Sharing the real parts of life as a blogger is so important for many reasons. Bloggers as well as social media influencers are well known for showing the good parts of their online lives. Showing the days they look good, and the wins of life. When in reality their (our) lives are not all rainbows and sunshine. Social media has had such a big part to play in making people feel like their lives are inferior. That they should be doing more and working harder. That we should be prettier and more aesthetically pleasing at all times. This is a big fat lie.
I saw a picture and it was of an apple standing in front of a mirror – stay with me here. And the front of the apple was crispy, shiny and looked so tasty. And what the mirror couldn’t see was the other side of the apple. Old, mouldy and bitten. And that really is such a picture of what social media and blogging is. Sharing the nice, shiny crispy parts of life. When in reality when the phone is put down, some of our lives are mouldy and bitten into. As a blogger I feel responsible for adding to this fake vision. That my life is perfect and rainbows. I do try my best to be vulnerable with my readers as much as I can. But sometimes it’s easier to share the good than the bad.
In todays post I want to share some why’s. Why as bloggers we have a responsibility to share the real parts of life. And why it’s so important that we stay relatable and real throughout our blogging journeys.
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IT HELPS YOU BE MORE RELATABLE
One of the main things I always try to do with my readers is make sure that I am relatable. I think about my readers before anything else. I put myself in their shoes. Is this the kind of content I’d want to read if I was them?
I personally love reading about other bloggers and their real lives. I want to hear about the hard times and the bad stuff. I hate they go through it, but there is power in numbers. As a blogger I feel like its my responsibility to show my readers that they are not alone in what they are going through. I have come to realise that blogging is about community and uplifting and helping one another. We do that by sharing the not so nice parts of life. And it can be hard yes. But its worth it if you help one person know they are not alone.
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YOU SHOW THAT NOBODY IS EXEMPT FROM HARD TIMES
As mentioned in the intro, as social media personalities one of our jobs is to reassure other people that we too go through hard stuff. There are ways to share that stuff without invading your own privacy. I always struggled with this when I first started blogging. I didn’t know where the privacy line is. And now I have set my own boundaries of what I do and don’t feel comfortable sharing, I feel more like I can share things about me without sharing too much.
Showing your audience that you go through hard times too will help them to know that it happens to other people aswell. It helps break down this idea that peoples lives are perfect, and it’s only our life that is hard sometimes.
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YOU’RE BEING HONEST
Honesty is the best policy did you know? I understand if you have reservations about sharing real life things. I did too. Its all about how you deliver your message. Being honest and transparent with your audience will really help you to grow as a person and as a blogger. Readers appreciate honesty. They appreciate you being real with them. Even myself as a reader, I love to hear about real stories and things a blogger has been through. You don’t have to go into detail with your hard times, its totally your choice.
Once you start sharing those little snippets into your life and the stuff you have been through/and go through your readers will appreciate you so much more.
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Do you share the real parts of life with your readers? Or do you struggle to open up and share that side?
It can be hard to share some of the real life stuff. And honestly, you should pick and choose what you want to and don’t want to share. Don’t feel like you have to sharing everything about your life. It’s your choice. I think though the message I’m trying to send is that being a closed book isn’t always a good thing when it comes to writing. Being vulnerable and open with your readers is a scary thing, but a rewarding thing too.
Olivia x
Instagram • Twitter • Pinterest
olivialucieblake.com 
I guess if I wanted to, I could share stuff about my real life, but I find comfort in keeping that to myself and not letting myself be weak in front of the people who read my content. I like giving them stuff that make them smile, for some reason. But great post!
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One thing I spoke about in this post was sharing what you feel comfortable sharing. Its your blog, so its 100% your choice what you share. There are ways of sharing small parts of yourself without sharing too much or oversharing. Your readers won’t think you are weak at all. In fact, those that go through hard times and come out the other side are actually strong. Not weak.
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Hmm, I see. Thanks!
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Now the thing is vulnerability is not measured by whether one’s real life is mass_approved or not but my definition of vulnerability or weakness as you call it,It is when one is scared of being vulnerable when he is real.
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I totally agree, as a blogger real life events and information should be revealed because life as a whole is hard so why hide it.
The content we publish should inspire a lot both online and offline situations💯
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Agreed. But it is your choice if you want to share that or not. Or how much or how little you want to share is your choice too. 🙂
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Yes💯
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Yeah but it is preferable to be real.let the people that you want to inspire see your words through your genuinety
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You are making sense
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I’m saying share inspiring content such as your success but hey all people have a right to keep their personal to themselves
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Of course they do. As I said multiple times in the post, its 100% your choice what you feel comfortable sharing.
