided me with positive energy each day. I do it either before work or after work depending on my shift. It really does relax me and releases all the stress from a days work where you no longer have your home as your chill out environment. It makes me attack the next day with positivity and has allowed me to not go insane in the new process of working from home.

Another tip if people do not want to do mediation is yoga or some exercise. As all gyms are closed, exercise is still so important to keep your body active and positive. I have downloaded a few apps on my phone. One app I used before even this disease broke out was Sweat by Tayla Damir. She gives great work out tips that you can do with just a exercise mat. She teaches you to do sit ups, pull ups and burpies.  This is great for people who still want to keep fit but can not go to the gym.

The tip I still swear by for everyone is leave your house on your own and go for a short walk. Put in your earphones and just listen to music. This is always the best tool to loosen up after a hard days work. Obviously the only catch is you can not go with anyone else or hope you do not meet anyone you know on your walk. Clear your mind and still stay healthy.

These are my tips to stay sane during the Coronavirus. If you are feeling low there are still people around to talk to like the Samarthians or Pieta house. Always if you are feeling low talk to someone. Do not suffer in silence. There is always a friendly face around to put a smile back on your face. Mind yourself and people around you. Lets all get through this with positive vibes

30 Things to do Before I'm 30

So February 2021 I turn 30 and I wanted to do a bucket list per se for my final year of my 20s. For this post I am going to share with everyone the 30 things I want to do before the 19th of February next year.

As a new fashion influencer, I would love to get a fashion collab with a big brand like boohoo or rebellious fashion. These are the brands I use the most with missfiga and littlewoods Ireland. I would love for one to come on board this year. It would be an amazing achievement and one I would relish for the rest of my life. These are so hard to get if I could get this in my last year of my 30s it would be a dream come true.

Following on from the fashion collab, I would love to end up on tv. I would love to do something as small as an ad or something as big as a tv show. I have loved doing stories on my instagram and it has given me the hunger and drive to do it on a bigger scale. My confidence has grown so much that I can whip out my camera anywhere and the looks do not bother me anymore. I just feel the more people  stare at me, the more it does not phase me. This would be very difficult to come true but one can dream big. If you dont dream big you wont get too far really.

As a feminist I would love to do a big campaign again. Since I finished my politics degree in 2016, I havent really gotten involved much in politics only really the appeal of the 8th amendment which gave women the right to have abortions up to 12 weeks. I feel I would love to get involved in a new strong campaign like climate change or housing which would benefit people in this country greatly.

I would love to do a few trips. I am going to Paris in May on my own on my first solo trip. I am really looking forward to sampling Paris on my own and heading to the tennis to see my favourite tennis players for the first time. I am excited and scared of travelling on my own for the first time but it has to be done. I would love to go to other places on my own if this trip to Paris goes really well.

I would love to go to festival this year. I went to body and soul last year which was fantastic so I would to experience that again this year along with maybe electric picnic or some other festival. I feel I would love to be more outdoorsy and experience more outside. This takes me well outside my comfort zone and take on some new challenges.

I would love to do some more charity work. I would love to do more work for suicide and make it less of a taboo. More should be done for it to be spoken about me. I would love to do some charity work and raise awareness of this great charity. I would also love to share my experiences of suicide and how it made me a stronger person to never want to do it again. If my story could help anyone not do it, this would be great

Find a way to control my anxiety and emotions. I was diagnosed with bonderline personality disorder last August, I would love to not let my emotions effect my everyday life. When something in my life goes against the norm, it really freaks me out and I get really anxious and worried. I let it effect me too much and my emotions effect me and my interactions with other. If I could get this under control better I feel my life would be so much better.

Following on from stopping my anxiety, I would love to stop holding grudges. I hold onto things for too long and never forgive people for doing wrong. I cut people out of my life too easily after they hurt me. I would love to amend old relationships and turn them into new ones.

I am so scared of heights so I would love to do a bungee jump or sky dive to get over my fear. I think it would be scary but fun at the same time.

I would love to move abroad. I have dreamed of living away from Ireland for a while now. I did a summer abroad in Spain in 2012 but I have never lived a full year away from Ireland. I would love to move to the UK this year as its close to home but still a big change from Ireland as well

Small goals like pass my driving test, get a car, take in a sunrise, have a pamper weekend, visit every county in Ireland and take a photo in each, make my family tree, see a broadway show, go to new york, start saving for a mortgage, get rid of bad habits, read more books, binge watch old tv shows, keep a journal, take social media breaks, be at peace with myself, do meditation and yoga, more self reflection, get better at photography, develop a morning routine, say affirmations

So these are my 30 things to do before I'm 30. If you have a big birthday coming up or know someone that has, do it for them. It is great to have goals before a big milestone to look forward to and achieve. I'm looking forward to getting through them all before the 19th February 2021. I'll keep everyone posted on how I'm doing on them.

