Hey guys.
It's Lay.
So with school coming back in such little time, my emotional state not being as well, and with now having a youtube channel which is much more time-consuming. What's next for my blog has been a little unclear. I tried to write a bunch of blog posts but have just been experiencing blockages halfway through because lately, I haven't been feeling good enough as a writer or a content creator. My creative energy has been attacked due to my confidence in what I'm doing taking a hit. So I decided that instead of trying to force myself to write something new, I want to do a round-up of my content with brief summaries on each. In the future, I hope to include other bloggers' work but since this was a short notice idea, I just don't think I have the mental capacity to reach out to other creators at the moment.
I feel like because of the time I returned from my last break it was hard for me to promote content without feeling guilty so I want to round up everything I posted since my return.
Blog content
Blog post 1: #4, #5 and #6: The Icons of the month
This was the first post I uploaded after my break. It was a combined post about Zendaya and Youtubers: Alisha Marie and Remi Cruz. I wanted to do a combined post because I missed April's Icon of the month and I wanted to have new content for the summer. Even though it was fun to research different celebrities and influencers, I felt like some were more harshly judged than others which made me sad for them. So this was my final icon of the month.
Blog post 2: Life-Changing Lessons I learned 6 months into 2020
This was more of a reflective blog post after locked down for 3 months, I learned a lot about myself, my needs, and the world. This was the time when protests were frequent due to the death of George Floyd. Although it has been nearly 3 months, it unfortunate events like that are still happening. Specifically what I talk about in this post is everything I observed after spending a lot of time just present with myself.
Blog post 3: Easy steps to get back to your goals
This blog was a how-to post mainly about getting back to your New Years' resolutions because at least personally for me I felt like I fell out of touch with my goals this year. There were so many overwhelming events back to back, so I thought I would make a guide to help people motivate themselves to get back to what they want to accomplish.
Blog post 4: Ultimate Skincare Guide: Products in your routine
This blog post I wrote as a guide to skincare. I talk about different products in your routine and the proper order based on research. I really wanted to turn this into a series because skincare is something I am really passionate about.
When I posted this, it has been exactly a year since I went natural. This is a hair guide talking about the things I learned that I wish I knew before starting my hair journey. It is a general post so it's not just about type 4 hair.
Blog post 6: Signs of a toxic person
This was one of my favorite posts because it helped me come to terms with the fact someone used me and gaslighted me. It took over 2 years for me to realized what really happened and I wanted to share what happened to me by calling out signs of a toxic person. I included links from where I got some of the information that wasn't my personal experience.
Blog post 7: OD: Toxic positivity and Finding middle ground
This one was another psychology inspired post. As people, we hear a lot about the dangers of negativity but we never talk about the dark side of being overly positive. Toxic positivity is just as dangerous as negativity and in this blog post, I go into an in-depth discussion on why and how to find a middle ground between being positive and negative.
Blog post 8: Different acts of self-care
Self-care is one of my favorite things to write about because there are so many different forms of it which is what I talk about int the post. I list different self-care ideas that go beyond the pampering to open the discussion of mental, social, and emotional self-care.
Blog post 9: Thoughts on: Cancel Culture
This one is about Cancel culture, which is something I mainly hear about is if someone's favorite influencer or celebrity did something wrong and they feel like it's wrong for them to be canceled even if they aren't part of the demographic that the person offended. In this post, I talk about the difference between canceling someone vs holding someone accountable and why it's important to still hold people accountable for their poor actions.
Blog post 10: How to: Equip your home for working online
With back to school season happening soon, some people are still doing remote learning like myself. However, this post isn't just for the students doing online classes but for the adults that are opting to work at home for longer. This post gives advice on what to buy to make your home functional as a workspace as well.
Blog post 11: Things to do: On a Reset day
This one I talk more about Reset days which to me are a concept slightly different than pamper days. Even though I share a similar routine in terms of having a spa day, but I do more things in depth mentally and I share the difference between a regular self-care pamper day vs a reset day.
Blog post 12: OD: The importance of preserving your energy
In my most recent blog, I talk about the importance of self-preservation. Sometimes you have to preserve your energy to do more for yourself. You need to know that it's okay to say no at times and it's not selfish to put your needs first.
Youtube content
I had my first collab with one of my closest college friends, Vanessa. I had to divide my video into 2 parts but there's also a video on her channel.
Life Update
With school coming up, there will be a lot of changes because I am planning to take 7 courses, possibly join a club and get back to being healthy because I slacked off with that for months so I need to start taking my health more seriously. So I wanted to give heads up because I don't know how my blog and how my youtube will be affected.
I tried to work in advance to make some blog post but my thoughts have been so overwhelming and my anxiety been so high that everything I write seems like garbage to me. I have had so many ideas from things I talked about with my friends to things I got inspired by social media comments. So it's dishearting that every time I get halfway through, I end up stopping because to me it sounds horrible. As I a writer, I know I am my own worst critic but this time it just feels more severe with the mixture of feeling a lack of support from people in my life to getting bombarded with information from 7 classes to thinking about how to separate my youtube content from my blog content.
I just feel much more creatively drained so what I'm thinking is I should give more of a spotlight to other creators on my site either doing guests posts or more monthly round-ups even though I am a small blogger and youtube, I think publicity no matter how small the source is still a great thing because on the off chance that I do become a larger creator, your blog can be founded through it as well. I really just want to give back to the writing community more because it has been very supportive and I honestly hope to meet more blogger friends that are closer to my demographic as well (although it's amazing to have friends around the world).
When it comes to my youtube, I'm still trying to figure out a lot of my content and the best way to promote it and stay active on social media sites. It's a lot going through my mind but I hope I'll be able to give you more information soon. I have to give another life update because we are almost 3/4 of 2020 which is crazy to me because most of the year I was home.
I'm already planning my 2020 gallery for the end of the year so that is why I haven't been as vocal about certain topics because I have big ideas happening soon.
Thank you all for reading if you got this far. If you are a blogger or content creator, email me or you can contact me through Twitter or Instagram because I would love to make more friends who enjoy writing as much as I do. If you know someone who is a blogger share this with them. Don't forget to share this with friends and family because there is a post for everyone. Have a good day, evening, or night (whenever your reading this) and keep vibing and thriving.
Until next time,
xoxo Lay 💋
I hope you have a good time adjusting to back to school - your blog covers so many topics - it's great to see.