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Thank you for sharing this. I really agree that bloggers and influencers should share more truths than they lifestyle lies. This is one reason why I created my blog to share all my truths – ups and downs, just the way it is without filters. So, yeah, thanks again for sharing this. Great to know that someone feels same way about changing the blogger space narrative.
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Thank you!
I like that, lifestyle lies. It really is. There is nobody out there who has a perfect life, so why would we pretend that we do?! I think it’s important to be real and authentic.
🙂
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I literally use my blog as a space to vent about everything that goes wrong in my life! So I totally agree with you on this – I personally don’t enjoy reading posts that don’t have that personal touch to them.
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I love that though, and thats what you feel comfortable doing. You’re so right. Having some kind of personal experience behind a piece of writing no matter what it is important!
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Great post Olivia!
Personally, the pieces of writing that speak to me the most are the one’s that make me feel something. I don’t think a writer could manage to write something they haven’t experienced in real life. So, their characters often show parts of their life or those hidden parts of themselves…
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I’d like to think so. But alot of social media influencers and bloggers tend to put on a persona (some not all) and thats what I’m speaking of specifically here. Those that show the only good parts of life and pretend that their lives are perfect when thats not true of course.
You’d be surprised how many writers fake it till they make it!
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I would tend to agree with your comment Olivia!
I don’t think I have been following any of them… lol
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I tend to agree with your comment Olivia!
However, I’d like to think I’ve not been following them… lol
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Yes! Hopefully not!
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When I first started blogging I didn’t really want to share anything about myself but overtime now I share what I want and I do feel like it makes me more relatable.
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That was me too! And I think alot of people feel that way, and I cant blame them!
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I agree. I have a tendency to over share in my writing, but I try to make it humorous. I don’t like to take myself too serious. I’ve only posted a few times here but both of the posts are real. One is about the intimidation of going to the gym while less than fit, and the other is about my love for a 3 hole punch. I’m not glamorous, but I like to think I still sparkle, a bit. Thank you for your insight, it has really made me think.
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I really need to read the one about the gym!!
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I love your comment here. I tend to over share a little too, but there are times when I just have to say, “Fuck ‘em if they can’t handle it.” Keep sharing!
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I love this! I write about decluttering and living a more simplified lifestyle. I have been working on a post to share some of the decluttering struggles that I go through. I love sharing tips that I have discovered along the way, but I rarely share the mistakes I made before discovering those best practices. Thanks for the motivation nudge to get that post out there!
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Thank you Suzanne. I’m glad this post could encourage you to feel comfortable sharing more!
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Thanks Olivia , Just to add on what is stated.people need to understand that their lives are the best lived no matter the struggles. I guess if that is known no one would want to fake because he or she probably saw a fake fellow.
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Yes! This is so important to remember!
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This is so true! I find as a positivity blogger I need to be positive but it’s not always true – I’m definitely trying to share that more!
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Life isn’t always positive, and thats the beauty of life. There are hard times. You can still find positives within the negatives too!
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Yes I’m definitely starting to
learn that more!
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I think the wp.com community is so lovely that it good to share a bit of our lives. We become more relatable and human. Wp.com is a great community
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Agreed!
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100% agree, I think sharing real life moments makes you much more relatable and human. Additionally, it makes for some potentially good content if you feel you learned a lesson from it…
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I agree too. It helps others to know they are not alone in their struggles
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I love when bloggers use the power of vulnerability in their posts. It paints the picture that we are human beings experiencing the same if not similar experiences in relation to hurt, pain and just live lessons.
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It really does!
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This in itself is a real writeup!
I totally agree. Nothing beats real and relatable. It draws your audience in and helps them know they are not alone.
A real post can save the life of a reader 100%.
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Thank you so much for reading!
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My blog is geared more towards business and investing. However, it’s my goal to include personal development blog posts where I can share more of my personal life experiences. I am a very private person. So for me, my desire to be publicly vulnerable came from building that kind of relationship with myself first. It’s an outward manifestation from my inward state of being. So, in my experience, someone who is struggling to be expressive and open publicly, may experience the same struggle inwardly. The only person you could ever be vulnerable with is yourself- the rest is the shared experience. Great post!
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I love this so much. Honestly being vulnerable isn’t something everybody can do right away and thats okay. It took me a while to feel comfortable sharing certain thing son my blog, and even still my boundaries remain. Its your choice what you share and how you share it. But its important that you’re comfortable with what you share first!