Thanks for reading my goals

Rejection and lack of collabs

I have been part of the influencing game for nearly 8 months now and I have learned so much from it. The challenges that are faced as a fashion influencer are full of rejection. As with every interview you go to you may not get it as you may not be the right fit. Same with being a fashion influencer. You apply to companies but most of the time they reject you without even answering you back its like they are laughing at you saying who is this one asking for free stuff when she has no followers. You confidence can be knocked but its all about dusting yourself off and keep going. Once the first company says yes to you and you get your first gig its smooth sailing from there.

The same can even to said for the followers on your instagram. Because of todays society I have learned that people are quite fickle and only follow so you follow back if you dont they unfollow within days. Bots and follow for follow groups can make your followers really unorganic and allow you to have an unengaged audience. This also stops companies from wanting to do collaborations with you as they all have systems to test this allowing companies to weed out the good influencers from the not so good ones. I for one did this when I was starting off and it has taken me many months to get rid of these unorganic followers who never engage with my photos. Sometimes it is better to have a smaller following with more people interacting than loads of ghost followers who never engage. By blocking or deleting these ghost followers will it allow for your instagram page to have a better and more organic following.

The job of an influencer is to sell clothes to their followers and without a following it proves very difficult. Bots or ghost followers stop this from happening and this is so difficult to come back from. My advise to everyone is to not engage with this. It does so much more harm then good especially when you lose bags of followers at once. This can have you questioning your self worth which is not worth it in the long run. Keep putting up great photos and keep engaging with others and the followers will come in time.

Confidence is the key and believing in yourself no matter what comes your way will the key to all success in the future no matter if it is influencing or any other career you put your mind it. Its all about self confidence and believing in your own self worth.

Be Kind

As influencers we are increasingly likely to get hate from people. As a micro influencer that has under 2,000 followers my hate is usually oh you're an 'influencer' thats not really a job this is nothing in comparison to celebrities who have up to 2 or 3 million followers. The best example of this is Caroline Flack. Everyone in some way has been touched by her death. This girl was put through the ringer in the last year of her life. No one in their right mind should endure this let alone someone that is famous. The girl had huge mental health issues and instead of helping her every single person destroyed her by their nasty trolling and the best way for her to get out was to end her life. She was perceived to be guilty before she even went on trial. No one should feel that the best to end all of this is to end your own life. The trolling and keyboard warriors were to blame but also the many tabloid newspapers that stuck the knife in on her and made memes of her through valentines day cards. I always say if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. I'm sure all these people that say nasty things only say it because celebes are "strangers". I know for a fact no one would say those things to their friends or family or even if it was said about their friends or family they would stand up for them and damage other people that nasty things are being said. The other way does not matter in their eyes. What they are doing is good to them. No matter what is going on in other peoples lives if they are upset it gives no right to belittle another human being.

I know what mental health is all about as I have suffered from depression and I currently suffer from anxiety. No matter how small it has a knock on effect on your life. From a stressful day or week at work it feels like you are in a tunnel that you can never get out of. I would never say bad about someone else. Everyone should follow this mantra. Be kind to each other say nice things and the world will be a better place.

With the death of Caroline Flack I am so conscious of my remarks on love island stars and celebrities in general. I feel it is not right to say horrible things about them. People I believe are jealous and hide behind the computer and talk about for example Eve and Jess from love island as people from white chicks it is not on and very hurtful. People have feelings and I am sure it would not be said about a friend or family so why wannabe influencers.

I really feel its is so important to get more funding for mental health. There is still a huge stigma around mental health and more should be done by governments to fund mental health. The work of Pieta House and the Samarthians has been amazing and with more support they could do more work around developing a more positive spin on things for mental health suffers. If it could be talked about more the stigma would go away and people like Caroline may still be alive.

I donated my birthday money to Pieta House and the Samarthians and I am ralling for support through this blog. I want more to be done for mental health. I want people to live whatever life they so wish and if people choose to be famous they should not be trolled for it. As Amber Gill said they did not sign up to be trolled it should not be part of the job description. As a feminist I believe everyone should do what is right for them and what they are good at, no one should be punished for having a talent of wanting to be famous in fashion or tv. This is their gift: and why they were put on the planet to do.

Please if everyone believes in being kind and nice to everyone please share this and put pressure on governments to make it law to ban trolling and develop stronger mental health services for people to access

REMEMBER ITS OK TO NOT BE OK!!

