My First Year Blogging!

I cannot believe it's been a year already since I created my little space on the internet. 15k views later and I still feel like such a newbie, but at the same time I'm so proud of how far I've come. My life has definitely changed from what it was a year ago. I was working in a bakery and suffering from my anxiety, still unsure how things were going to go. Now I'm just working part-time at the hospital, but spend my day as a gym-junkie/blogger. And I couldn't be happier : )

My little blog has definitely evolved and changed as I have over the year too. I started writing about anything to do with lifestyle, which is always fun. It didn't take me long to stop writing what I thought people wanted, and just write what I loved to talk about. Being a beauty blogger was never going to happen for me either, and there are so many amazing girls out there already anyway.

Instead, I'm sharing ways to make life more fun and happy with food, fitness, and being creative. My aim has always been to create a blog that I would personally want to read and I definitely think I've done that so far. The most important thing was that I wanted for Hello, Steph was for it to always be a positive space. It's the same for my Twitter as well. There's already so much negativity on the internet that I've always made a conscious effort to keep my little corner a happy place for people to hang out and get inspired. 

What I've loved most about blogging

I could give you the longest list of why I love blogging, but I think what I've loved most is chatting to all of the lovely bloggers in our little online community. You guys seriously restore my faith in humanity and I never knew there was such a positive space like this on the internet. No, it's not perfect, but everyone is always so supportive and if I ever have any creative ideas, I know my fellow bloggers will understand and encourage me.

The second thing I've loved most is the pure freedom that comes with writing a blog. It's incredible to have this space to talk about what I love, in however format I want. No one is grading my work or looking over my shoulder and telling me to change things. I can write about whatever I'm passionate about and I know that there will be some amazing people who will read it and think "OMG me too!" which is the best feeling for me. This blog is all me and I've learned how much I need to work for myself. I'm incredibly proud of how my blog has turned out and it makes the hard work so worth it. 

What I've learned 

 Let yourself be a beginner. It took a lot of time for me to find my feet, but I got there. And be you own kind of blogger. It's so easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing, but just remember that no one wants to read the same post twice. Do your own thing and write about whatever makes you happy and it will make for great writing. The best way to stand out is to just be you. Blogging is not a competition, so just enjoy it in your own way.

The Future

I feel like I just want my blog to grow and progress as I do, as well as putting out content that I'm really proud of. They say to not use your blog as a career option, but I've never seen why that's so bad and why I can't want to make blogging my profession. After struggling through a quarter-life/existential crisis for months and jumping into any kind of full-time work, blogging became my little love that I could escape to. I knew quickly that it was what I wanted to do with my life, even if it doesn't make sense to many people. I'm passionate about writing, photography, and being my own boss, so blogging is the best job in the world for me. Other bloggers have made it, so I can too.

My Favorite Posts So Far

Health and Fitness Updates 

I've only done two of these so far, but I really love writing them. Anything to do with fitness is fun for me and I love sharing my progress. Here's April and March if you want to see what I've been up to at the gym and how I'm managing everything. 

Baking with Ro: Galaxy Cupcakes 

 I still can't believe how great these turned out! After my brother got me Nerdy Nummies by Rosanna Pansino for Christmas, I knew I wanted to incorporate some of her recipes into my blog and these are by far my favorite! They honestly tasted as good as they look. Read how I did it here!

My Morning Routine 

This one was so simple and fun to put together, I'm honestly really tempted to do an updated version! (let me know if you would like to see that.) It got such a great response too, and I've read a few other blogger's routines that were really cool. You can see how I spend my mornings here.

 One Year At The Gym: What's Changed?

This one was quite special to me and it felt great sharing part of my fitness journey. Learning to work harder on my health and really enjoying what I was doing to stay fit changed me into different person. Read about how fitness helped my mental health in this post!


Thank you to everyone for making my first year of blogging so amazing and for leaving me the sweetest commets. I appreciate every single person who reads my blog or takes the time to chat with me on Twitter. I cannot wait to see where I am this time next year and what the blogging world will be like then. I have a good feeling about it!

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
Steph x.