Community Over Competition: Why It's Important to Have Friends in the Blogging World

If you’re a blogger and you don’t have a group of friends in the blogging world then you’re doing it wrong! For me blogging is about building a community of people who like the same things that you like and building a following of readers and peers that you can inspire and be inspired by. But to be honest as of late that description couldn’t be more untrue. I feel like this whole competition in the blogging world happened when Instagram became more about a numbers game and less about being a creative social network where people could share amazing images. I found myself caring more about how many likes and comments and followers I had (and my peers had) than I did about putting out great content and that’s a serious problem. I didn’t start blogging to “get famous”, I started because I loved the idea of sharing beauty looks and personal style outfits to hopefully inspire someone to step out of their comfort zone and thanks to these 4 likeminded ladies I’m focused on building my community of followers and sharing beautiful images and insightful content.

The New York blogging community may be large, but you’re constantly running into the same people and some people just aren’t the nicest. I mean I can be a bitch don’t get me wrong, but there’s a time and place for everything and I am not about sharing an inauthentic version of myself with my followers. My readers and followers know that I’m sarcastic and funny and always laughing (and always cursing) because that’s my personality on and off the “screen”. The amount of bloggers that I’ve met that are totally different than what they portray to their followers is alarming. They’re only interested in being nice long enough to get followers, make the connections and claw their way to the top and the next time you see them they’ll pretend they don’t know who you are or even worse, be incredibly fake and spend the rest of the night shading you. And yes there are these types of people in all lines of work, but you would think in the blogging world, a world where genuine connections are so imperative to succeeding that there would be less of it, but nope. And please don’t think that a majority of bloggers are like this because they aren’t, but there are definitely a few bad apples in the bunch and I’ve encountered more than my fair share of them.

I’m so lucky to have found the most amazing group of girls, “blogger besties” if you will, that all have the same mindset as me. We celebrate each other’s victories, bounce ideas off each other without the fear of someone “stealing” something, compliment each other constantly and just support one another to the fullest. We all have different personalities and strengths, we all have totally different style and yet when we’re together none of that matters, we just mesh and have a shit ton of fun. Making friends in the blogging world isn’t the easiest, but I really hit the jackpot! These 4 ladies are only a few of my closest NY blogger friends, but they are a huge part of what makes blogging so much fun and an even bigger part of why I think blogging should absolutely always be about community over competition.

If you’re not a blogger reading this post may be a little eye opening into the whole blogging world, but if you are a blogger then you know exactly what I’m talking about. But I’m done making this post about the bad and I’m ready to celebrate the good with a fun photoshoot with 4 of the best ladies to hit the streets of New York City! Just in time for NYFW and just in time for Galentine’s Day I’m sharing the love to my blogging community!

I can only hope you’re already following these 4 fab ladies, but if case you’re not here are the links to all of their blogs and Instagram accounts!! Be prepared for an overdose of inspo!