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Thanks for sharing this Olivia
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Thanks for reading!
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I agree, My reality is my blog.
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I love this
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Really interesting blog Olivia, like always!! 🙂
I always try & run my blog page as openly & as honestly as I can. I see my blog page very similarly to how I see my personal brand on LinkedIn, as a reflection of who I am as a person.
Sweeney’s Blogs has been with me through the good times & the bad, the failures & the successes, the lessons & obstacles to overcome – it’s seen it all!
Love your point though, as bloggers, we should always seek to portray a fair & balanced view of life & the world that we live in 🙂
Hope you have a lovely weekend!
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I love this so much James!
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Hi
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Hey!
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Hello
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I have always struggled to reveal my true, real, honest self to everyone in fear of criticism, among other negative feelings. A lot of what the majority of the people see from me is a façade. But when it comes to journaling and blogging, among a very select few people, my façade disappears. One of the many things that I love about blogging is that you can always share however much information about yourself as you want without judgment. With said ways, I feel free and open, my true self.
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I love this, and I think thats what blogging is really about. Being able to share parts of you and your life without fear of judgement from others. The blogging community is really full of the most amazing people.
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I love this, so important to remember as a blogger, and a reader!
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For sure!
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Although I agree with your post for the most part. I do think it depends on the type of blog that you have.
I’m not brilliant at opening up online, to be fair posting about my personal life doesn’t not really fit with the theme of my blog. So it would feel wrong.
Great post though, thank you for sharing.
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Of course it does, it’s not a one size fits all approach. If you’re blog is about reviewing books, you can’t be expected to share what you did at the weekend. It wouldn’t make any sense.
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Most of the time I share encouragement to uplift people. and some of my experience. It is good to share sometimes what’s going in your life. it can be a good lesson in life. but sometimes you need to keep it yourself. as I observed. one of the bloggers I read. is hurt, upset, because some co-bloggers are too judgemental of their comments. we need to be compassionate with love then we comment other bloggers.
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I agree, which is why I always say that you should do whatever you feel comfortable doing! 🙂
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Yes, agree
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Yes, I agree
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Yes, I agree.
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I actually started my webpage as a secondary outlet to grieve. Last September my oldest of 4 suddenly and tragically passed. He was 25 years old. I’ve always been a brutally honest person but, I’m normally a very private person. I’m not tech savvy at all so my page probably looks like a 5 year old is doing it. I’ve found a great deal of support doing this. Although my posts talk a lot about grieving, I’ve shared quite a few uplifting posts. I don’t know too much about blogging and I still have managed to maintain my privacy.
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I am so sorry to hear this Aimee. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Yours is an example of how you can be vulnerable on your blog but keep your privacy too. It’s down the individual to decide if they want to share certain parts of their story, and your story is an example of that.
I am glad that blogging could be a great outlet for you, as it is for so many of us. Sending so much love to you.
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Oh I loved this . I’ve been struggling with being on social media for this very reason . No one posts bad things on social media like bad days and when we do or if I do any way I post a quote or sad song that’s helping me cope with the day I get told I’m making attention. I just wrote about a mental health relapse in my blog trying to be more real. Great post ! I’m Megan. Keep writing !
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Hey Megan, thanks for sharing that with us! I agree with you and that was the main point of my post honestly. People make life out to be fairy tales and roses and its up to us to remind others that bad times come and happen to us all. Not everyday is picture perfect!
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Aww this post is so wholesome 🤍
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Thank you!
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I loved this and totally agree. I love hearing the details of other people’s lives. Makes me feel more connected to the world as a whole.
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I agree, it really does.
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I’m a pretty open book online & IRL. I get talked about a lot for it! It’s so weird because people complain that social media is “unrealistic” yet when you DO share hard things they still complain?! Blogging has helped me so much through the years so if someone has a problem with what I talk about they can hit that X lol.
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I think it depends on the kind of people you have on social media too. If I posted something real and honest on my social media, nobody would bat an eye lid. Those people who complain at you for posting real life stuff are probably blinded by the exact thing I talk about in this post. They are so used to seeing the highlight reels that when they see something real and authentic it almost concerns them? We need to break that mould though. Because social media and the internet is for everybody going through life.
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I agree! I feel like social media is moving backwards; when it was still a new thing it wasn’t rare to find people talk about things that upset them. But I think as soon as our parents started joining it changed the way we post things.
Sadly my husband’s family uses my down times against me. I don’t want to filter myself because it IS my outlet, it’s just crappy people would do that.
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The real is better
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Yes!