Fashion from the 2010s and Beyond

Fashion has played a huge role in my life during the 2010s. My fashion style has evolved throughout the decade to what it is now. I really feel the first big milestone for me was when I moved to Dublin in 2012. I really feel this was the first time I was away from home and I could test out different brands and styles. With time I feel like I really honed in on my style to get to a real casual chic look.

In the early part of the 2010s, because I was really thin, I was able to wear tight bodycon dresses that really showed off my long legs and small body shape. This allowed me to feel really sexy but in the wrong way. I felt I was sexy but with hindsight I was really portraying the wrong image. As I grew into my 20s and put on a bit of body fat, I soon learned very quickly that this was the wrong style dress for me. I knew by the middle to late 20s that skater style dresses were the way to go.

In this time I was learning about skater dresses, I was also learning about online shopping and the many shops that I could purchase these fabulous dresses. I started to learn about boohoo.com, forever 21 and pretty little thing. With these shops, I was learning the different types of even skater dresses you could get. You could get peplum, maxi, mini and mid length. You can also even get straight cut or flowing. The fun you have online picking out the different dresses for different occasions was great to get away from the history or politics assignment you could have been doing instead.

Colours was my next learning curve. As being a blonde in college, I went for blues and reds and sometimes I wore purple when it was my birthday as that was my favourite colour. As I got older, and changed my hair colour to brown, I still kept the blues and reds but added in browns, yellows, black and whites now. The dimensions you get by wearing these colours is so much better. I wish I knew this when I was younger. By pairing a white top with a black skirt and putting a belt with it you are showing off your waist and hiding your boobs. It allows you to feel sexy without being in any way revealing. This is now the opposite effect I have from when I was in my early 20s. I feel as time has gone on, I have learned to go with what suits me and not what looks good on a hanger or what a size 8 model is wearing. I am so confident now more than I was when I was a size 8.

Fashion has taught me so much, how you wear the clothes not the clothes wearing you. Fashion has given me so much confidence that I can now teach people what I have learned throughout the years. Life is all about learning and growing and I feel through fashion I have done that really well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be back again soon

Joanne
xxx 

A Very Irish Christmas

For my next blog post, I want to share a typical Irish Christmas with everyone. For me being with my family is the most important part of Christmas. Sharing dinner and laughter is the best part of any Christmas celebration.

I like to get my shopping done during the first two weeks of December so I am not in a mad rush at the end. I love walking around my hometown of Cork. They put on a festival every weekend in December called Glow and this has lovely food markets and a ferris wheel. It makes Cork way more exciting to go shopping as you have lights and songs being played all around the city.

Myself and my family put up the tree and the lights around our house on the 1st of December. I like to get the full celebration for the whole month of December and the first week of January. The other 10 and bit months of the year are bland and boring to say the least.

I love watching Christmas movies over christmas. I try to watch one movie per night from the 1st of December. It is like my advent movie marathon. Home Alone 1 and 2 has to be my favourite  Christmas movies. I usually watch them on Christmas Eve and Christmas day but I would have watched them during my advent marathon as well. With a cups of hot chocolate and the fire on it makes for a lovely christmas tradition.

On Christmas Eve, it is my cousins birthday so we go over to give her, her present and come home to some nice festive food. We usually have egg nog and a small bit of the turkey my mum has prepared for the next day. We then go to mass. This is very typical being Irish. Religion plays a huge part in my tradition by going once a year. It is a lovely mass as its full of carol singers and santa stops by. It really brings back my youth and really spells the true meaning of christmas that is the innocence of children. We then come home to a few drinks and a couple of movies and then head to bed for the long day that is christmas day.

Christmas day for us as a family is: get up put on your christmas clothes and head to the graves of our loved ones who are not here anymore. It is a very real part that there are a few empty seats at our dinner table every year. Still visiting their graves gets a little part of them sharing in our day with us. After going to the graves we eat christmas dinner. I usually have a sea food starter and then have turkey and potatoes as my main dinner. I then have chocolate cake for desert with some bucks fizz and some vodka as my drinks. We then open our presents. Most families open their presents when they get up but we enjoy opening them after dinner and then fall asleep while watching a christmas movie. Once the movie is over we head over to my aunt's house for games and drinks until around 12 where we come home and go to bed.

My fashion at christmas is usually dresses. I plan three outfits one for christmas eve, christmas day and stephen/boxing day. Since my influencing started this year, I have been more careful with my outfits and want to pick out three very different outfits that go well with each day. I was always into fashion over christmas but this made it all the more enjoyable.

This was a post on my very Irish Christmas
Have a merry Christmas and a great 2020

Joanne
xx