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I whole heartedly agree! I think the disconnects we experience on a personal and even national and international levels can at least partially come down to the social custom of keeping one’s thoughts and experiences to themselves, which is fine, I do get it and everyone is entitled to determine how much or little of themselves they will share publicly. But I do think that when the trend is to not share ourselves in really authentic ways, it fuels this disconnect, and people begin to fill in the gaps of understanding with their own assumptions, and this can lead to serious misunderstandings as small as causing someone to have an incorrect perception of someone all the way up to creating violent conflicts between nations. I think in sharing ourselves more authentically, we are creating more meaningful connections based in reality rather than based in illusion, and that’s a profoundly good thing. ❤️🙏 I loved this post!
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I love this so much, you’re so right. We do make so many assumptions about others without knowing the truth. But its down to use to allow people to see that truth too!
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I have found the vast majority of people appreciate authenticity, except for a few who say shut up with the pity party 😛.
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Right?! 🤣
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Great read. I agree it is so necessary to be transparent because there is always someone who can learn and relate to the moments we are honest.
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I’m an open book. Everyone gets what they see. And this year has sucked-medical issues, four car accident (not my fault) that totaled my car, domestic and financial issues. I don’t whine (or I keep it to a minimum), I just present life good and bad. I hate phoniness and can smell it ten miles away. I loathe toxic positivity, and yet I am constantly told by others that I have a great attitude. That’s true. I remain constantly grateful things are not worse and feel that others reading some of my tragedy can relate and find hope, and maybe someone to vent to. Btw, I was a volunteer suicide and crisis counselor for over two years. One of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced is hearing people get better after starting out in an overwhelmed, anxiety-riddled state. When I’m writing I’m always hoping that if it will help someone feel better or emotionally stronger, it’s worth exposing my soul.
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Great post! Another thing to add is that people can find creative ways to storytell if transparency is intimidating. I enjoyed the read 😊
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This is absolutely true but I guess we all tend to do this to build in positivity. We all have our problems in life but if you give them some moments of good reading, they might analyse and try to feel happier. This is just my opinion
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As an older blogger I agree with what you’ve written. I constantly talk to my grandchildren about not believing what is on social media because so much of it isn’t real.
I’m too tired to fake it lol-
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Nice piece. Some do share the real part, some intentionally like to share things that will stare up their traffic without binding the quality of what they are sharing.
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Totally agreed!
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I really appreciate your post. It takes courage to be vulnerable enough to share the “not so great” parts of our lives and experiences and it’s something I have struggled with. Of course, we want to be positive and encouraging, but there is a dark side to doing so when that isn’t the real story of what’s happening in our own lives. Not only does it present a false front to my readers, but it also puts incredible pressure on me as the writer to be as perfect as I’m pretending. Bring real doesn’t have to mean spilling your entire guts, but putting a focus on the emotions of a tough situation (not just the factors of it) can be very freeing, for the writer as well as the reader. Thanks for reminding us all of the benefits!
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Absolutely loved reading this and relate so much 👏🏻 I choose to share my life quite openly on my blog and choose to use my own photos instead of stock to show how personal my blog is to me. It’s been totally a cathartic experience writing my blog over the past couple years and truly helped me during some rough times, I’ve gained so many wonderful blogger friends too and honestly think that wouldn’t of been so easy to achieve without being so truthful. I don’t always see many bloggers doing this either or, talking about the topic, so I’m grateful you have. Thank you for sharing!
Kate | kindly.co.uk
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Absolutely loved reading this and relate so much 👏🏻 I choose to share my life very openly on my blog and choose to use my own photos instead of stock to show how personal my blog is to me. It’s been totally a cathartic experience writing my blog over the past couple years and truly helped me during some rough times, I’ve gained so many wonderful blogger friends too and honestly think that wouldn’t of been so easy to achieve without being so open. I don’t always see many bloggers doing this either or talking about the topic, so I’m grateful you have. Thank you for sharing!
Kate | kindlyk.co.uk
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Could resonate with every word
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Yes i m totally agree with u…good post😊
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I didn’t know bloggers hid their real lives. I’m so new to blogging and taking it seriously now, and I open up on my blog because vulnerability is where true growth and experience can take place.
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Well written. I am a new blogger and this is inspiring to me. It makes me write more from my own life experiences. Thank you for sharing.
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Great post Liv! I struggle to share the real parts of my life because they cross over into other people’s lives. I’m ok with opening up here and there, but not if it will destroy relationships or expose something others don’t want to be shared. Yeah, my life is drama like that 😂
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